FEATURE ARTICLE

Dr Duke IgwiloSunday, May 6, 2012
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AKUMBA IGWILO - WHEN A JEWEL GOES HOME

have written tributes and condolence messages for friends, families and associates. I have also published commentaries about the lives of prominent individuals and how it reflects on Nigeria nation. Some of my comments have hinged around the poor state of our education, health facilities and the failure of successive government to provide basic social welfare for the people.


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When I was struggling to start this write up and got a brain block half way through it, I knew it was a difficult one. I sat back to ask myself what could be the problem and I found that I am attempting to write about myself in a manner that I consider to be immodest.

In the traditional Igbo society, it is said that you don't speak evil of the dead rather you sing eulogies of the good people when they are gone. To write about my mother is simply turning me inside out. To state that my mother was a good woman is praise-singing which she does not subscribe to and would not tolerate. As I was searching, I found an unknown quote which state that "A diamond is merely a lump of coal that did well under pressure" - I immediately felt that this is a true summary of my mother.

Coal was described by Wikipedia as a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock. My childhood recollection of coal was by way of the common saying "as black as coal". When I came into contact with coal sediments on my first visit to Enugu, it was not only black; it was also dusty and stains the hand as well. Educationally, Akumba Nnem was a coal. She has no formal education. She has little informal education and no positive educational role model as a child. How could she have produced six professional graduates of international standing including an economist, a medical doctor (consultant), a pharmacist, a library scientist, a microbiologist/radiographer and a lawyer? It may be that the illiterate lump of coal did well under pressure and turned herself into an educational diamond.

Born to illiterate parents who believed in their traditional African values, Akumba Nnem was stopped from going to school because education at the time amounts to going to church as well (the local schools were established by the church). The informal education was usually obtained through the parents and the extended family but the role of mothers in the family system was central to the upbringing of a girl child. Akumba Nnem lost her mother as a child and became a motherless only child of her father before he re-married.

Akumba Nnem enjoyed a stable early family life through the love of her father and the tutelage of her stepmother who raised her up. Her name Akumba literally means; wealth of the nation. True to the meaning of her name, she was a true wealth to her family through her enterprising spirit and business initiative. She became a successful hotelier prior to the civil war of 1967-1970. After the war, she went into sand, gravel and stone business for the construction industry. With the support of her husband, she built a successful business but the business collapsed at the time her son was about to enter secondary school.

Even though, there was no money and no scholarship schemes in those 1980's, Akumba Nnem vowed that she would do anything possible to see her children through education. Diamond is a lump of coal that did well under pressure. Akumba Nnem had more than a fair share of pressure. She was living in a society that encourages young boys to go into business while the girls learnt some crafts like sowing, hair dressing etc while waiting for suitors. How would she explain that her son and two daughters where in the university at the same time when she has no tangible source of income except petty trading. When everybody around her were sending their sons off to Onitsha, Aba and Lagos to start business and return with bags of "foreign rice", Holland wax, boxes of jewelleries and some returning with cars, how did she manage the pressure. Akumba Nnem would tell of stories when she had to make choices about societal expectations of her (including the laces, George and abada) during the annual August women's meeting and her children's school fees in September. How did she manage the pressure of having five daughter and insisting on send all of them to school when her community had different ethos. Where did she get the strength to say no when she was offered help by way of a sewing machine for one of her daughters. Mama would later explain that she did well under pressure because of the grace of God.

Without deep understanding of its relevance, Mama shared in our joy of passing School Certificate, getting top scores in JAMB and passing professional examinations. When I scored 249 in my first attempt at JAMB and told mama that I could not get into medical school because I have nobody to help me with supplementary ('Soppie' as it was called then) admission, she advised me to try harder next time and ensure that my score was such that if the JAMB would admit one person, it has to be me. When the next year I scored 299 in JAMB and was the second highest score for medicine at UNN, Mama was on top of the world.

Mama did not pay people to sit exams for us (you could say but there was no money anyway). She did not insist on us going into courses of her choice (she has no choice because she did not know any better). She did not have to speak with any of our lecturers to help us in the professional examinations. She did not even know where our schools were. She did not have to pay for our final result. She accepts whatever we return to tell her in trust. This is in contrast to the way we live today as educated and enlightened New Ager. We destroyed our educational system by our selfish quest for what we consider the best for our children irrespective of their abilities. It is only in Nigeria that you hardly hear about learning difficulties and all forms of language disorder. Everyone is considered able and must achieve, especially if you are born into a literate family. My sisters and I did not have the luxury of educational support or extra lessons. Even so, families have jettisoned this approach and would rather pay to get the marks than get the child to learn the subject. Our educational system has completely collapsed and I thank God that Mama was not part of the problem. Instead, she raised us to know what is important and to work harder to achieve success. Today her children are involved in numerous charitable activities both in Nigeria and in the United Kingdom because she taught us the value of giving and sharing. Her son, as the Director General of Alex Ekwueme Foundation promotes the 'donate a book' initiative as a national programme for educational revival in Nigeria. This is owed to the seed of altruism Mama sowed in us. We are grateful to God for having such a mother as Akumba Nnem.

There is no gainsaying that we loved Mama and she loved us with equal measure. We take solace that she left us with love as one big family hence we celebrate her with the theme "One family. One love. Mama there is no adieu, no farewell, because you live on. Good Night Mama.

Dr Duke Igwilo is Director General, Alex Ekwueme Foundation

Post Script:

Mama was buried on Thursday 12th April 2012 at Goddy Igwilo Country Home, Oko, Anambra State. My tribute above was published by Thisday Newspaper on 13th April, 2012. I am grateful to the editorial team of Thisday Newspaper for sharing Mama's exceptional story with the rest of Nigeria.

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