I wrote some nice lines on President Obasanjo and many people are not happy. Good People, wonders shall never end. When Sidi asked Lakunle about the bride price in Wole Soyinka’s The Lionel and the Jewel, he responded with a lot of grammar, and when Lakunle was done, Sidi asked if that was all. Instead of Lakunle discussing how to raise the money, he reminded Sidi that he had ordered a longer dictionary, implying that more big words and grammar were on their way.
People should not make me order a longer dictionary because if I do, the praise will be so big that some may… I have no issue with whoever anybody praises as Nigeria’s best president, I can only defend who is my #1 since 1999. It is not physics and you are free to pick whoever you want. But note this, OBJ as a military general never complained how his military predecessors destroyed things; he simply went to work, to put Nigeria on the right track.
Just like in my state of Abia, I can write that Governor Otti has been the most pragmatic governor with an urgency we need to fix the state. You can accuse me of supporting him. But let me remind you that I have always provided support to my state governors. In 2021, I received the awards of the “2021 Most Outstanding Abia Professional In The Diaspora” and the “2021 Abia Ambassador”. Those were not during Governor Otti’s era.
(Ndubuisi does not send invoices and Ndubuisi does not do government contracts. As a village boy from Ovim, I am not trained on how to write invoices, etc to Abia. But I am always available where men and women gather to make Abia better).
Daily, I just wonder what OBJ would have done in this era of banditry, kidnapping, etc in Nigeria? What would OBJ have done? For years now, we have normalized that as part of our system since the press does not even report when people are stolen from their homes most times.
At the national level, I have also worked. At the pre-convocation lecture at Bayero University, Kano, Aliko Dangote advocated for a “Knowledge-Based Economy in Nigeria”, drawing majorly from Ismail Radwan and Giulia Pellegrini’s World Bank publication. As a student, I was among those who reviewed that book for the World Bank. Yes, we #serve.
The same way I praise OBJ is the way I praise my secondary school teachers; their generation produced the best era in our village’s school history with many kids leaving the Ovim village to top their classes across many universities in Nigeria. But look deeper, Mr. Ogbonnia, the principal, had a record of petitioning and firing an Ovim son (son of the soil) because he was always late to class! #leadership is ACTION.
Mathematics – Mr Alaohuru/Mr Aham
Further Mathematics – Mr Ukeni
Physics – Mr Onyezewe
Chemistry – Udeagu Jr
Biology – Mr Bobo
Igbo Language – Papa Iyke/ Madam Odumuko
Agric Science – Mrs Aduanya
Geography – Mazi Oji
English Language – Mr Eze
- Principal – Mr Ogbonnia
The Great General Visits Abia State, Commending the Abia Project Under Alex Otti
