Okey Ndibe teaches literature and fiction at Trinity College, Connecticut in the United States of America. But the writer is better known in Nigeria by his countrymen as the quintessential columnist who writes with anger, week in week out from his United States base. This for Ndibe is the only way to keep in touch and be involved in the struggle to save Nigeria. Without any doubt, after teaching which gives the columnist the most pleasure, writing comes next. Although Ndibe has enjoyed a robust journalism career in the US, his writing career actually began in Nigeria. Today, the writer has a rich collection of works that go beyond journalistic writing. They include Arrow Of Rain, his first major work of fiction and his yet-to-be completed memoir, My Biafran Eyes. In fact, the new work is stretching the author who appears quite excited about joining the many voices associated with the Nigerian Civil War. So far, Ndibe has conducted series of interviews with some witnesses and visited numerous important scenes including Yola, his birth place, in search of new perspectives to the old story. He spoke with SYLVESTER ASOYA on issues ranging from the activities of the present and past administrations to the exodus of Nigeria’s best brains, the problem of leadership, his new book and the state of Nigerian literature
•Okey Ndibe.Q: You have been in Nigeria for quite some time now. What are you actually up to this time around?A: I am here partly because I make a point to visit Nigeria, at least once in a year, usually during the summer when I am on vacation from teaching. But more specifically, because I am working on a book, a memoir on my life as a child during the Biafran War. So, as part of the research, I went to Yola in Adamawa State where I was born and I interviewed the Lamido of Adamawa who, in 1967, actually saved my father from a mob that was about to kill him and a few other colleagues at the post office. My father worked with the Postal Service, P and T, at the time. So, research for that book which is going to be both about Biafra and about growing up in Nigeria as a young person is certainly going on.
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Q: I met you some years ago as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Lagos. Now, you are back to the United States as a full time teacher. How would you describe your life since then?
A: When I came as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Lagos, I was a member of the editorial board of the Hartford Courant, which is the largest newspaper in the state of Connecticut where I lived and one of the biggest newspapers in the US. So, I was a member of the editorial board when I got the offer from the United States government to come to Nigeria and teach as a Fulbright Scholar. But the newspaper did not want me to leave, so I ended up resigning so I could come and teach in Nigeria. When I returned to the US, I was hired by a liberal arts college called Simons Rock College in Great Barington, Massachusetts where I taught for five years. And just last year I got a position at Trinity College in Connecticut where I teach fiction and literature.
Q: Talking about My Biafran Eyes, your new book that is being expected, what exactly should Nigerians and the reading public expect from you?
A: I think that the Biafran War is the most dramatic and most important convulsion in our national life. It is the most important experience of Nigeria as a nation. Unfortunately, we have not produced a quantum of books that would do justice to the drama and death, and the significance of this experience. And so, I will like to see my book as part of what I hope should be a repertoire of works reflecting on the war. A nation that is not attentive to its historical experience is condemned to blunder from one disaster to another and in a lot of ways, that has been Nigeria’s experience. If you look at what is happening in the Niger Delta today, it is clear that the crisis is a direct result of the incapacity of the Nigerian nation to understand Biafra and to draw proper lessons from Biafra. And so, this, for me, is a contribution in that light. I want to offer, in dramatic but consistently in human terms, and also in anecdotal terms, my experience of Biafra and that of my parents. So, it is going to be a well telling personal experience but one that has implications, not only for Nigerians but for anyone who is interested in such matters.
Q: You were quite critical of the last administration headed by Olusegun Obasanjo. Your criticism came to a climax when you wrote a piece commending Chinua Achebe for rejecting the president’s Commander of the Federal Republic, CFR, one of the highest honours in the land. What is your personal view on Obasanjo and why were you so hard on him?
A: I am going to be mild. Obasanjo was an unmitigated disaster for this country, and that is a mild way to put it. This man inherited a country in deep trouble, a country that required greatness in a leader, that required vision, that required purpose, but what he gave us instead was the puniness, the smallness of his personal drive for self-enrichment; what he gave was an escalation of our problems; what Obasanjo gave us was a profound exercise in hypocrisy, what Obasanjo gave us was to further preside over the degradation of our infrastructure. What Obasanjo gave us deepened the seeds of cynicism in this country and also fertilised corruption in every sector of life. I think that no country deserves what Obasanjo did to Nigeria, and especially a country like Nigeria that has incredible promise but whose promise has been consistently undermined by its criminally-minded leadership. And I want to emphasise that this is not an Obasanjo problem as such, I am just as critical of the man who presumes to be the President today. Yar’Adua is a monumental mistake and this country has blundered from an Obasanjo regime to a Yar’Adua regime that lacks vision and legitimacy.
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Q: Anambra, your home state, has acquired a notoriety that is unparalleled in the entire South-East. How do you feel about the sad stories that emerged from Anambra in the last nine years?
A: Let me say that things are turning around in Anambra in a positive direction. When the Supreme Court gave that very courageous ruling, that Andy Uba could not be the governor of Anambra State, it became a turning point for texture of politics in Anambra State. Having said that, for the past eight years, Anambra State became a theatre where all kinds of ruffians, scoundrels had a free rein and proclaimed themselves political godfathers, proclaimed themselves to be the stakeholders, proclaimed themselves to be the determiners of the direction of state affairs. When you have the common lowest denominator in any society determining the way that things are run, what you are bound to get is dysfunctional society. That was what we had in Anambra State. But I am happy that there is a renaissance. It is not yet where we want it to be. Governor Peter Obi has a lot of challenge, but one thing that goes for him is that we can say that for the first time in a very long time, the man that the people of Anambra freely voted for to be their governor is indeed in control in the state.
A: One could write a text book on what the country should do to reverse what you called the flight of some of the best most talented citizens this country has produced. I think that any country that is hostile to intellectual endeavour, to researchers; any country that holds its most educated citizens in contempt is bound to wallow in backwardness, which is what we have. Above all, I think that our best minds who have taken flight to other countries have to insist that they keep in touch with home. Ideally, we would like our best hands to be here, to help reshape the country but at minimum, those people should make a point of visiting home either once or twice in a year to begin to give the benefit of their experience to their fatherland. One of the things I did, even though I don’t live in Nigeria, was the decision to write a column, a weekly column. There are other things I should have been doing; I could finish other novels that I want to write. So, it takes considerable sacrifice for me to follow the affairs of Nigeria and to write week after week. But it is part of my investment in the bettering of the Nigerian society, that is why I write my column. I also visit this country regularly. This is my second visit this year and I may visit once or twice before the year ends. And these visits symbolise my investment and desire to interact with Nigerians. When I came a few years ago as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Lagos, I took a huge pay cut from my newspaper job to be here because I felt it was important to engage a group of young Nigerians in a classroom and to get them excited about literature. To give a short answer to
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