Home-made ‘Ajalanisation’: Lagos to Ijebuode to IgboUkwu to Awka to Aba and to Enugu - Ik Muo, PhD.

 

 PH Road, Aba & Garden Avenue, Enugu: The difference is clear!

On April 27, 1957, Olabisi Ajala,  began a trip "around the world"  and ultimately, he visited India, Soviet Union, Iran, Jordan, Israel, Palestine, Egypt, and finally, Australia, all of them on his Vespa scooter. I did not know him but I know the music dedicated to his exploits by the one and only Ebenezer Obey. So, when one junkets around and about, he is indulging in ‘Ajalanisation’! I left Lagos to Ago-Iwoye and Ijebuode, my regular route, on Monday 29/3/21 and on Friday, 2/4/21, my running-mate and I left Ijebu-Ode for Igbo-Ukwu, with the son-of-man on the steering. I won’t tell you our time of departure but by 10am, we were refuelling the car at NNPC Mega-Station, Asaba. The road was free as the usual traducers of travellers were not yet many on the road. However, we had an encounter just before we entered Benin. The men in black stopped us, asked for vehicle ‘partikolas’ and I gave them the usual things: driving-licence, insurance certificates and 2021 vehicle certificate. He then queried: is that all? And then he started mentioning some strange papers but I told him that these were the only ones I had known since I started driving in 1982. He then ‘confiscated’ the papers and went away. I waited for about 10 minutes and I left him with the papers-all photocopies.

Immediately I got home, I joined the Holy Friday and other Catholic Easter programmes and thereafter, the usual 1001 meetings, funerals and weddings. But there were some special programmes at home including the Communal Prayers by the town (to  checkmate the activities of some  man-made malevolent spirits), the centenary birthday celebration of Nze Umeokonkwo  Umennadi, the onye-isi-nze ( oldest ozo-titled man) and the only living mgburichi ( scarified face) in Igboukwu); the first Igbo-Ukwu History Project lecture( delivered by Professor Njoku and Enigma Obikwelu) and the 98^th birthday ceremony of  the Iconic Ide JNC Ezeife, retired Principal Special Class, the first Igbo-Ukwu graduate, and the oldest/longest serving member of the Idu-Cabinet.  

        Nze Umeokonkwo, 100years ; Iconic Ide JNC Ezeife,98 years  ;           Ide Ezesuokwu at his Mill

I also took out time to pay an industrial visit to Ide Ezesuokwu, a fellow Cabinet Member, who operates in the original ‘oil sector’ (runs an oil mill) creating value as well as employment with a staff strength of about 30. The  technology was however old, which led  operational inefficiency and physical stress. And I asked: Where is the FG support for agro-allied industry? May be, tomorrow! My wife ‘ won the prize’ of a keg of fresh and enticing palm oil. I was also at Awka to celebrate with my sister, Uju Chiekezie who ‘washed’ her professorship at the magnificent St Aquina’s Catholic Church, GRA, Awka.

       @ St Aquinas   and          @ St Michaels Dedication

 Of Course, not less should be expected of a Church located at the GRA. The dedication of St Michaels Catholic Church,  Ngo,IgboUkwu also took place and I had the good fortune of breaking the kola to declare the occasion open. It was a joyous occasion  for us because, at a time, it looked as if that day would never come. But it came, courtesy of the  commitment of the Parishioners and the determination of the Parish Priest, Fr Offordum.

 

The following week, I left for Aba through Ezinifite, Uga, Akokwa Arondizuogu Okigwe and Umuahia. At Arondizuogu, we encountered a local Vehicle Inspection squad led by a woman. She checked this and that and found that the one of the trafficators, one of the break-lights and one other thing was not working and billed us N11000. Afterall said and done, she, on a ‘compassionate ground’, collected about N3500, which my wife told her was all the cash in her wallet. I was wondering how to handle the situation when I noted that she actually wrote the amount in the charge-sheet. It was later that I saw that instead of N3500, she had written N2500, thereby cheating  the state and probably her colleagues of the ‘surplus’. When we joined the smooth Enugu-PH expressway, a similar group ‘arrested’ us and when we protested that we had been charged and discharged, they argued that the first group did not charge us properly.  When I told them that it was their internal affair after which they collected the first charge-sheet and reissued another one. One interesting development was that they kept on asking: how much exactly did they collect from you, to which they did not receive any answer beyond what was written on the charge-sheet.

 I was at Aba for about two weeks, and spent the period in Umuga Community, off Opobo Road in Ogbor Hill , a very  serene rural community, where everybody knew everybody, still tended their farms in the morning  before going anywhere and still relied on bicycles for transportation.

      Bicycle Mass-Transit;         Tanu Group: The abandoned factory, with Lady Umeweni, the CEO

 It was very far from the maddening crowd.  I paid an industrial visit to Tanu Group, one of the land-marks of good old Ogbor Hill. Tanu Group was one of the industrial giants at Aba (Aba is more into commerce), and was manufacturing Varta Batteries and Cascamite industrial glue. But this is now history due to policy infidelity, foreign exchange crunch, high cost of credit and all that. I looked at the idle factory buildings and the decaying machines and… Jesus Wept.  I also visited the National Institute for Nigerian Languages, a Federal Government establishment with a revolutionary mandate and which needs more attention than it is getting.

@ NINiL

I met the ebullient  and committed working DG, Prof  Emejulu, who is doing EVERYTHING to turn things around and  in the process, trying to catch the lion with bare hands.

One day, I ventured into Aba proper. The well laid out Aba Central, ( Ehi, Azikiwe, Faulks and Asa roads et al),  which I first visited for the first time on holidays in 1972 as a Class 2 student of St Josephs, Awka-Etiti, had become a shadow of their former selves and every square inch  was an  untidy, ‘bedlamic’  market place. However, when I really wept was when I got to the great Port-Harcourt road.  The stretch of land which was once a road was at the same time a gully, a swimming pool, a slimy pond and  some elements of very ROUGH patches of earth and consequently, a haven for traffic . The driver had to swim through the waters, meander through peoples’ compound off the road, cross the disused railway track and did other acrobatics to pass through the famous PH Road. The trip from Ogbor hill, which would have taken about 30 minutes in ordinary times, took 3hours + and I felt like giving the driver more than he charged. He informed that he spent N600 daily to wash the underneath of his micro-bus (not the whole vehicle). As a first generation Aba resident , Nwaogalanya Ebele Umeweni , who has his shop at PH road and lives in  the neighbourhood told me, ‘one cannot do anything in Aba without going to or through PH road’. He further regretted that, any time it rained, he would not go to his shop for two or three days neither could he go anywhere else. His vehicle is also permanently parked because it lacked the swimming capabilities required to navigate PH road.  The National Tourism Board should recognise PH road as the greatest tourist attraction at Aba because no one should visit Abia State, without having a taste of the sights and sounds of PH Road.

     Still @ PH Road

 We left for Enugu and for the first time, I was persuaded to board ‘Peace Mass Transit’ an experience I never thought I would have.   There is this law of customer relations: Rule 1: the customer is always right. Rule 2: if he is wrong, remember Rile 1. At Peace Mass Transit, the customer is NEVER right! During the check-in on the day we left for Enugu, one  of the customers misplaced his ticket during and he was asked to step down. Eventually, the ticked was found but the people insisted that the chap must follow the next bus. It was more surprising because that seat remained vacant throughout the trip. So, why deboard the passenger and extend his travel time for another 1 or 2 hours, depending on when the next bus would fill up? On the  way back, we encountered the queer customer relations of Peace Mass.  I failed to sign the manifest before boarding, which appeared to be their custom.  A staff came into the bus with the manifest, asking about those who had not filled the manifest and I raised my hand but rather than give me the document to fill, he took it out, placed it on top of the bonnet and ordered me to go and fill it there or  the bus would not move! I simply ignored him and he walked away. It was one of the passengers who eventually went down to bring the manifest. Furthermore, the bus, beyond carrying more passengers than required in the ‘new-normal’ protocols, filled all available space with luggage of all sorts, and insisted that  passengers should carry their hand-luggage on their laps  and that one of the passengers should  fold her long legs, or  probably cut the legs( in a journey that would last 4 hours), so that there would be more space for the cargo.  And what was the cargo? Raw meat parked in rice-sacks!  Because this was not done, they also suspended the boarding of the vehicle for another 30 minutes. The bus was also weak, making all the motion with little movement to the extent that even tippers were overtaking us on the road but nothing to worry because I only complain whenever  a driver was too fast (not when he was too slow).   It was when I  got to Enugu that the degree of road-decadence at Aba became very pronounced. The roads at Enugu were and are so smooth, wide and clean that one would not mind lying down on then. Okpara Garden  and Chime Avenues Ogui, Azikiwe,  Awknanaw Abakaliki , Presidential and Chime roads are all magnificent boulevards. Enugu even surpasses Lagos when the smoothness, width and cleanliness of the roads are concerned.

The ESUT Business School, Garden Avenue  and  Sanctuary of Holy Ghost Cath Church

I visited the ESUT Business School, Enugu, where I had served as the first Asst Director of Corporate Development at its Lagos office before Educational Politics forced the school to relocate from Marina, Lagos, to Enugu and also attended mass at Holy Ghost Cathedral, one of the oldest Catholic Churches in Nigeria

And then, it was time to return to Ijebu-Ode, Ago-Iwoye and Lagos; back to the madding crowd. I was reluctant but it has to be done. The return trip was smooth and uneventful. I thank God for seeing me throughout this Ajalaistic adventure and with this out of the way, I will now face more serious issues of the moment, hoping that the outstanding backlog will allow me!

While I was away!

Life was going on at OOU in my absence with lectures seminars, meetings and result computation deadlines. One thing I missed was the First  Prof A.J Abosede Colloquium and presentation of a festschrift in Honiur of the first home-made professor in our Department. The colloquium, with theme, Repositioning of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises for Nigeria’s economic Recovery and the book of readings on Finance, Management and Entrepreneurship was hosted by the Department in conjunction with the Institute of Managerial Economics  on 20/4/21.The intellectual feast was an epochal event because many people have colloquia and festschrift in their honour after they had died or as a send-forth activity. But Professor Abosede was there live and is still in active service. May he continue to profess.

-Ik Muo, PhD. Department of Business Administration, OOU. Ago-Iwoye. 0803026625

“Find a great mentor, someone who has already been through the many challenges of being an entrepreneur..” -Jodi Levine

Entrepreneurshipin Practice: Cases, Challenges and Lessons By IK, MUO PHD is now available on Amazon, since 14/5/21. Click here to view