Two Eminent Professors:Prof Nwuneli and Prof Okunna wrestle ‘’Ngige’’ to a standstill in Igbakwu Community

 A Professor with Department of Mass Communication, Covenant University, Ota, Ogun state Nigeria, Professor Onuora Nwuneli is one of the brightest minds the discipline of mass communication ever produced.
Professor Nwuneli taught at the Department of Mass Communication, University of Lagos before his foray into the United Nations as a staff and consultant. He also served his state Anambra as a Commissioner before returning to academics.
He helped the Department of Mass Communication, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, to focus its postgraduate programme before returning to the US and was later approached by Covenant University to help boost its doctoral programme in Mass Communication. He agreed and since September 2013 he was there.
Despite Professor Nwuneli’s distinguished career in academics, politics and international diplomacy, one problem proved stubborn for him. The Anambra state Government upon acceptance by his community as their choice issued him with a certificate of recognition as the Traditional Ruler of Igbakwu community in Ayamelum local government area. He became monarch unopposed and with maximum support and even the Ndichie signed a MoU with him to do whatsoever he likes for the progress and development of the Community, he may be alone in such an open cheque as a leader of a community, yet he could not perform as a powerful deity ‘’Ngige’’ in the community refused to allow him operate.
His professorial standing could not help him fight Ngige alone and he absconded from the community when it became unbearable yet a monarch. He confessed ‘Ngige’ visits him warning him not to liberate the community as he not Igwe of the community but the Deity ‘Ngige’. The deity warned him from locating the market where it draws its strengths from but he wanted to do it physical and ran into trouble. He left for prayers and for several months did not enter Igbakwu until another erudite Professor and a woman of substance , Prof Chinyere Stella Okunna came into the picture. Prof Okunna was his post graduate student as University of Lagos and they have bonded since then that Prof Okunna attracted him to UNIZIK as Head of Department. Following her return to active academics after her years in Government of Mr Peter Obi, Prof Okunna is currently the Head of the Department Mass Communication at Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka where she is also the Director of the University's vibrant UNIZIK 94.1 FM Radio. She has reputation as the first female Nigerian , if not African Professor of Mass Communication and now accessing lectures aiming to be Professors among other numerous engagements as HOD Mass Communication.
How did this happen? Prof Nwuneli became an emergency Chief Priest for his community and with Kpakpando Ukpo as Prof Okunna is fondly called by her community Ukpo, in Dunukofia local government area, the jinx was broken.

 But who would believe that uptight professors can groove to traditional gigs or that they can be so religious as to conduct an on-the-moment community-wide deliverance session?
Well, that was what happened at Igbakwu, Ayamelum Local Government on Monday, December 7, 2015. First was the almost 2-hour drive to the remote community. We actually crossed the Omambala river.
We actually thought we were late but it happened we arrived there just in time. What, with the arrival of the royal head of the community, Professor Onuora Nwuneli, nay, Igwe Professor Onuora Nwuneli, Eze Malume of Igbakwu, just a few minutes before us.
Onuora Nwuneli has affected the lives of countless folks academically in no small way through his books and his lectures. On this day, one of the many who had attained great heights in the government, namely, Professor Stella Chinyere Okunna was in Igbakwu to be the 10th blind man that was healed. This would be her second visit as she revealed in her speech later in the programme and it was to fulfill the dream and sole request of the community’s women the last time she came to inform her role model and mentor, Igwe Prof. Nwuneli, that she had returned to the classroom after serving the government for eight years. She was a commissioner, Chief of Staff to the Governor and Coordinating Commissioner, among other positions, in the Government of Mr Peter Obi.
The sole request was a market-place, as the community has none. While others were requesting for free Internet, water supply and such like, these women just needed a platform where they would market their abundant farm produce, being a very agro-based community.
This market was what Professor Okunna made her burden and has come to commence the first bold step to actualization, with the community’s traditional head. The sign post mounted on the clearing read, “ Eke Market, Igbakwu , Ayamelum local government area, a project of Amakolum women ruling age grade. Partner : Prof Chinyere Stella Okunna , Kpakpando Ukpo, Dunkofia. Facilitator: HRH Prof Onuora Nwuneli, Eze Malume 1 of Igbakwu. Land donated by Umuokpala’’.

The royal head was so taken by the selfless gesture that he declared like the priestly king he turned out to be, “It is today I understood fully what holds Professor Okunna and I together. It is the liberation of this community from the grips of ‘’Ngige’’, a most malicious deity that had held this community captive and stunted. Our children had hitherto been scared away from the community because any of them that made effort to accomplish anything was mysteriously debarred.” The custodian of Igbakwu’s customs and traditions took out more than half an hour to conduct a Pentecostal-type exorcism, calling for choruses from the uniformed women, elders, young men and in fact, all gathered under that harmatan sun on a ridgy newly cleared arena that also happens to be the site of the new market Professor Okunna was initiating for the community’s women.
Prof Okunna is not going to start and complete the massive market structures but she has kicked off the project with ten stalls already under construction. She hopes all former students of Prof Nwuneli like herself and prominent members of the society as well as philanthropic organizations will join her make the market a reality for women of Igbakwu .
Picking up a handful of sand from the site, Prof Nwuneli the priest-king of Igbakwu declared that he was retrieving Igbakwu from the grips of ‘’Ngige’’ that had been ruling as King in the lives of Igbakwu people, debarring them from attaining their omega point. “Henceforth, Igbakwu shall no more be a place where the most atrocious juju is sought but where cheap and wholesome food items and industry are produced and sold,” the King announced. Breaking his first kolanut as the traditional ruler of Igbakwu community, Igwe Nwuneli pronounced the cessation of all forms of Diablo (prime evils) induced strife and rift in Igbakwu land and blessed the land to nurture Igbakwu people’s dream to fruition and longevity as they enjoyed in their bodies.
Igwe Nwuneli literally handed Igbakwu to Jesus Christ and prayed against the tormenting spirit of ‘Ngige’ to any Igbakwu man or woman and asked them to report to him should anything funny happen to them. He prayed against sudden death for their youths and lasting prosperity to anybody who struggles genuinely to acquire his or her wealth. He lamented that his subjects were building good houses outside Igbakwu kingdom instead of at home, and prayed that the new site would soon be a GRA for the community where everybody would like to build and live, announcing his intention to erect his new palace in that area.

Despite the power of Attorney by Ndichie and the entire community for him to be their leader and do as he wishes for the progress of his community, Igwe Nwuneli ran away, or so to speak, and for one year, he did not enter Igbakwu and over a month , Igwe Igbakwu was in a fasting and prayer session to fortify himself for the challenges ahead; even now he is wearing one long chaplet upon his traditional regalia, as 'Ngige' continues to torment him by telling him he is not Igwe for Igbakwu because the deity remains the soul of the community. But with the relocation of the market, 'Ngige' days are numbered. Igwe Nwuneli pronounced that the youths who hitherto could not build and if they build they die would start building houses in Igbakwu. The pronouncement was hailed with a glorious Amen by the jubilant Igbakwu people.
''Ngige does not want development of Igbakwu but from today we have rejected it and we say collectively that we want development."

At a corner of the large clearing was a newly made foundation for a block of ten stalls, one of the many that shall arise on the site, courtesy of the contributions of the many students whose lives have been touched by the novel Mass Communication Professor traditional ruler. This was of course Prof. Okunna’s expressed hope as she shared her testimony as Prof. Nwuneli’s chela (disciple). Her Mass Communication mentor/guru started appearing to her through his many textbooks on the subject as she transited through her education and rise in her profession. The climax was when she saw him in his full glory during her doctorate degree program at the Mass Communication Department of University of Lagos where he served as her lecturer and initial Dissertation Supervisor.
Speaking to Igbakwu community, Prof Okunna she said: “I was amazed when I heard that my professor had accepted to be the traditional ruler of Igbakwu land. But I quickly saw it as a divine call and an opportunity for the sage to bring his rich wealth of experience and connections to bear in liberating and rejuvenating the land.” The glowing lady from UNIZIK had only one appeal to make to the titled elders, women and men of Igbakwu: “Lend him your unwavering support, as that is the only way you can get the best of this renowned scholar.” Making it clear she was no money bag nor politician on a mission, she expressed faith that others whose lives were affected by Prof Onuora Nwaneli shall also contribute to the Eke Market building project till it is completed. “This is your project, so treat it as such,” Nigeria's first female Professor of Mass Communication admonished. One of Okunna’s doctorate students, Mrs Abuah Florence, there and then supported the building of the Eke Market with 50,000 naira. More of the students of Prof Okunna and Prof Igwe Nwuneli will definitely follow the same line to complete the Eke market in record time.

Okunna known as Kpakpando Ukpo started singing praises to God for allowing her and others to see a day like that and intoned ‘’ I love these women, especially their dress sense and doggedness,’’ referring to the Igbakwu women who were assembled in a variety of colourful uniforms. She commended Igwe for giving his life and that of his community to Jesus Christ for God’s grace to abide with him, as nobody with God could be harmed, not even by the devil himself.
The overwhelmed Woman Leader, Georgina Okwunwanne informed that with Prof Okunna’s support and that from others because of their Igwe, Igbakwu would soon be the best in Ayamelum local government area. She prayed God to bless Prof Okunna and her families as well as their monarch and every soul in Igbakwu for their thoughts of good for Igbakwu people.

Have you ever received hard core Igbo communal appreciation? It was somewhat hilarious, as silently observing from a corner, Professor Okunna was overwhelmed under the shower of appreciation in form of cultural dances from the neatly and colourfully dressed healthy-looking Igbakwu women, bags of freshly picked okro, pumpkin seed (egusi), rice, goats, others. She was obviously overwhelmed. On getting home, she shared it to all those who went with her so to speak.
According to the Onowu of the Igbakwu, Chief Onyekwe Chidozie during his vote of thanks , “For what Prof Okunna has done today and all she has spent here to see that Igbakwu is developed, I declare that God multiplies her blessings and that her life stays with her. Good things shall continue to happen to her and her entourage.”
Barrister Aniekwe Nnalue, who did the initial prayer session to start the event when the priest scheduled for that was not handy, asserted that the phenomenon was a wonderful one. Said he: “We anticipated that our present choice of royal head was going to bring light to us and it is that light that has come in the form of Professor Okunna. It is a welcome development. With the deliverance session led by our the traditional head and the symbolic first breaking of kolanut, our youths shall start prospering, light has come into Igbakwu and a wind of positive change has started blowing.”
The site Supervisor, Rev Adimora Ugo, said if enough resources are available the entire market and park would be completed between three and six months, but informed that the first 10 shops would be ready in two weeks.
There was indeed a play-out of the long-held African world-view that a community can invoke certain entities and feed them blood to an extent they become lord over the people’s souls, jinxing them and keeping them under mental slavery until a higher authority is invoked over them. The event also was a display of uncommon teacher-student relationship, agro-based living and sincere collective gratitude.

This piece originally entitled IGBAKWU: HOW 2 PROFESSORS DELIVERED A JINXED COMMUNITY
was written by  Odogwu Emeka Odogwu, an Awka based journalist, writer, Public Affairs Analyst and Commentator and could be reached at [email protected] and 08060750240