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About Professor V.C. Ike Professor Vincent Chukwuemeka Ike
Prof. Chinua Achebe
Prof. Vincent Chukwuemeka Ike
Ike's prose style encompasses dialogue, wit, and satire,
which he employs to castigate corruption and the quest for inordinate power. The novels transcend historical, sociological,
and political documentation and achieve comedy, tragedy, irony, and metaphor. He has also written How to Become a Published Writer (1991) and several other novels, short stories and
articles.” A versatile intellect, Professor V.C.
Ike’s name at a point was also synonymous with West African Examination [WAEC] where he was Registrar for many
years. But he also made history as the youngest indigenous Registrar of University of Nigeria Nsukka, a position
he occupied at the age of 31. Ike currently runs the Nigerian Book Foundation, a non-governmental organization that promotes book availability and reading culture.
Professor V.C. Ike is married to Professor
Bimpe Ike with whom he has a son Prince Osita Ike, a marketing executive, and two grand children. Professor OSMond Enekwe Professor (Ossie) Enekwe is a Nigerian poet, fiction writer, and playwright, and
a graduate of the Uduma Kalu Uduma Kalu holds a BA in English from the Alvan Ewuzie Alvan Ewuzie is a media consultant, who
began his journalism career nearly 20 years ago as a freelance writer with the Nigerian Statesman. He subsequently became an editor in the Champion Newspapers organization where he made his mark as a literary critic and writer. He edited the weekend title
and is now its deputy General manager. THE INTERVIEW There has been a series of political assassinations in I shudder for - insecurity
of life and property, with assassinations and attempted assassinations of potential candidates for the 2007 elections
already spreading in 2006; - the
controversies around some Nigerians who have already proclaimed their presidential ambitions, e.g. former Military
President, Ibrahim Babangida; - the
unpredictability of the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC); - the
use of unconstitutional back – door methods (e.g. third term bid, and interim national government) to assume control
of the Federal Government; - the
selective use of Federal Government agencies (e.g. the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the Independent
Corrupt Practices Commission, and the Nigerian Armed Forces) to settle political scores and predetermine the results
of the polls; - the
ever present divisive issues of religion and ethnicity, ready to be exploited as and when necessary; - low
level of public enlightenment and public morality. - the
issue of rotational presidency: which of the six geopolitical zones (or simply whether the North or the South)
should be allowed the privilege of fielding candidates for the presidential election; I shudder to take a look at What do you think about the perennial chaos in The crisis in Professor Vincent Chukwuemeka Ike and Professor (Mrs) Bimpe Ike
manifestation of the deteriorating situation in the Nigerian society in general. The leadership of MASSOB has issued public statements dissociating MASSOB from the breakdown of
law and order in The leadership of NARTO has also dissociated NARTO from the violence at The crisis in Advertise here
There is also the escalating unemployment situation. The growing army of unemployed and disgruntled products of the educational system provides cannon
fodder for people with excess wealth and dishonourable intentions. Pay the hungry,
angry, and idle youth a sum of money, and they will burn down private, commercial or police buildings and vehicles,
and even kill, as directed by their financiers. The boy-child
school drop out syndrome which has caused considerable alarm among Ndigbo is traceable to the irrelevance of the
educational experience to the problem of survival of the individual and the society. The third underlying factor in the It is also seen as an attempt to make A further underlying factor is the decision of the Anambra State Government to assume full control
of the markets and motor parks and plug all avenues for leakage of state revenue. The persons
and groups which had hitherto misappropriated funds accruing from these revenue sources have stiffly resisted the
decision. Reference was made earlier to the denunciation of the violence at Some observers believe that the entire affair could have been handled differently. What is your
opinion? Considering the reprehensible, one-sided role of both the Presidency and the Nigeria Police in the
Anambra State crisis between 2003 and 2006, the controversial high – handed role of the Armed Forces in quelling
similar violence in Odi and Zakbion, and the widely held view among Ndigbo that Chief Obasanjo continues to have
a grouse against Ndigbo decades after the end of the Nigeria/Biafra War, I questioned the advisability of inviting
the same forces into Anambra State. Was it not
tantamount to openly inviting the enemies of On second thought, I asked myself what alternatives Governor Obi had, with no State Police of his
own, if he did not want to open the door for the declaration of a state of emergency throughout Assuming that the use of the armed forces is inevitable, it is imperative for Governor Obi to check
their excesses. The recent announcement by the Nigeria Police to transfer over 3,000 Police personnel from A recent decision by the State Government to pay compensation to innocent persons whose property
is destroyed by the armed forces while carrying out their mission should help to win public confidence. So is the offer to investigate allegations of improper conduct on the part of the troops. How do you react to the phenomenon of god-fatherism in Nigerian politics, particularly given the
experience of Anambra and With the dividends that high, the competition becomes cut – throat and the cost of “winning” an
election in a society arid in intellectual sophistication and individual material resources soar to a level affordable
only by persons who became rich as military rulers or through government patronage (including allocation of oil
blocks).
The man of ideas but with modest
means has no chance of “winning” such elections. Conversely,
a rich man transparently bereft of basic education and ideas stands little chance winning election as President
or Governor. God-fatherism emerged as an
The Porter's Wheel
God – fatherism hampered the effective take-off of the Mbadinuju Administration in Many Nigerians, particularly Ndi-Anambra, have experienced the evil implications of crude god –fatherism
in Nigerian politics.
A combination of forces is necessary
to save The most disturbing fact of god – fatherism, especially in In the aftermath of the “Constitutional Amendment Vote” what’s your view about Obasanjo’s attempt
to force a constitutional amendment that would have extended his tenure? When Military Head of State, General Olusegun Obsanjo, voluntarily handed over power to the Shehu Shagari elected government in 1979, he was internationally eulogized as the first African military dictator who refused to transform himself into a president – for – life. Cynics assessed
General Obasanjo’s action differently. They recalled
that the photograph of the assassinated Hausa Head of State – his erstwhile boss whom he succeeded as Head of State – continued
to be displayed in Government offices long after Obasanjo became Head of State. They saw
Obasanjo’s concessions to the North, and the power he allowed Shehu Yar’Adua, his second – in – command, to wield
as manifestations of his sense of insecurity, his constant nightmare of a Northern – led counter coup. They saw his readiness to hand over power to Shehu Shagari in 1979 as a shrewd move to save his
neck rather than the altruistic action of a military ruler who believed in democracy and the rule of law. The 1979
cynics see Civilian President Chief Obasanjo’s subtle attempt to elongate his tenure through a questionable constitutional
amendment as a vindication of their assessment. With the background of incarceration under the late Military Head of State General Sanni Abacha,
during which period he claimed he became a born-again Christian, Chief Obsanjo came to power in 1999 as an elected
civilian President with widespread national support. To his credit,
he transformed With the country firmly in the control of the People’s Democratic Party, his party, and the party
machinery in his grip, Obasanjo began to see himself as Nigeria’s indispensable saviour who must remain in office
indefinitely if Nigeria is not to revert to the status of a pariah, debtor nation. It came as a great relief to
me that what appeared fool proof suddenly collapsed, notwithstanding the trillions of public funds lavished on
it.
Recent speculations about the imposition
of an Interim National Government raise fears that the hat of tricks may not have been exhausted. Do you think there has been enough citizens’ defense of their civic duties to participate and protect
the democratic process?
Certainly not. The recent arrest of journalists on sedition charges has outraged many observers. Do you think this is a ploy to intimidate the press and limit press freedom and freedom of speech? A. Yes.
Many thinkers believe that Well, look, I listen
The Naked Gods
I think it is normal for my generation
to think that things were better during their time but frankly, when I was a public servant there were challenges
for me. We emerged from the civil war with the Your close friend, Professor Chinua Achebe,
believes that I do not think that perpetual trouble since the present governor
came into power. You see things going on which one cannot explain because of money and quest for money. There are
people who, through government patronage, have handled our money and it has gotten into the wrong hands. And it
is only because they know how to manipulate people, through that they have become millionaires. One thing that I ought to say about leadership
is this; somehow I think our government does not want to know the truth. I will use book development which I have
been involved in for some time as an example. We have made proposals to the government about methods needed to
be adopted to ease the book strategy in One of the contentious issues is “which
system of government is best suited for Somehow, the designation is not the issue.
It is really that people want to exploit any
If we had a fantastic leader, there would
be no problem; but the president has so much power and works in a system with so much money which he can use to
corrupt the system. It is a terrible thing. I do not know why, but the parliamentary system is working in Is it possible to say that the main problem
is that there has been a non-evolution of the political culture? In other words, we copy the presidential system,
then the parliamentary system or whatever system exists. But none of these have evolved from any part of the tradition. I agree entirely with you. In fact, in
the alumni lecture that I gave in 1991, though the late Bola Ige who was there disagreed with me, I said that if
I had the power, I would banish political parties
for twenty or thirty years. The reason for this is the idea of things not evolving. The culture of political parties
has not evolved properly in this country. What we are doing is getting an aggregation of people without any true
ideology, but who plot together to wrest power and use it to their own benefit. I thought that if we worked out
a no party system that could be developed to allow us to go on for twenty or thirty years, over that period, political
parties can begin to emerge; ideologies may aggregate and so on. When we eventually talk about political parties;
it will be with substance and seriousness. I keep saying that in our culture, in
our own tradition we have not helped political parties. We have had some kingdoms that have systems of leadership
without elections. These were systems that grew over the years whereby, in each home town one knew how to choose
the traditional rulers. We should allow a space of time where there will be no political parties, because while
politicians are around, it will be impossible for us to effect change. They will adversely influence any attempts
at change with the money they have. In the specter of time when there are no political parties, young people will
discover new alliances and ways in which political parties may work with our culture that will be more enduring.
I think this will be a more positive way of doing things, than just going on with what we are doing now.
It goes without saying that this country
is very rich and our money is going into the hands of a few people. How many Nigerians can buy new cars, how many
Nigerians can even buy new bicycles if they live honest lives? No honest public servant can buy a new car or even
live well. These are the reasons why I agree with you that we really have not had a chance to develop a proper
culture in this country. We just travel abroad and copy what we see over there. For example, we copied the design
of the National Theatre from abroad, but where is it today? We don’t even just borrow ideas; we borrow what will
help people satisfy their selfish ends and not what is best for the country. I read a book by John Rider called ‘Africa
the travesty of a continent’ and some other articles published in Time magazine in the 90s. Both of them discussed the fact that
most African countries will collapse because they are forced contraptions by colonial masters. What do you think? Certain issues
Sunset at Dawn
country. There has been a tendency for
us to split into states and we are finally in a situation where while some states can stand on their own, others
flatly cannot. The same thing is happening with local governments. When Babangida created the last batch, Professor
Aboyade, who was chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee, at the time, was in class when he heard the announcement
about the creation of states, and was shattered. He thought it was crazy to create so many states. Now, the local
governments which should in fact be accomplishing a great deal are now incapable of doing much. Now all the people in the local government
do is wait for money and then share it amongst councilors and the chairman and nothing is accomplished When the
Igbo were carved into more states, someone told me he was surprised I was not jumping for joy. I said ‘do you really
now feel that we have our own share of the national cake just because we have more states; I mean, what do you
really gain?’ With the creation of states, all that happens is that the country is exploited even more; there will
be increasing overheads and, at the end of the day, next to nothing remains for real development. The same thing happens in the church.
I am an Anglican. I once went to the general synod -- the highest level of the Anglican Communion representing
my diocese -- and the issue of the creation of dioceses came up. If you know the number of bishops that we now
have, it is staggering. Whenever they hold the conference in England, Nigerian bishops fill up the entire place.
They say the Anglican Communion is the fastest growing in the world, and I asked them -- what kind of growth. Is
it growth by the number of dioceses or growth by the number of converts you are winning? In a statement, I said:
‘I do not need to see a bishop every day to become a good Christian, but in the creation of new dioceses, the overhead
costs will only go up, and the common member of the church in rural areas will be under constant pressure to keep
paying money as the church no becomes a fund raising organization. Of course, there are a few people who gain from
this by becoming bishops and Arch bishops and so on. That is why having a viable structure for doing things in
the country is very important. What structure do you want for Nigeria? I took that up in my novel, The Search where one of the characters is really against the creation of states. We ought to
have something that is more meaningful. Someone came up with a debate in the senate sometime ago, questioning the
basis for the creation of states and referring to reports by various commissions set up by the colonial government.
But because he challenged the present basis for the creation of states, he was not allowed to present a motion
in the senate, which many members were opposed to it. He published it later on. To me, zones would
be the answer and creating states without talking about zones is a problem. The basis for allocation of revenue will
have to be looked into also, so that it can be shared in a more equitable way. If I had my way, I would go for
the zoning system which is more manageable. If individual zones want states, then that should be their business.
The presidency should also be rotated among the smaller groupings. I don’t agree with this North-south issue,
because it doesn’t mean anything. What do you mean by north or south? It arises mostly from the persons in the
North who believe they have a divine right to rule. They cannot wait to go round six times that is why you keep
hearing ‘North-south]. I don’t support it. If we are going to rotate, one term would be the best thing but we could work out how many years
that term would be. I think that is the fairest thing. In the initial years, we should try it; if in a century
they want to change it, fine. But, we should start out with one term for the presidency. What do you think about the role of the
masses in the development of the Nigerian political system? Well, this is one area with which I am
not happy. During the Abacha regime there was a half-hearted attempt to pull together civil society. Although this
did not involve the masses as such -- it was the elites more or less -- at least, it was a beginning. Many of us
over the years have been subjugated to the extent that we do not even ask questions about what is happening to
us. Take the issue of petrol, for instance. If the masses were well organized, we would not be cheated so easily
by all these bodies. In Anambra state, what we pay for petrol is not what is paid in Lagos, or any other state.
Once, when I was living in the north, I came home to the village and bought fuel. I saw that the fellow had doctored
the meter, and asked him to stop. I calculated what I knew to be the normal price of petrol, and then paid him
that. He was very angry and said that I should keep the money, that he was not taking it from me. He added that
if I didn’t have the money to buy petrol, I should get out of the way. The masses have not been galvanized.
In Biafra, there was a massive movement to galvanise people; they were fighting a people’s war and they had something
at stake. Maybe that had to do with the war time situation, but it is really necessary for people to know their
rights and have the courage to defend their rights. In my novel, I talk about the people’s court. Things are so
bad, nowadays, but when people go to court, the verdict does not help the situation. But if we could have a peoples’
court, I feel we could move this country forward. I once talked about the tragedies in the Nigerian judicial system,
comparing it with what happens in the village. When a case comes up before my traditional
ruler, the accuser states his case and so does the other person. Apart from the traditional ruler being the judge,
everybody could come in when a case is going on there. At the end of this, a judgment is delivered. When cases
come up, people are free to fire questions whoever is stating their case, then a kind of consensus emerges. In
western countries, the jury system works differently from ours that involve everyone in the community in what was
going on. Our politicians get the masses involved when it is time for voting and when it suits them. We should
get more from them; get them to pay back to the community that elected them. Elected officials should be shown
what projects have been left undone so that they can provide the community with the money to execute the projects
and only then will the community say ‘yes we will vote for you.’ One of the problems we have in the country
these days is the issue of ethnicity. Yet, you mentioned names that were not from your ethnic group and yet you
interacted with them at that time. At what point did ethnicity become a problem in Nigeria? Well it has always been there. Persons
who feel that they cannot achieve their own goals in life, through their own effort, look for something to cling
on to as a basis for reaching heights they might not have reached under normal circumstances. Once again it depends
on the circumstances, if religion suits them, they use religion, if ethnicity suits them they use ethnicity; anything
they can cling on to help them. But it is their own selfish interest motivating them. At the University College
Ibadan, the different ethnic groups intermingled, but it does not mean there were no problems. At the university,
the student groups were either one group or the other -- the Igbo, the Yoruba, and the Hausa/Fulani, because these
were the dominant groups at the time. There was this battle about who would inherit the government from the colonial
masters. The Igbo got into education later than the Yoruba and this battle was always there. In the alumni lecture I gave at the University
College Ibadan in 1991, I raised the issue by saying: “The Igbo and the Yoruba are at each other’s throat over
what the Hausa/Fulani have taken away from them a long time ago.” The problem of ethnicity exists, and it has survived
a long time. In fact I am currently working on a follow up to my first novel, ‘Toads for supper’, which will give
greater chance now to look at the issue of ethnicity. My wife is Yoruba, so at least that shows you my own attitude, because as a Christian,
I did not see why I should not interact with other Christians, no matter the ethnic origin of that person. Clearly, professor, you have lived your
life as a true Nigeria. However, there are those claiming to be ‘detribalized,’ but who are in actual fact, ethnic
bigots. What is your perspective on this phenomenon? Let me tell you a story…I was
Professor V.C. Ike's Son Prince Osita Ike and Grandson Prince Chuck Ike
This is something extremely unfortunate.
In fact he went on to say that he does not allow his Christian beliefs to influence his decisions, and I said:
You claim to be Christian yet don’t allow your Christian beliefs to influence your decisions? But he replied he
doesn’t want his beliefs as a Roman Catholic to be used against someone who is not one. I told him that what he
said he said earlier is different from what he explained to me. So actually I believe that this country is made
up of people from different ethnic groups, different nationalities, and I believe that it is important that each
of these groups should retain their identity. My son’s wife is from Benin, and they
live in Lagos. My grandson cannot speak Igbo which upsets me a great deal, and I have been trying to see gradually
how we can change this. I think it is a terrible thing for a young person to grow up without having roots in a
culture and language of his own. But one can see that we have at least
tried to practice what we preach! So you do not see anything wrong with
ethnic loyalty as long as it does not produce “an obscuration of national ideals and goals?” I am not sure what that means, but it
sounds good… (General Laughter) Seriously, as I said previously, it is
people’s selfish ambition that allow for their ethnic origin to cloud their vision and their judgment, which need
not happen. Of course, this idea of -- “it’s our turn…” honestly, I don’t see anything wrong about that, because
I have seen that people misuse ethnicity. In my novel, The Search, which I released in 1991, one of the characters advocates the system of rotation, not only of the
presidency, but at the state level. And it is my belief that, at the local government level, the same thing should
apply there. If it is the turn of a particular group to produce a candidate, they should be allowed to produce
that candidate. You have alluded to this in our discussion,
so let’s tackle this next…The concept of rotational presidency is now quite controversial. Many believe that its
time may not have arrived…. I disagree…We waste millions and billions
on elections which don’t mean anything. We all know that elections in this country are fraudulent. Those whom INEC
clears through screening are not the same ones who emerge at the end of a voting session. And we are told we are
in a democracy. These are things which we should face in this country. Political party systems should not be rooted
in corruption, and much of what they are doing now cannot be done in a system of rotation. Let me again say
that I believe various nationalities should be maintained, but not in a way that is detrimental to the interest
of the country. There should be a system which makes it clear that no group should think that they have the divine
right to rule others perpetually, because that would not be acceptable to me. There should be a system of rotation. Aren’t there many bottleneck issues…difficulties…that
need to be ironed out before embarking on any rotational system? Of course! Clearly, if I am from a zone
that may not have a shot in my lifetime, I will oppose such a system, because the position may never get to me.
But such a person is thinking about himself. He is not thinking about the entire country. Were you born to be president
of this country? Ethnicity based politics is not a good idea. It is not good for Nigeria! Nigeria has developed its own system
of affirmative action – National Character - to combat some of these problems, at least, in the work place and
in our schools. Some celebrate this as a way to “even the playing field.” Others believe that it cements mediocrity.
Surely, this is a difficult issue… I am involved in university matters and
I once advocated for the bulk of students for admission to be taken on open merit. The reply was: ‘no this is a
state university.’ There are too many things to be said
about Nigeria, but as a professor we would like you to mention the factors that work against democracy and development
in Nigeria Well, let me say that there is the issue
of uneven development in Nigeria. There are parts of the country that are not really well developed as others and
let’s not have it develop into a problem, because this that leads to things like a quota system being demanded. A quota system has the problem of preventing
a bright Nigerian from getting into the university simply because he happens to come from a developed area. We
are thinking only of the disadvantaged. That is one problem, and I think that is where government should try to
see development more evenly spread throughout the country. The political party system is also creating too many
problems for us. You have seen what has happened, as a result. Corruption has been a perennial pathology
in Nigeria. The former World Bank President, James Wolfensohn, once said “Corruption is a cancer in Nigeria. You
can pretend to live with cancer and not treat it, but eventually it kills you” What is your perspective? I was invited to
Osita and Princess Adaeze Idara Adebimpe Ike
We are deluding ourselves by saying we
are conducting elections. We are not conducting elections. Some years back I was preparing to go out to vote during
one of the elections when somebody called me and said: ‘don’t waste your time, the result has already
been declared. It’s been written, but it has not been announced, so don’t go and waste your time.’ I still went
ahead, and cast my vote, but at the end of the day what the man said was true. So that’s another thing which I
feel is very important and must be addressed. Secondly, there is this issue of allocation of power where some people
feel that they have the divine right to rule and any arrangement you work out which prevents them from
ruling is subverted. In fact, in my novel, The Search, the idea of musical chairs was employed as a metaphor. Any ruler who does anything to prevent
such people from remaining in power, something happens and he is toppled, and then someone else is on the throne. The educational system is in shambles.
What do you think went wrong? Clearly the quality of education that your generation received, the environment and
the teachers were all different….superior… The environment, of course, is not the
same. It’s a pity that school authorities and students quarrel so much these days. There was a sharp drop in interest in education in Anambra state, especially among boys,
and it was alarming. They were withdrawn from school. What was the purpose? They spend so many years in school, and what do they get at the end
of it? This was when 419[Advance Fee Fraud] was in vogue, as well as drug peddling. The young boys who went
into cocaine became rich; they built houses and moved around with convoys of cars, and many people knew this was
not as a result of school, but from peddling cocaine. So many of them said: ‘to hell with school...’ I know of a man who came to see me during the admission of his son in the
university. When he later came to visit the boy, he couldn’t find him; he had gone to peddle cocaine. There is the feeling that education was
no longer the way to go in life. It is affecting tailors and carpenters and many others. The man who sews my Igbo
dress for me in Jos told me that he has to pack up, because it is difficult to find apprentices. Nobody wants to
spend time learning a trade when he can make quick money elsewhere. Even in the village here, palm wine is now beyond the reach of the poor person, because whose son would
like to go into palm wine tapping? The ones who are doing it are the grey haired people with no one to leave it
to when they die. And, of course, the educational system has shown no interest in that aspect of things. If there
is any interest, a way would have been evolved of making palm wine tapping easier by improving on the old tools. Professors Alele-Williams and Akinkugbe
in earlier Chinua
Achebe Foundation interviews called for a refocus of our educational priorities…that we should endeavour to make the educational
experience relevant to society and meaningful to students… I agree. Education as we have formulated
it in Nigeria today no longer has a positive impact on the society. There are polytechnics that have done nothing
to influence the socio-economic life of its host community, but which are turning out so many people roaming around
looking for jobs.
These people now go and operate GSM call booths. I think the environment is very much a problem. When this country
started investing in education, I had hopes about it and was invited to the national stakeholder’s conference
on education in Abuja. But when I talked about some of the areas the educational system should look into, a woman
educationist from one of the universities took me to task, and asked whether I want my son to train to be a palm
wine tapper. She absolutely missed the point. Every community has a method for generating income; however, the
educational system makes no contribution towards these things. We are not really helping our people to develop. Politics often offsets any genuine attempts
at positive reforms… Yes, but I also think that it’s really
an issue of leadership, because the UBE raised our hopes at the time when Professor Abayo who had been UNESCO regional director, and who was
committed to this thing was suddenly taken off the job. Nomadic Education was brought into Nigeria by Dr Uzoma
of the University of Jos. He was an Igbo man, but he had the support of a Fulani professor who was in power at
the time. When it became a formidable thing to be reckoned with he was removed from the place and someone
from another part of the country was put in charge of it. So Universal Basic Education [UBE] has not achieved what
I thought it should. Education is something that can help develop the rural community into a place that is
vibrant so that people stay and make money and then move ahead. That is how education achieves its purpose. When
we were children, the white man’s idea was that we could only become teachers or clerks. The white man told us
to forget about yam, cocoyam, and go to school. And yet, yam and cocoyam represented the culture of the Igbo man.
Our educational system was in fact meant to move one away from his or her culture. This is what is still going
on today, and I think it is terrible. As a former chief executive of WAEC, what are your
suggestions for convincing Nigerians that the experience of cheating on examinations achieves nothing but the entrenchment
of mediocrity, which in turn consolidates the nation’s descent in abject poverty and lawlessness? How many Nigerians desire to be convinced regarding the disastrous consequences of cheating to national
development?
How many Nigerians spare a thought
for the national interest in matters affecting their own individual interest? I recall
the alleged response of a British politician asked what he thought posterity would think of his action and he promptly
snapped:
“posterity has no vote.” Nigerians
who cheat in examinations are concerned about their individual progress, not with the future of the nation. Cheating
in examinations has assumed more alarming dimensions since I retired from WAEC on 1 July 1979. So – called “special examination centres” have sprung
up, in which candidates (who are charged phenomenal fees) are free to cheat at will. Lecturers in tertiary institutions offer students the opportunity to obtain grades of their choice
for stipulated fees.
Some lecturers demand payment in
kind from female students. A female
student wishing to earn good grades for little work organizes a hotel room, sends the particulars to the lecturer,
and turns herself over to the lecturer for the night, all expenses pre-paid by her! Little surprise
many banks and other private sector employers now require 1st class honours or no lower than 2nd class (upper division)
from prospective employees. As a character observed in my detective novel, EXPO 77, how realistic is to expect young people
not to cheat in examinations when cheating is the order of the day within the larger society? This draws us to the fact that the educational
system in the country appears to sap the zeal to create industry. If you look around, you see that most of the
people who are working hard to create industry in Nigeria are not university graduates. How does one explain this? Well I think this is part of the system
we have adopted so far-- the concept of what the university should or should not be doing, which I think needs
revising. Years ago, when I was doing work on higher education, I came out with the practice, in the former soviet
union at the time, for their engineering and some other subjects. Each student in his graduating class must come
out with an invention; an original idea to help the society, in general. What we are doing here is learning what
others have done. We at the Anambra state university of science and technology would like to see the university
constantly looking at the private sector, the industry, the rural environment to discover how the persons there
can earn a decent living. We will bring such information back to
the university, and also get those groups interested in the university, because there are things they can do for
the university in return. I think that we should develop a kind of symbiotic relationship between the university
and the community. There are many professors in the university who develop prototypes and what remains is for those
who have the funds to pick the prototypes and develop them. But nothing happens. I was hoping
our wealthy traders and businessmen would back some of these inventions – maybe have them named after them – and
make a lasting contribution, not only to Nigerian society, but the world, in general. Years ago, the University of Ife claimed
they invented a prototype for yam pounding. Nobody developed it, then some years later, Japan produced a yam pounding
machine, and they do not even eat yam. I went to a synod and at the end of it they gave some of us gifts and one
was a lantern. I took it home and found out that it increases my output, because I cannot generate electricity
24 hours of the day. I like to start working at 5 a.m. and I like to go to bed at a certain hour. Now, I have a
tool that all I need to do is recharge it for a few hours. I cannot even find the name of the manufacturer. These
are the kind of things that Nigerians should be working on, things that will help us exist in the society, but
all we are doing is importing them from other places. Stanford University which I attended in the United States
has properties and all kinds of facilities where they do research with funding. There was even a Stanford shopping
centre. We would like to end by taking you down
memory lane… Please tell us about your self and your early childhood. I was born at Ndikelionwu, which is a
great town. This is my hometown and where I was born to my late parents and brought up until part of my primary
school where my ideas of life were initially shaped. We lived in a society which had good values, a society which
had moral goals. There were things you were allowed to do and things that you could not do. As a child, if a heap
of cocoyam was left on a farm, you could be sure that no one would steal it. There were no security guards. You
swept your house and your compound, and washed yourself before doing anything. These were the times that formed
my early years. In those days my father was a retired school master and church teacher who believed in Christianity
very strongly and had strong principles. He feared that I might be spoilt if I
continued to live with him and my mother, and he believed that the best thing to do was send me away to school
to live under the guardianship of others. This was the pattern in those days. Children were sent out to go and live
with others who would talk common sense into their heads. It was not so much that your parents couldn’t train you;
but it was widely held by many in my parent’s generation that a child benefited from living away from the family.
Even my elder sisters were sent off to go and live with others; no matter how much you resisted it, your parents
would insist that you go there. I believe this helped knock certain principles into my brain. So I left home and
began my education away from home. You attended Government College Umuahia… Yes…I went to Government College Umuahia,
Expo 77
It was there that I first met Chinua
Achebe and a number of others like Elechi Amadi who became writers. Our Principal at the time taught you about
honesty and not to get yourself into hopeless things or be pompous. These were the times that formed a background
for me and I am very grateful for that background. I have come back home to the village here in Ndikelionwu and
have lived at home for eleven years. People have thought that my wife and I are crazy, because we could have been
living in Jos or Enugu. People, as you know, try to run away from the problems associated with being at home. So people have concluded that I must
be enjoying living at home, and in a sense, I am; but in another sense one is faced with abject poverty. There
is so much poverty in our society today that many people die, not because it was their time to die, but because
they cannot afford basic drugs for their survival. Children drop out from school because there is nobody to pay
their school fees. So you find out that you are constantly being called to give money to this person or to help
that person. Not many people want to do that kind of thing. They want to go out and build big houses where they
will have their traditional weddings for their daughters and where they will hold burial ceremonies for when they
die. But I reasoned that I could not run away from my culture. This is the culture I have projected in my novels,
why should I now run away from it? So I said that I will come and stay here, and it is very helpful because you
can offer wisdom to your people, your family, and your town. They can benefit from your experiences instead of
them seeing you only once in a while. It appears to the younger generation
that from the quality of men and women of your generation, conditions clearly had to have been better…different
from what we have today. Sir, What was the Nigeria of your youth like? Let me agree that Nigeria as of then
is not the Nigeria of today. I think of the challenges I went through in this country. We were the young people
emerging from the university at the time Nigeria was readying for independence, and you felt then that the country
needed you. The colonial masters were not really sure whether they wanted to go or not. They were very happy that
we believed we could govern ourselves. We had some challenges then…you would
travel out to the U.S or the U.K. to attend conferences and find out that the range of people attending these conferences
was much older than you. But you were given so much and even more depended on your ability to perform well, and
this brought out the best in you. I am not better than other people, but I became Registrar of the University
of Nigeria Nsukka at the age of 31. The council was trying to delay it for some time, but I was eventually appointed
the Registrar of the university and this was a tremendous challenge. But today, I find there are no longer
any challenges, and I sympathise with the young people. The civil service was a place that challenged many people
of my generation…people like Philip Asiodu worked in the civil service. There were clear ideas of what people were
to do. The permanent
secretary was the permanent secretary, but today the permanent secretary is just a name. The
politicians are the people calling the shots, not because they know what to do, but because that is the nature
of the government that we have. So many people earn their salaries, but are busy doing other things because there
is no challenge for them. I met my friend the other day at the Airport, and asked him to show me his backside because
I heard that he had been booted out of the civil service. And there seems some kind of joy in retiring people at
a relatively young age. The military claimed the civil service was overloaded, but it would end up taking even
more people than it had removed. It removed people in order to put in those they wanted. They did that till the
service collapsed. The universities, when I was Registrar, sent transcripts to students’ guardians to follow their
progress. Today I don’t know how many universities regularly send transcripts to guardians... Interrupting…. Let me suggest that all
of this is a lack of commitment to excellence, to a job well done…the distinct collapse of national values and
the African work ethic… My sentiments exactly! It used to be
at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, that in the third year of a course, a document was produced to show where
a student stood academically before the final year. Now people in the final year face arguments that they did not
finish this course or that course. I am pro-chancellor of a university now so I see that this is going on and I
am unhappy about it. So much money is being spent wastefully, and it breaks my heart…. Biafra and the Civil War is one of the
greatest watersheds in this country. I always ask members of your generation whether this country learnt anything
from that war, because despite several national conferences I have heard it said that the Aburi accord will sort
out everything. Have we learnt anything? One should always endeavour to learn
something from every experience, but it
BNW Advocates' Island
Shell and the colonial masters gave us
the impression that petroleum refining was highly technological and over our heads. Then during the civil war,
we were faced with a difficult situation after the loss of the Port Harcourt refinery. We could either employ our
brains or surrender, and Biafra did not want to surrender on that basis, so our scientists asked: ‘what is in refining?
It’s a matter of when you heat crude oil to a certain temperature and it gives you one result, and if you heat
further to a certain temperature, it will give you a different result. Before long, the Biafra government was controlling
the refining process. We did these things with limited facilities.
There were no refineries then, but we were able to scratch with our fingers until we found petrol. In this
kind of situation, we can do more than that and Nigeria will be able to sell the idea of small scale refineries
to many other developing countries in the world. I know the white powers will stand very much in our way; still
it all depends on our desire to emancipate ourselves from stagnation. In the country, refineries are now being
sold to the private sector; that is one area I feel very bad about. There are many other areas in which we don’t
seem to have learnt anything. As you said, the Aburi accord worked out many ways in which things could move. But
you know, the accord, when Gowon went back to Lagos, was torn into pieces by people in Lagos, because they thought
he had played into our hands by enabling Biafra or the easterners get away with so many things. The basic
principle is that if you use your brain, you can achieve a lot. At the end of the civil war, when we
assembled at Nsukka, my committee was asked to look at whatever facilities available, and we discovered that all
the bore holes in Nsukka were dead. There was nothing we could do to get those boreholes to function and they were
using tankers to go to the river to fetch water. We had no tankers but we wanted to reopen the university. I called
Professor Gordian Ezekwe who was on the committee and said, well you have handled similar cases; your assignment
is to get water out of those boreholes. He asked for pay loaders from Danjuma who was then the provost and they
got us loaders and some men knew where they had hidden generators in the bush. They got them out and within two
weeks, water was flowing from those bore holes and the soldiers could not believe it. That attitude of mind is gone and it
is a pity. Unfortunately, nobody, even Obasanjo, because he was the war hero from the federal side, wanted to show
that any good came out of Biafra. The federal government is unlikely to support that kind of thing, but what about
our own state government; what stops them from doing so? The whole thing about Biafra was because people felt they
were being prevented from expressing an opinion. They took to violence and the violence finally ended up in war,
because at the time we were ruled by the military, and the military is used to violence. What they don’t like they
shoot. If they had not responded the way they did, I don’t think we would have had a civil war. Thank you, Professor Ike. You are welcome.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in the interview are not necessarily those of the Chinua Achebe Foundation.
The Chinua Achebe Foundation, an intellectual and cultural organization, believes in the right of every Nigerian
to express their opinion. Chinua Achebe Foundation Interview Series: Professor V.C. Ike in Conversation with Professor Osmond Enekwe, Uduma Kalu and Alvan Ewuzie
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