Wednesday 4 October 2017

WHO ARE YOU


WHO ARE YOU


A Paper Presented By High Chief Osaro Ollorwi on the Occasion of Egbalor Cultural Day Celebration on Sunday 1st October, 2017 at Egbalor Civic Center, Egbalor Ebubu Eleme

“In vain do we build the city if we do not first build the man”, Edwin Markham.


You Are Not A Name But Divine Personality


Mastering who we are has been one of the most difficult tasks facing mankind. In battling to find out who and what we are, many have been misled, destroyed and even killed. Knowing who you are begins with knowing the difference and similarity between your physical body and spiritual you; it means knowing the composition of your body, soul and spirit; the trinity you and properly applying this knowledge for the betterment of humanity. It enables you to distinguish between your NAME (the mere means of physical identification) and your Divine PERSONALITY (the totality of your INNER SELF, the spirit of man which is the lamp of God that searches all the inner depths of his heart).

In attempting to find out who you are, it is necessary you first and foremost KNOW YOUR SELF. You must master, explore and utilize your MIND POWERS in a manner that pleases God. God expects each and every one of us to use the powers of his mind to advance the frontier of creation, add to human comfort and pleasure. Think what the world would have been like in the absence of Light, Motor Vehicles, Aeroplanes, Ships, Information and Communication Technology and other notable discoveries that have dismantle space, subdue distance, overcome time and made the world a global village, advance the frontier of civilization and make life more lovely, enjoyable and pleasurable. It is the human mind that drives those great achievements and breakthroughs. The human mind still holds great opportunities and possibilities for mankind. Join the train! You can be next to be admitted into the Hall of Fame and celebrated!

Dominate Your World


Moses in his narration of creation said rightly that God directed man to fill the earth and subdue it, have dominion over everything .Solomon was emphatic when he held that God takes glory in concealing things but it is to our own glory to search things out. A man’s mind plans his way and God directs his steps. Therefore the mastering of our mind is the first step towards knowing our SELF.

The Human Mind


The Mind is the greatest storehouse and workshop of all discoveries and development of man. Yet the human mind remains one of the greatest challenges facing man as he sojourn through life searching for who he is. This quest had led to the discovery of several religions, believes and what is popularly known now as “path”. From the cave of the early man in prehistoric age, through the Greek world, Egyptian civilisation, Babylon, Rome, the Moors, Athens, Ancient Ebubu Kingdom, the Judea-Christian tradition, and down to the present information and communication technology age the urge to Know Thyself had been on.

Know Your Self


As an individual, have you ever ask yourself who you are? Have you ever ponder who people say you are? How do the society, your friends, parents and siblings see you? Above all, who does God say you are? Have you ever taken the time and necessary efforts to synchronize all these views and perceptions to arrive at who really you are? Are you comfortable with your concept of you? Are you happy with your present state of life? Time may not permit us to answer all these questions, but we will endeavour to deliberate on one or two of them.

To know yourself means to discover your inner self, the God Within You, through reprogramming your consciousness for excellence and success in life. It refers to listening to your innermost vibrations that can help you discover your potentials. It is what David Oyedepo described as “Productive engagements that excite you and pointers to the kind of divine deposits that are on your inside”.   Every man and woman is naturally endowed by God. He did not create any one without a natural talent. Everyone has been provided for. Right from inception man has been given all he would need to succeed in life. No wonder the Scripture says, “If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat”. The Scripture equally enjoined “That you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you. That you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and that you may lack nothing”.  

In his book, “In Search Of Ancient Gods”, Erich Von Daniken said, “When a man has a brilliant idea today he has not discovered or invented it himself. He has dredged up basic information from the primordial memory to the surface of consciousness. The creative man of today must summon up knowledge from the punched holes of the remote past at the right moment. Past, present and future are united in an exhilarating way in the memory and mind of man”.

 

Learn from Others


The struggle to discover who you are is a tedious one. Many have been lured into crimes and life of deception and make-believe all in the name of finding meaning to life. Learn from the mistakes of others. When you learn from the mistakes of others and avoid it; you are wise.

Many have renewed their lives and become great achievers that the world not only celebrate but adored. A glance at the story of the Phoenix, the bird in Greek Mythology will suffice here.

According to the tale, it was a rare species, only one of its kind. After living for about half a millennium, the bird set itself ablaze and got burnt to ashes. And from the ashes it emerged again, younger and renewed. It flew away.

This story ought to stir something in the depth of your consciousness. There is an inexplicable affinity between you and the bird. Let us briefly analyse the story. The bird is like to you. The ashes are the pains, loss, defeat, sadness and failure you have or are going through. Many people undergo this phase of life once in a while.

One experiences the ash phase of life when he begins to experience some reverse of fortune. That is when the world seems cruel and lonely. It never rains but pours. At one time or the other, one faces a reverse of fortunes. Problems, challenges and other woes don’t leave in a hurry. They come like interminable down pours. Everything you clutch at to get out of the drowning pool turns out to be a straw. It is like falling down from a mountain peak; every boulder you clutch at gives way, leaving you crashing further down. Every foothold gives way, and you continue to crash down. And the sky is far away, seeming indifferent and mocking at your efforts.

When things get really bad, the first casualty is your ego and personality. Nothing hurts a man’s image and self-pride more than serious reverse of fortunes that leaves him feeling down and out. Everything seems to be squeezing and snuffing out your life. Are you currently passing through such situation? You feel the world is against you, snuffing life out of you? You feel like you are taking a lonely walk through the valley of the shadow of death?  Thank God, it is only a shadow, and not death itself. Robert Schuller observed that, “Every valley has its low point. Reach it and there’s only one way to go from that point, and that’s upwards”. You can always use that fall to gather momentum to bounce up again. Let your desire to be a great achiever be spiced with work. Avoid the desire of the lazy man that kills him because his hands refuse to labour.

In You Lies Latent Powers


In you lies a latent power capable of propelling you to achieve what you hitherto termed difficult or impossible.  The inner self provides the freshness in our journey through life in a manner that brings success and great achievements to the doorsteps of every person who discovers its potentials and utilises it. This power has been variously described. The Mystics call it “Cosmic Consciousness”, the Psychics and Metaphysicians refer to it as the “Great Within” or the “Inner Being”. Moses knows it as “Breath of Life”. Elijah denotes it as “A Still Small Voice”. Prophet Isaiah terms it “My Spirit”. In one place Jesus Christ described this POWER as “Keys to the Kingdom of Heaven”, in another he refers to it as the “Gift of God” and yet in another as the “Wisdom of God”. Apostle James defines it as “Spirit Who Dwells in Us”. Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Colossians describes it as “Christ in You”. Harold Sherman names it “God Consciousness”, and says, “You can, through intelligently directed meditation awaken higher sensory powers within you which will make it increasingly possible for the God Power within to offer guidance and protection to you through the faculty of your intuition”.

David Oyedepo recognises it as “The Supernatural” and stressed in the introduction to his book, “Releasing The Supernatural” that his aim is “to provoke you to a rediscovery of your roots in God and how you can unlock the vast potential of the supernatural for your welfare in life. From the days of the patriarchs until now, those who have ‘reigned in life’ have been those who were adept at harnessing the forces of the supernatural”. We live in a world of choices and not chances. Your lot in life is determined by your choice. God reaffirmed that you and I are in His class of Being. ‘I said, “You are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High”’. You are spirit and you belong to the class of God. One of the greatest discoveries you can make about yourself is to know that you are a SPIRIT after the order of God.

Problem Confronting Youths Today


The greatest problems confronting our youths today is not unemployment, poverty or illiteracy, as many of us would want to postulate, but mind-set that turns our youths into mediocre and failures, or into monsters and makes their dream success like Hitler’s, become nightmare to others.  “Down the ages”, says Etin-osa S. Omuemu, “this has become the root cause of man’s chaos, oppression and wars”. In her book, “Battlefield of the Mind”, Joyce Meyer cautioned that “People living in the vanity of their own mind not only destroy themselves, but far too often, they bring destruction to others around them”. She urged us to gain control over our mind and you will find freedom and peace.

You Are What You Think and Do


No identical twins have identical “self”. It is the “Self” that makes us individual and unique and relates us to God. The Inner Self or Spirit is the SPARK of God that takes up the case which we call body to express the Self that either redefines the world, advance the frontier of creations and makes life comfortable for all; or brings about war to destroy, enslave, exploit or take that which is the possession of other men.

The expression “image and likeness of God” doesn’t refer to your physical body but that “breathe” of God or the “Christ” in you which has the capacity to lift you from nothingness to significance. That accounts for why a little child, a blind, lame, deaf or any physically or mentally challenged person can express and demonstrate God to the surprise of many.

This is the time for you to have a change of mind-set, to receive mind empowerment to live and overcome to become who God wants you to become, a great achiever with all the powers to explore and dominate the universe, subdue and overcome all obstacles and hindrances.   

Challenges Are the Flavours of Life


In every man and woman’s life there comes a time of ultimate challenge, a time when every resources you have is tested; a time when your faith, your values, patient, ability to persist and persevere are all pushed to the limit and beyond. Some people use such tests as opportunities to become better people; others allow these experiences of life to destroy them.

Instances abound in the Bible where challenges made people to revert to the Inner Self to bring out the best. Joseph who dreamt of the Moon and Stars and rose to become a Prime Minister in Egypt discovered the secret of his success inside the pit where his brother threw him. Moses was one of the most remarkable characters in the Bible. He had a mandate from God to bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt. Trapped between the Egyptian Army and the Red Sea the secret was revealed to him.

Abraham had a great assignment to bring out a Covenant Child through whom the whole would be blessed. But the fact on ground was bad enough. The wife was too old and so was Abraham. Yet he has expected to be a father of many nations. When God asked him to count the stars, there was something Abraham saw in those stars. That was the secret. It still remains till this day as one of the principles of success if you apply it.

Love Transforms Fortunes


When hunger made Esau to sell his birth-right to his brother Jacob, he did not dwell on his mistakes for too long, but rather, he pardoned himself, reprogrammed his mind, changed his attitude, launched himself on the path of success and became a great achiever. There reunification was famous. Their successes were celebrated. Esau showed love to Jacob not hatred. He embraced and kissed him and they expressed joy of brotherhood. Jacob confession that he had seen the face of Esau as though he had “seen the face of God” also reveals the power of love in transforming fortunes.    Success is never in isolation of the will of God and the general welfare of every other man. Esau did not look at the shadows. He knew that there is no substance there.

You Are Solution to the World


There is a potential in you which represents a solution to the world. The proper exercise and channelling of this potential is what makes a man rise from obscurity to prominence. You are limited by your mind. Believe you can win all the time. Focus on victory in your mind ahead of time. Your level of consciousness, your character, attitude, and behavioural pattern determine what you attract to yourself. Consequently, let all your thinking, feelings, gestures, expressions and actions reflect positive attitude, and you will go on winning and succeeding.

Any battle can be won in the mind. Edward Hilary said, “It’s not the mountain that we conquer, but ourselves”. You have a responsibility to break away from that self-limitation. Unchain the imagination and let it breath with vibrant colours of multiple opportunities, break loose from the fetters of limited experience and unproductivity. The earlier the better! There is danger in delay because the more you continue seeing things from the wrong attitudinal point, the more you get to firmly accepting it as the right way.

Don’t Underestimate the Potency of Your Mind


Do not underestimate the power of your mind.  Dr. Lao Russell declared that, “There is nothing else to know for the mind is the seed of creation from which all things unfold from invisibility”. Stair up your faith and pursue your set goal today; search your life, explore your mind, harness your supernatural resources to solve life problems. Trace out what you must do and go into it with boldness. Release the supernatural and live life to the fullest. “The supernatural is not reserve for us till we get to heaven. It is to be manifested here on earth”, David Oyedepo pointed out.  Walter and Lao Russell observe in their book, Atomic Suicide, that there is height you reach and you will comprehend your omnipotence and work knowingly with the divine Mind-power which is within you”. The wealth and power of the world lies inside you. Stop REMEMBERING and REPEATING and begin to THINK and KNOW.

Connect With the Universe


Avoid selfishness and self-centeredness. Give to the services of mankind and the world will reward you abundantly. Self-centeredness is an attitude of the mind, and like love, it is an emotion. Neither can be seen, but both are demonstrated by our actions. Self-indulgence can be overcome and replaced by love. The table below is a description of love in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. It also contrasts love and selfishness.

Table 1: Characteristics of Selfishness and Love


SELFISHNESS                                LOVE
Impatient                                                         Patient
Unkind                                                            Kind
Proud                                                              Sincere
Suspicious                                                       Generous
Self-seeking                                                    Polite
Inconsiderate                                                  Trusting
Demanding                                                     Gracious
                                                                        Unselfish
 




   

 

 

 

 

Advices


1.        There is potential in you which represent a solution to the world.

2.        Picture what you want and you capture it. Desire and visualization are forces that drive the ether. You cannot go beyond what your mind (inner self) can see.

3.        Rise from your ashes and fly. Like our story of Esau reprogramme your mind, change your attitude, launch yourself on the path of success and became a great achiever.

4.        See problems as opportunity for growth and self-mastery. Know that you will find no real satisfaction or happiness in life without obstacles to conquer, goals to achieve, and a purpose to accomplish. Challenges leave us better and richer in experience. If you look at problems with the possibility attitude you will benefit from it.

5.        Value the powers of your mind. Do not underestimate the powers of your mind. Your mind or Inner Self is the God or Christ in you. You can be confident about the future if you walk with God in the present.

6.        Your dreams can be likening to a wheel barrow, if you don’t move it forward; it remains on the same spot. Take the first step and doors all over begins to open.  You can’t watch destiny come through to you, you have to work it out! Destiny does not fall down from the sky, rather it starts from that thing you are meditating over and appreciating always concerning your life and future. Solve a problem for the world and the world will reward you for it.

7.        Concentration and focus entail the coordination of all the energy of thought, action, and purpose to one point of vision. “To finish the race, stay on the track”, says John Mason.

8.        Change does not start from the outside unless it comes from the inside. If you can change your attitude, then you can change your life.

9.        What you SEE is what you GET and is also what you will BE. See yourself a failure and you will be one. See yourself a success and you are one. The power of your imagination is your most precious gift. It is what you choose to see that matters not the resources and life experiences.

10.   Success is being in position to help others. “If you eat all your food and drink all your waters alone, it will soon dry up. But if it flows out to others you will stay refreshed. Stagnant water stinks”, posited David Oyedepo. Solomon also admonishes that, “There is one who scatters, yet increases more; and there is one who withholds more than is right, but it leads to poverty”.

11.   Clarify your desire and you will discover your destiny. What are the things you want? Desire is a positive power. Desire when released into the universe links you to your destiny.

12.   Love attracts good; love propels desire and desire fires imagination, the audio and visual channel that God uses to communicate His dream to your consciousness. Love revitalises and recreates the universe. Love what you do, do what you love. Passion kindles enthusiasm and ecstasy. Love recognises no barrier or obstacle on its way to success.

Conclusion


From the foregoing it is clear that we think in mental pictures, not words. Associated with every mental image of a life experience is the feeling you had at the time. Today, you are the sum total of your mental and emotional reactions to whatever has happened to you, up to the present moment. What you are is represented by the mental image you have of yourself and your attitude toward life and others. You are dominated, at any given moment, by what you think and how you feel. If you think good thoughts, you will eventually attract good things and vice versa.

You are a far greater and better person than you have ever thought yourself to be. Irrespective of your time in life, the kind of body or mind with which you came into this world or have developed, the experiences you have had to date, you possess unlimited possibilities for development. 

 

Finally, if you haven’t known your SELF, then you haven’t started living. The supernatural is not reserve for us till we get to heaven. It is to be manifested here on earth. Arise and shine!

 

High Chief Osaro Ollorwi




Thursday 14 September 2017

What Drives Eleme Is Beyond Eleme


What Drives Eleme is Beyond Eleme

Depending on the level of one’s "intellectual" achievements, he should know that whatever his religious inclination, if he be steadfast, he ought to transcend from primary level of belief to the advanced level of knowingness. The journey to consciously developing a purity of creative heart calls for the highest ideal in man as it reflects in his daily life. In the elevated state of perception and existence, which only true religion offers, man should be progressively anchoring tolerance, dissolving attachments to material things and replacing love where anger and hatred previously held sway. When these realizations are absent, then such individual is not religious but a blind-aggressive-fanatic in the endless universe.

 

Besides, the nature of activities or endeavours a people delve into tells more about the expectations of that people. Are Politics, Church, School really businesses? If yes how lucrative are they? This is where so many got it wrong in Eleme. Methinks, one can only dabble into these activities as social services and not profit making ventures. When you expect to make profits from social services like politics, church, and school you end up being frustrated or becoming a celebrated crook. Besides, no one has ever become rich by being a mere salary earner. Although, the system do not favour us, we are responsible for the situation we find ourselves. Establishing a fertilizer plant, petroleum refinery, or any giant manufacturing concerns are capital intensive project, usually beyond the financial strength of a single individual. Can two or more Eleme indigenes come together to finance such a project? Definitely, not. Why? Your guess is as good as mine.

ELEME, SPEAK OUT


Eleme, Speak Out


Are Eleme People really singing their problems loud and clear enough? Are they actually telling the world their sufferings, deprivations, and other challenges? Speaking out or dramatizing a problem through writings, speeches, acts, etc. is a sure way of bringing same to the forefront. What many term “mere song” has proved to be an effective strategy for dismantling barriers and solving problems.

 

All over the world organized people have sang their problems into solutions. Repeated song is a powerful weapon. The blacks in former Apartheid South Africa dismantled the bricks of oppression through the instrumentality of “song”. They attracted the attention of the international community by effective songs – music, dance-drama, literature, protest and so on to drag home their demands. They were consistent, focused and determined to be liberated and they attained that lofty goal.

 

The economic, social, environmental and health situations in Eleme should be of concern to the average Eleme man and woman, boy and girl. The armies of unemployed youths on our streets, lack of infrastructural facilities, the social decay in the land, the environmental challenges, rising health issues, the rapidly decreasing populations are enough to propel us to saturate the mass media (print and electronics), social media and the entire universe with the “Eleme Song” when well-defined and articulated.

 

People are attracted by what they see and/or hear. Our oppressors want to extinct us by inflicting pains and environmental atrocity on us and hiding our predicaments from the world. Let us expose their evils by speaking out. Help only comes to those who seek it! We cannot fight our oppressors because they have the wherewithal to exterminate us. But, with help of our immediate and remote neighbours and the international community, we can appeal to their conscience and ask for a better deal. Besides, if telling the world our ordeal is song let us sing on. Speaking out is no sin, telling your story is no crime, and narrating your experiences is no hate speech. Fear not, be courageous, and be strong!

 

In fact, one of the responses to my write up “Facilities of Death” on the wall of Nneka that has attracted my interest and that should be of great concern to the leaders of Eleme is that of Ibim Semenitari who wrote, “Many years ago while in Tell magazine, I did a story on the situation in Eleme and some other impacted communities. The story was borne out of research conducted by my late uncle Prof Difini Datubo Brown. He was a professor of plastic surgery and long before reparative surgeries for cleft upper lips and other congenital malformations became known he had done a lot of these at UPTH and he discovered that most of his patients who came in with congenital malformations were from communities with high levels of pollution. He went ahead and took samples from Eleme, then NAFCON was in full operation and his findings were troubling”.  

 

Are you aware that most of Eleme people today have one congenital challenge or the other? Are you also aware that while the populations of other ethnic nationalities are increasing ours is declining? Let us all sing the “Eleme Song” until things change for better.  

 

Semenitari concluded by calling on “Corporations and agencies in the Niger Delta … to look critically at the environment and issues around the health of our people. Truly Eleme has taken a lot of beating”.

 

 A friend of Eleme singing the “Eleme Song” (if you like) while, Eleme people watch in fear and silence, expecting miracle. It is the repeated song of the Hebrews, cry of the oppressed Israelites, which moved God to raise Moses to lead them out of Egypt, not fear and silence. Moses started fighting for the Hebrews long before God supported him with miracles. Every Eleme person is a child of miracle. Let us take the first step and God will do the rest. Today, the Ibos are singing the Biafra Song, the Yoruba are singing the Oduduwa Song, and the Hausas are singing the Arewa Song. The Ijaws are drumming for Niger Delta Republic? Even the Ogonis are asking for Ogoni Nation. Where is Eleme? What is the Eleme Song? Let us stop being one of the crowds and be what God wants us to be.

 

The Queen of Great Britain and Ireland Express of India usurped our independence from us on 19th and 20th of April, 1898 with the promise to offer us protection which they never did but rather turned around to fraudulently mortgaged us without our consent to Nigeria that is not only robbing us of our wealth but decimating us. What do we want from Nigeria? Say it, write it, act it! The world is listening to true cries. The universe has ways of responding to true complains.     

 

There are people outside Eleme who are willing to sing the “Eleme Song” more than we do now because we are suffering from overdose of our problems. These friends and well-wishers of Eleme are only waiting for us to start singing and they will join. What are we waiting for? It is time to speak out! What do Eleme want from Nigeria that British married her illegally to?




Tuesday 5 September 2017

An Open Letter To Thomas Sankara


AN OPEN LETTER TO THOMAS SANKARA


This open letter to late Captain Thomas Sankara was originally published on page 4 of the Sunday Standard Newspaper, Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria on May 15, 1988 by M. O. Ollorwi. Enjoy the article.

 

Could you remember offhand the very night I told you to be careful in your selection of enemies? Though I know a man cannot be careful in his choice of enemies, especially on a planet and in a continent where everything is black, bleak and stone dark. I still feel you should try. Now, you are no more. My eyes cannot see you as my Sankara, a young, energetic and brave Africanist whose attempt to galvanize his people and promote African cultures and values attracted more foes than friends. Somehow, I feel that your spirit and blood (your stand on Africa for Africans) like that of late brave African heroes (Patrick Lumumba, Dr. Nkwame Nkrumah, General Murtala Mohammed, Comrade Samora Michel, etc.) is beckoning me and true-Africa sons and daughters just because of the very way we love you.

I was much struck with the simplicity of your life-style and sweetness of your manners both in private and public life. Is this a breeding ground for fatal jealousy and terminal hatred, a bleeding continent? In all, you never knew how much and how hard I missed you because you never recognized how much and how well I love you. Now, I keep buying newspapers and magazines to read about you, and to know how the world feels about your untimely transition. It was only yesterday’s dawn that I saw a man flayed and you can hardly believe how much it altered his appearance for the worse. He assassinated you for materialism; leaving me only watching you on televisions and reading about you in newspapers. Now, I fill all the nooks and crannies of my house with your fascinating and inspiring pictures. I adore you, son and blood of Africa.

I know you have encountered a hard, rough life.  Your country was listed among the ten poorest in the world. You love your people more than your own life, even in death. You expressed your efforts to galvanize them; to awaken in them the spirit of self-reliance. But, that wasn’t appreciated, was it? What do you say? We all have red blood in our vein? But, why do we hate good people?

I know you went into the shoes when you perceived your land enslaving itself. What was wrong with that? You lived a poor and contented life and proved a stubborn kind of a person to your pals. This convinced me offhand that you were at your peak, only soon to descend into oblivion. Something good in a man seated in the mangrove mud must be drown by the ocean of wicked guns booming across the continent of death propel by the venom of “gentle” breeze. Were you then in the ocean swimming your life away trying to Africanize?

I forgot to tell you. But, I thought you know. When the wide currents of European Oceans meet with the deadly waves of Arab marines they became too strong a force for the silent Africa to contain. My Sankara, were you in-between these two wall and the blue sea swimming into extinction, while Africa sleeps on?

Things are going from bad to worse, not only for your country but for the whole of Africa. Even the giant of Africa that should be mature and stand shoulder high is now learning to creep. The ship of Africa is unmanned. All the heads are rotten and smelling. Why did you embark on this endless journeying without a word? How is the other side of life, my Sankara? If the needful are prayers, supplications, libations or sacrifices, offer them on our behalf and stand in the gap for us. Questions are not necessary. Your training and experience on earth guaranteed your capability. Intercede for us, my Sankara. Let the gods forgive our insanity, and let our ancestors pardon our violence and smile on us again. This is not too much a request to make of you, my Sankara.  

Just because you are Thomas Sankara, that is why I love and adore you. You possess the courageous and startling qualities of an African leader. A one in a million! The guns helped to build you up; to make you a super-black-leader, and you have to follow that route according to the scriptures of the gun.

Now, to you Death! Death! Oh, Death! How wicked are you to snatch life out of my Sankara? Why did you snatch him from me at the time I needed him most? Still in my mind, fresh is how you snatched life out of Murtala Mohammed, Patrick Lumumba, Comrade Samora Michel, etc. Oh! What Death! What more can I say, write, or do about you?

Lest I forget, it was just this morning I woke up from bed to see four Burkinabes at the corridor of my house. When I confronted them with questions as to why they were standing there so early, I was made to understand that they had come to negotiate for the purchase of my crude oil. But, Sankara, I was not only afraid to sell my crude oil to your country on credit but was mindful of the fact that my crude oil, the oil of blacks would eventually end up in the hands of our enemy – Botha and his associates.

I hope you would not be embarrassed by mere mention of that? You know if you were still alive and captaining the Ship of the Burkinabes, my response would have been positive. I won’t have had a second thought even though your country has no refinery. This is because I trust you.

A friend of your – because I know you didn’t count him your enemy – arrived Nigeria recently on what is called “State Visit” and you would hardly believe the way and manner with which he was received. Only a handful of Nigerians went out to welcome him with folded arms and closed hearts, knowing quite well that he is a green snake under green grass.

Captain Thomas Sankara, I love you more than ever now. This is true because I took you for granted when you were alive. Your name and popularity will never be erased from the sand of African history. And your blood will ever remain fresh to ask for justice not for yourself but for the “poverty ravaged Burkinabes whose dreams of hope renewal stands truncated”.

But, O God, I miss him bad. I miss my Sankara. What a strange thing is life and man in Africa? Are we ungovernable even with good leaders? Why African lights are always put off at dawn when the people are very hopeful?

Come home, my Sankara, my legs are being uprooted from the ground. My head aches. My heart is burning rapidly. My breasts can no longer support my children. There is hunger in the land. There is suffering everywhere. Infectious diseases and poverty are decimating my people. Where is holy water? Is the anointing oil better, instead? What happen to the precious and delicious breasts of Africa? Or, the fresh palm wine from African swamplands?  Which do I go for now to facilitate our cultural revival and value reorientation and save Africa?  Can any mortal present himself at the door of the world where you now reside? Won’t the doors be shut in the face? The authority to knock down the shutters is only with the ancestors? But, are African ancestors there at all? Are our gods dead or only silent? Who destroyed our shrines and polluted our altars? God! Oh, God!!  

It has happened, death being most inevitable. So let it be with Captain Thomas Sankara, the noble leader.

May your family and all your fans do kindly accept my profound sympathy which is all I can offer now.

It is me, an African, a friend of yours who now is a cool guy.  

M. O. Ollorwi     

                     

Tuesday 22 August 2017

ELEME LANGUAGE IS THE KEY


A WELCOME ADDRESS PRESENTED BY CHIEF OSARO OLLORWI, CHAIRMAN OF ELEME LANGUAGE CENTER AT THE OCCASION OF THE LAUNCHING/PRESENTATION OF THE BOOK TITLED “NSà ELOI RÔ AT THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY HALL, ELEME LOCAL GOVERNMENT COUNCIL, OGALE ON FRIDAY, 18TH AUGUST, 2017

 
 
1.     The Chairman of this Historic Occasion, Dr. Princewill Obele, Medical Director/CEO Sonabel Medical Center

2.     The Special Guest of Honour, Opusenibo Hart Dagogo, Permanent Secretary Rivers State Ministry of Education

3.     Royal Father of the Day, HRM King (dr.) Samuel O. Ejire, JP,  Ͻnε Eleme X

4.     Her Majesty, Ԑmεrε Evelyn Ada Gokpa, Ԑmεrε Ͻwa Eleme  

5.     Spiritual Father of the Day, Archbishop, Moses O. Kattey, PhD, G. O. Commonwealth Covenant Church International 

6.     The Chief Launcher, HRH Ԑmεrε Appolus Chu, Ԑgbεrε Ԑmεrε Okori 1, Eleme

7.     The Chief Host, Chief Hon. Obarilormate Ollor, JP, CTC Chairman, Eleme LGA

8.     The President-General, O-E’la Obor Eleme, Elder Israel Gomba-Abbey

9.     Distinguished Ladies  & Gentlemen

10.                        All Protocol Observed.

 

On behalf of the Eleme Language Center, I heartily welcome you all to the launching/presentation of the Book titled, “NSà ELOI RÔ. It is indeed a great honour that your presence has bestowed on this occasion.

The need to show great concern for the teaching, learning, and preservation of the Eleme Language can be appreciated when we realized that the language is at the verge of extinction. Just like any other challenge of life, the government alone cannot contain the continual drift of the Eleme Language towards total extinction, especially when it is an established fact that corruption and bureaucracy slows down government’s good intentions and efforts in Nigeria. This is why government efforts at encouraging the teaching and learning of Eleme Language should be complemented by all of us.

The Book


The book we are launching today is the outcome of a painstaking research conducted by Eleme Research Foundation last year. We made it clear then that, “The study is required to create awareness and advocate the participation of Eleme people in the teaching and learning of Eleme Language using the four language learning skills of Speaking, Listening, Reading and Writing”. Our primary target is to advance the teaching and learning of Eleme Language in Schools in Eleme.

Generally, the aims of the new 9–Year Basic Education Curriculum (BEC) is to inculcate in children good behaviours, moral values, fear of God, respect for the rights of others, ability to obey rules and regulations and to live in harmony with others.   The Book Nsã Eloi Rã contains fourteen (14) stories and each of the stories is written to inculcate moral disciplines; each of the stories have a peculiar lesson to teach, a peculiar message to deliver to the reading public, the children in school and even the adult that is learning Eleme Language.

 

The stories are designed to inform, educate, and entertain. Its language is simple and easy to read and understand. At the end of every Chapter, the reader is expected to explain the lessons learnt and carryout some class activities tagged, “Ogũrũ Enu Rε Ԑnaa Ebo Kalasi” and answer the questions that follow known as “Edoεgua”. Nsã Eloi Rã is written for those interested in learning Eleme Language. 

Whither Eleme Languge?


Most people would rather want to believe that Eleme Language is not a priority problem of the Eleme People. We, in Eleme Language Center do not agree. Whither Eleme Language, if I may ask? Eleme Language is dying. Eleme Language might be lost forever, if prompt conservation actions are not taken NOW. A very high proportion of children of Eleme extraction cannot speak or write fluent Eleme today. For most Eleme parents English Language is the prestige language they wish their children to acquire and any education that did not lead to its early acquisition is often regarded as second best, and even an attempt to hold back Eleme from advancement.

Eleme is recognized as one of the 250 ethnic nationalities in Nigeria. The Eleme Language is featured at number 96 of the four hundred (400) languages recorded in the book “Studies in Nigeria Languages”. The Eleme Language Center in collaboration with the Rivers State Readers Project with technical support of the Language Development Center of the Nigeria Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC), Abuja developed and secured the approval for the Orthography of Eleme Language as published in the ORTHOGRAPHIES OF NIGERIAN LANGUAGES MANUAL X, 2011. What this means is that the Eleme Language has been approved as one of the Nigerian Languages. The Eleme Language Curricula have also passed through the processes of writing, review, and assessment. The Federal Government had done its part, it is our responsibility as owners of the language to produce and distribute the Curricula respectively. It is also our duty to produce the Eleme Phonology, write necessary books based on the curricula, train the required quality of teachers to teach the language and deploy them to schools.

Language is an important medium for the preservation and promotion of culture of a people. People without language are people without culture; people without language are people without history; people without language are people living on borrowed present and lost future; anybody can claim you and swallow you.

The disturbing general practice in Eleme today is to introduce English Language as medium of instruction in the nursery and primary schools much earlier than necessary. Apart from English, other Nigerian Languages including Ibo, Hausa, Yoruba and Efik have become prestige languages for urban-dwelling Elemes. Eleme mothers now communicate with their children in Pidgin English rather than Eleme Language. This is at the expense of the Mother Tongue – Eleme Language. Churches in Eleme also prefer to conduct their services and preach their Sermons in English, Ibo, Efik, Ogoni and other languages rather than Eleme Language. 

Similarly, the colonizing industrialization and modernization have painfully tore Eleme people from established cultural norms and values. Eleme Fathers’ inability to preserve, protect, and promote Eleme Language is also a disturbing factor. Today, there is hardly any family in Eleme without children born of women married from outside Eleme, notably, Efik, Igbo and Ogoni speaking origin. Some Eleme people now look at Eleme Language with disdain. The natural consequence of all these unintended developments is rapid alienation to the roots of the Eleme society; the rape of Eleme traditional values, and the promotion of cultural dislocation in Eleme.

Language, as we all know, is a very important component in a people’s culture and tradition, yet matters got to a pitiable pitch where the Eleme man or woman is frightened, cowed down browbeat on and threatened with regards to speaking the Eleme Language in public places and government offices. Is it not disheartening and dishonorable to witness Eleme Legislative House conducts house businesses in English Language?

Ladies and Gentlemen, extinction is a phenomenon that normally takes place without notice. When species of wildlife is at the verge of extinction, only a handful of people with a fecund foresight will be aware of the dangerous trend and will raise the salvation alarm of immediate rescue and conservation of the particular animal species. It will interest us to know that a language is said to be at the verge of extinction when the following occur:

1.     When there are no outstanding scholars of the language.

2.     When the language is not taught in the school.

3.     When the language cannot boast of a written form daily, i.e. in the form of newspapers and magazines.

4.     When the general means of mass communication e.g. radio and television despise using the language.

5.     When the younger generations have a hyper-hatred for the speaking of the language.

People of Eleme and Friends of Eleme, when the above barometers are applied to Eleme Language, the conclusion are clear. Please, think about this! To the best of my knowledge, we lack enterprising scholars of Eleme Language. Kindergartens, primary schools and post-primary schools in Eleme do not offer Eleme Language as a subject and Eleme Language is not a Diploma or Degree Programme of any tertiary institution in Nigeria. Radio and Television Stations in Rivers State in particular and Nigeria in general do not cast their news and programmes in Eleme Language. Worse still, is the glaring enslaved mentality of our younger generation that hates the indigenous Eleme Language. As for the music world, English, Ghana, Congo, Igbo and even Ogoni records remained favoured amongst spineless and culturally dislocated Eleme youths.

The results include lack of respect for local traditions, abuse of culture, disregard for values and a widening gap between the world of school and Eleme heritage.

All hopes are not lost. The Eleme Language deserves the highest protection possible. To promote the teaching and learning of Eleme Language, action has to be multi-sector involving all stakeholders. Government must show political commitment to promote conservation awareness, Social mobilization is very important, followed by action. Beyond generating awareness, the Eleme Local Government should improve commitment to the teaching and learning of Eleme Language; develop strategies for support of independent studies; seek out appropriate NGOs/CBOs partners, build their capacity through training; create NGOs/COBs Resources Centre; strengthen strategic planning for the teaching and learning of Eleme Language and regularly update the partner’s data base.

As directed by the Eleme Local Government recently, the Eleme Language should be firmly adopted as a medium of instruction throughout pre-primary and primary schools in Elemeland. This will ensure the survival of the language in the midst of 512 competing Nigerian Languages. The Eleme Legislative Assembly when properly constituted should as a matter of priority take a step further by enacting appropriate legislation making the teaching and learning of Eleme Language compulsory in all Pre-Primary, Primary and Junior Secondary Schools in Elemeland.

The Eleme Local Government, corporate organizations operating in Eleme and philanthropic Individuals should be patriotic enough to sponsor National Eleme Language Competition quarterly, biannually or annually. This can take the form of Debate and/or Essay Competition among Nursery, Primary and Junior Secondary Schools in Eleme and even among Eleme Students in Tertiary Institutions.

Inter-and Intra-Community Eleme Language Competition can also be encouraged and appropriate prizes awarded to promote the language. Parents should make it a point of duty to communicate with their children and wards in Eleme Language from birth. The Eleme Elite should religiously stop being ashamed of Eleme Language. Speak Eleme language anywhere, everywhere and anytime you meet your kindred. Be proud of Eleme Language. Your Language is you. It is Eleme Language that made you thick, unique and special. Eleme Language made you who you are, what you are. That Eleme standout in the crowd as an ethic nationality is our language. If we lose our language, we become a forgotten people.

Finally, let us individually and collectively, join the Eleme Language Center. Let us resolve to dedicate ourselves, our efforts, our money and other vital resources to the promotion of Eleme Language.

Ladies and Gentlemen, there could have been no book launch today without the encouragement of all people here present. I feel highly honored at the turn out. As earlier pointed out, the unique identity of a people remains their language and culture. Language is the medium through which culture is communicated and preserved from generation to generation. We should come together, cherish our language and thereby carve a niche for Eleme in the society.

The quality of people here speaks volumes. You are welcome.

Thank you all and God bless.

Chief Osaro Ollorwi

Chairman, Eleme Language Center/

Author Nsã Eloi Rã
 
 
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