Legendary: Prof. Okey Ndibe's Reading Event : A Tales by Moonlight experience, By Stanley Okechukwu-Eze

 While taking occasional sips from a glass of palm wine he expressed was courtesy of a traditional head present, Professor Okey Ndibe led the bursting hall through mental trails of his own imaginative making, filled with psychological, philosophical, social, religious and cultural experiences the whole spectrum of social strata of the average Nigerian -Igbo in particular, could identify with.

The book was his most recent work - Foreign Gods Inc., a story which, according to him, was about an intelligent Igbo man that found himself sabotaged in the US by his thick Igbo accent despite his excellent resume, and the bizarre ways he resorted to to survive and succeed against the odds.

Fielding questions after the reading, Professor Ndibe acquiesced to the fact that he was indeed a social realist who, due to his somewhat positivist family background and rebellious tendencies right from childhood, made him take to fighting for the marginalised in the society. It was clear he was just being his mother's son as the mother first hypnotised everyone present with her Igbo poetry, beautifully punctuated with occasional choruses and rib-cracking interjections.

I write in the columns of the newspaper weekly because I want to be engaged in the drama of Nigeria as a nation, Okey Ndibe declared. He expressed his ecstatic state of mind at being introduced by his mother (an introduction he and all present kept breaking in outbursts of tear-inspiring laughter for) and whetted everyone's mental appetite with bizarre real life stories about his encounters with the western world and how misinformation complicated his first contacts before he engaged a couple of the grey horns present in an 'orchestra' of readings from page 99 of his book, 'Foreign Gods Inc.'

Professor Okey Ndibe, in his unassuming way, was quick to highlight the literary work of Prof. Chinweite Ejike - an igbo culture protagonist, which review event, he revealed, was the conception womb of his. He also mentioned Okwy Enwezor, whom he described as the most important art curator in the whole world.  Knowledge rules the world, he reiterated speaking about the need to revitalize reading and reason culture in Igboland. We ewunize humanity, he poetized, talking about the fraudulence Nigerians make themselves susceptible to because they stuck their head in the belief that God will change the state of things for them. Prof. Ndibe corrected the impression saying, 'God pushes the responsibility back to us.' 'America won't help us either because America has her own problems to solve', he pointed out.

The event was attended by the who's who in the academic, literary, journalistic, administrative worlds, to mention but a few and a glow of deep mental satisfaction was seen on the faces of the attendees as they left the venue around 10pm. It personally felt like I was returning from a Tales by Moonlight experience.

Eze is an Anambra based Journalist