Prof. Chimere
Ikoku: Remembering the legacy of a pan-Africanist, scientist and
gentleman
By Prof. Chudi Uwazurike
Special to USAfrica The Newspaper, Houston
USAfricaonline.com,
The
Black Business Journal and NigeriaCentral.com
New York, October 31, 2002: It is with profound sense of shock that I join others in lamenting the killing of the distinguished scientist and pan-Africanist, Prof. Chimere Ikoku, in his own residence in October 2002. The senseless murder of this retired academic and world-renowned figure, has sent shock waves across the international community of scholars who have followed his stellar career over the years. But his violent demise speaks volumes that echo beyond a single man - once more it sets back the struggle by Nigeria to be seen as a normal polity.
I last saw the esteemed professor in 1994-1995 when he accompanied Nigeria's first president Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe on his trip to the United States - having just completed his term as Vice Chancellor of the University of Nigeria - along with Chief Sonny Odogwu and Professor V.C. Ekpechi, the Owelle's personal physician. Former Vice President Dr. Alex Ekwueme was on hand as were over 100 other notable Nigerians from all parts of the country. They had arrived in the company of an intimate entourage that included Chief (Mrs.) Opral Benson, the new UNN Vice Chancellor O.K. Udeala, Princess Tejumade Alakija, and others.
The various Nigerian diplomats in the States led by Ambassadors Zubeiru Kazaure from Washington and Ibrahim Gambari at the UN, joined hundreds of Nigerians and Africans from all walks of life - Okechukwu Ikejiani, Richard Sklar, Chinua Achebe, Edward Blyden, Ali Mazrui, Martin Kilson, others - in rallying to the presence of the last living symbol of Nigeria's chequered history, a situation heightened by the grave peril posed by the Stalinist military dictatorship imposed by the Goggled One, the scheming General Sani Abacha..
An incident that occurred goes to demonstrate Ikoku's vision and maturity. We had been in the waiting room downstairs while the Owelle took his rest upstairs, listening to the political war-horses reminisce over the good old days of nationalist struggle and the African American role. We were all dressed for the church services that would start in an hour's time. Suddenly word came that Chief M.K.O. Abiola, who was then in self-exile, had arrived for the event - uninvited.
This was at the height of his struggle with r Abacha before whom Nigerians stood in dread just as Iraqis tremble today with regard to Saddam. The question immediately arose: was he on the invitation list? If he was, how would the inevitable photo opportunity be used to show that Zik had taken sides despite his commitment to a peaceful settlement of the disputed elections? Remember many still saw him as a clever schemer who even as a nanogenarian, had to be watched for what he may be signaling. Instead what I saw was an unhappy ex-warrior who craved his privacy. Zik truly seemed to have meant it when he angrily retired from public life after the rigging of the 1983 elections and had sworn off being dragged into any further political disputes; at 90, he was not about to start over.
There were therefore genuine issues for his team to consider, for one: could pro-Abiola demonstrators show up to denounce the Federal Government, just as Ghanaians had trooped down when Jerry Rawlings came down to be honored at the historic university. There was yet another possibility that this might yet be another ploy by Abacha whose agents may like nothing than to humiliate the old man just as they had the Sultan of Sokoto, thereby making it clear that the Kanuri general was the one supreme figure in all of Nigeria whom no one dared brook. Recall that even the famed Maradona who had started the whole slide, Gen. Babangida, seemed to keep a clear distance from Abacha, and essentially kept his mouth shut regarding his successor's antics - to this day.
The group was understandably inclined to shield the old man from the potential tumult that could reverberate from Pennsylvania to Abuja. It took all of the Professor's Ikoku's diplomatic skills to convince the group to have me, as Co-Chairman of the international conference, drive over to the house of Dr. F. Oluyitan, where Abiola was, with Zik's private secretary Alphonso Okolo, and find out directly from the legendary Egba high chief, philanthropist, and Victor of June 12, the real reason he had flown in unannounced.
I still remember the compactly-built MKO, so full of life and hope for the actualization of his mandate despite his travails, as he explained his desire to pay his respects to the ageing visionary who stirred a passive British colony with his call for 'political resorgimento' at a time of 'ebullition.' MKO had been so awed in his youth that that he had joined the Zikist Vanguard . He meant no harm, and hearing about the unique conference being organized in Zik's honor while he was still in the US, it would have been remiss if he didn't show up. We headed back to Lincoln House where after deliberations, we were sent back to the mogul, a routine that would happen a few more times. He was allowed to be part of the events - and he could be seen in the photographs in my 1996 book, The Man Called Zik of New Africa: Portrait of Nigeria's Pan-African Statesman, the revised edition of which is due out on Nov. 16 on Amazon.com.
At that conference, I could still see Ikoku smiling as Zik, with his wife beside him, disclaimed sole authorship of Nigeria's independence. Slowly raising himself during his response to the encomiums, the Owelle reeled off the names of 'my departed compatriots' from all over Nigeria - starting with the late Prime Minister, His Excellency the Rt Hon. Tafawa Bealwa, the Sarduana of Sokoto, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, his political godfather Herbert Macualay, Aminu Kano, Raji Abdallah, Eyo Ita - without whom Nigeria's freedom would have been impossible. He ran through a list of names only the older generation might remember well. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe died a year and half later - and Abiola himself would join the ancestors in 1999 when General Abdulsalami A. Abubakar, inexplicably delayed releasing the June 12 victor - until he died, Nigerians believe, as a resulting of poisoning in Aso Rock, despite the report of the Canadian and American medical examiners flown in for an autopsy.
Even they would be shocked at the cheapness of life in Nigeria's new democracy and the relative passivity with which the new power elite seem to regard these unfortunate events. One's reaction has to be seen in the context of the frustration of many Nigerians worldwide at the inability of the Federal Government to take the security climate seriously enough to declare it a national emergency. I am aware of the bill on security recently rejected by the National Assembly - but with all the bickering, the ordinary citizen is at the constant mercy of hoodlums. The consequence should have long been clear to Aso Rock: how can any serious investor contemplate doing anything long-lasting in Nigeria, a country where the Attorney General, Chief Bola Ige, could be so wantonly assassinated, and no one can bring his killers to book? A month before his death, he had been to New York where he won a seat on a UN law commission, and had been jauntily hosted by the Nigerian ambassador in New York, Chief Arthur Mbanefo. Weeks later he was gone. As we chatted with him about Nigeria, there was no hint he would become yet another casualty in a cycle that mocks us as a troubled giant of a civilization in deep crisis.
The trend is widespread and getting worse as the bitter showdown over 2003 looms - notable politicians from Kano and Kaduna, Ogun, Kwara and Rivers States, Anambra and Enugu, have all had narrow brushes with death at the hands of hired assassins often disguised a robbers; in many other cases they have been assassinated, often with nothing stolen, sometimes in front of their terrified families. South and North, Nigerians in their hundreds and more, are being killed and the official response seems to be business as usual, with a few more policing measures.
In the same breadth, one can say the same for Victor Nwankwo, the publisher whose brother Arthur, was an inspiration to us during the student movement days of the 1970s. Over the years I have run into Victor at the academic conferences, notably the international African Studies Association. To imagine that this vibrant and talented engineer-turned books publisher, is another statistic in the saga of 'lawless Nigeria' as many call it, is another reason to rue the crop of leaders Nigeria continues to be saddled with.
On balance, there is no need to weep with pity for Prof. Ikoku - he has run his race, with the all-too human ups and downs. His prouder moments might have been when he championed the national anti-apartheid fund drive in the 1970s while Vice Chancellor of one of the northern universities in the 1970s. Then, his being able to be of some assistance to the legendary Zik clearly filled him with a sense of satisfaction in saluting the man whose activities for good or ill, led to Nigeria's freedom and an early place the map of world affairs.
By the same token his most trying time must have been his Vice Chancellorship of the University of Nigeria Nsukka, my once bright alma mater, where in the 1970s we had received a sound education that enabled us walk into any academy anywhere in the world and proved competitive. Ikoku had the misfortune of running a university when killer cults, gangs, drug addicts, military thugs and the like, invaded the hallowed sanctuaries of academe, sucking dry its very essence. Though he managed to prevent the total collapse of the place, his subsequent stint in the controversial Petroleum Trust Fund where Muhammadu Buhari succeeded in ignoring the East in the parceling out of the billions accruing, many have been his least satisfactory role.
Ikoku was a consummate gentleman, scholar and good heart, so to
say, who looked forward to a quiet retirement. Last time I met Prof
was at his Enugu residence, where he and his charming wife of many
years, received us most warmly. On behalf of his many admirers across
the world and members of the Zikist, I wish to bid Prof. Ikoku a fond
farewell. You will be missed - yet ever remembered.
Uwazurike, former
president of the University of Nigeria Student Union (1977-1978), is
City University of New York professor and Senior Fellow, Institute
for Research on the African Diaspora and the Caribbean, IRADAC. He is
founder of African Profiles USA magazine, chairman of the Nnamdi
Azikiwe Memorial Society USA, Executive Director of The Global Forum
on 21st Century Nigeria and chairman of the World Igbo Congress
Intergovernmental Affairs Council. One of his recent efforts appeared
in the October 15, 2002 edition of USAfrica The Newspaper
Arts and Literature section
and on USAfricaonline.com titled
'Prolific scholar Chudi Uwazurike readies "With
Whom The Gods Dance"' This
tribute will appear, also, in the print edition of
USAfrica.
Ikoku as research scientist in
Biafra's Chemistry Group of RAP
By Prof. Chikwendu Christian Ukaegbu
Special to USAfrica The Newspaper, Houston
USAfricaonline.com,
The
Black Business Journal
and NigeriaCentral.com
Speaking of the late scholar's prouder
momemt, I would like to add that Prof. Chimere Ikoku's proudest
moment was during the Biafra war when he headed the Chemistry Group
in that iconic agency of the human will and human creative spirit
known as Research and Production (RAP). He was the head of the
Chemistry Group of RAP, earlier based in Uzuakoli and later moved to
another location, probably Okigwe/Uturu, when federal troops overran
Umuahia and environs. Prof. Ikoku's Chemistry Group was strategically
involved in the Biafran war effort through the production war-related
materials. He headed a group of accomplished scientists,supported by
secondary and higher school youths, to make the Chemistry Group one
of the most important and visible groups in RAP. He was in the same
league with the lengendary G.O Ezekwe, B.C.E Nwosu (both of blessed
memory); A. N. U. Njokuobi, M. O. Chijioke, H.U Kaine (now Edo), G.
B. Leton (now Rivers State),J. Ezilo, W. Achukwu and a host of other
unique brains and minds. RAP represented what Biafra would have been,
and Prof. Chimere Ikoku contributed immensely to that
organization. May he rest in perfect peace.
Ukaegbu,
one of the key leaders of the UNN alumni in the U.S., graduated from
the Sociology/Anthropolgy Class of 1975.
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