Showing posts with label Onitsha. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Onitsha. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 6, 2022

Marcelina Ekwutosi Omagie: Celebrating 100 Years of Doing Good

Marcelina Ekwutosi Omagie: Celebrating 100 Years of Doing Good

- By Chief Ingram OSIGWE


When you look at Mrs Marcelina Ekwutosi Omagie aka Nwaezebuona (daughter of a king is precious jewellery ), you don't just see a woman who is one of the rare persons to have lived through a century. No! Her cheerful mien and sharp wits belly her age. Rather, who you see is a beautiful soul, a strong, resilient woman who, every day,  inspires you to endure and overcome every trial and tribulation of life.

Yes, Mrs Omagie is a centenarian. Not many, especially in this part of the world with short life span, are blessed with longevity. But she is. Mrs Omagie will be 100 on April 9. God has been good to her, she enjoys good health and uninterrupted grace in her 100 years on earth.

As mama turns 100, her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren will be rolling out the drums to celebrate a woman whose longevity is seeped in quality of life for according to Martin Luther King Jnr, "the quality, not the longevity, of one's life is what is important"

Though mama has no biological children of her own, she has spent the better part of her 100 years on earth mentoring the young and old and contributing tremendously to the goodness of humanity, growth of the Catholic church and tranquillity of the society.

It is, therefore, no surprise that a plethora of individuals, groups and organisations who have benefited richly from her fountain of love and who see her as a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and great great grandmother will be celebrating Mrs Omagie's 100th birthday 

One of such organisations is the Stella Maris Catholic Church (outstation), Onitsha.

According to snippets from  Mrs Omagie's chequered life history, a time came when she immersed herself in the work and worship of God and then discovered that life and everything therein was all vanities. Mama thus decided to bequeath all she owned, including the land on which Stella Maris Catholic Church now stands, to God and the betterment of mankind.

On the day the church was dedicated, the Catholic Archbishop of Onitsha, Valeria Maduka Okeke declared that even though mama has no biological children all members of the Stella Maris family are her children and would always celebrate her as their matriarch.

This explains the elaborate birthday events the church has lined up for her.

Born on April 9, 1922, in Onitsha, Anambra State, to the family of His Royal Highness, the late Eze Timothy Williams Obiosa Ibuaka and late Catherine Ibuaka from the present-day Delta state, mama, as a kid, spent much of her time in the service of God through membership of various societies in the church including the Block Rosary and Mary League.

This was after her baptism at the Holy Trinity Catholic Church, Onitsha, now Basilica of the Most Holy Catholic church.

Her dedication to the church and things of God was to lead her to insist on becoming a nun.

However, her mother thought otherwise and persuaded her to get married. Thus on December 26th, 1944, mama sacrificed her desire to become a nun for a married life when she tied the knots with Solomon Omagie.

The marriage did not produce children and following a series of challenges arising from that, mama travelled abroad where she combined the work of God with furthering her studies.

In Rome for example, mama served the pope for many years as an altar girl. She was also active in the choir where she was noted for her exceptional appearance in African apparel.

In the field of education, Mrs Marcelina Omagie was one of the pioneer Nigerian lecturers at the then University College, Ibadan, now the University of Ibadan. She was in the employ of the University till 1975 when as a Senior Lecturer,  the then Nigerian leader, General Yakubu Gowon pleaded with her to proceed to the fledgeling University of Maiduguri to help solidify its formation.

The elegant, flowery chapters of mama's life, especially her contributions to the growth of the Catholic faith in Nigeria, will not be complete without mentioning her role in the formation of the Catholic Women Organisation, CWO.

She was one of the Catholic women in Nigeria who in 1964 met and birthed the CWO.

April 9 is indeed a date to keep for mama's birthday will be a celebration of a salutary life well lived and still living in the service of God and humanity.

The commercial city of Onitsha will come alive as all roads will be leading to Stella Maris outstation, Onwugbenu street, GRA, the venue of mama's 100th birthday celebration.

According to organisers of the event- Nneoma Lady Maria Ihionu, Dr Dorathy Ezenwanne and Barr. Lizzy Anyaonu- mass to herald mama's birthday celebration will be officiated by His Grace, Archbishop Valeria Maduka Okeke, the Metropolitan Archbishop of Onitsha.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Nollywood Noisemakers and the Rest of Us




Nollywood Noisemakers and the Rest of Us

~ By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima

It was in the book Nollywood: The Video Phenomenon in Nigeria written by Monsieur Pierre Barrot that he called one of the top players in the contemporary Nigerian film industry a Nollywood Noisemaker. Of course M. Barrot knew what he was talking about when he made that derogatory jest, because he was the French Audio-visual Attaché in Nigeria where he was involved in the development of the local film industry and he could separate the sheep from the goats in Idumota and Onitsha.


Nollywood noisemakers are legion and they are well known for their street brawls over bragging rights for the titular positions in their various guilds and making home videos. Then they went over the moon when UNESCO reported that Nigeria has overtaken Hollywood as the second largest film producer in the world after India’s Bollywood. But the last French Audio-visual Attaché in Nigeria, Monsieur Robert Minangoy laughed at the report and waved it off in dismissal.

How can you compare 485 major films produced by the United States to Nollywood’s 872 home videos? Moreover, the figures were based on a survey done by UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) in 2006. Bollywood made 1,091 feature-length films in 2006 and if you know the stuff and the format of these Indian films, you would be an ignorant fool to compare them to the cheap home videos in Nollywood.

99% of Nollywood videos cannot be screened at any major film festival, cinema and on TV in America or Europe, because the quality is amateurish and Nollywood movie makers have pirated American and European songs and music in their home videos. In fact, it is common to hear complete tracks of Céline Dion or Beyoncé Knowles in many Nollywood movies and they violated these copyrights with impunity.




Nollywood has crashed since the UNESCO report was published and the current statistics will send that report into the waste bin, because majority of the prolific Nollywood producers are broke and in fact, many of them complained of hunger on TV when they were protesting against piracy on the streets of Lagos. They were pointing accusing fingers at the famous Alaba International Market in Lagos where traders are duplicating copies of both Nigerian and foreign movies and hawking them on the streets like cheap peanuts..
Only the well-fed producers are still active and in fact, they are not making up to half of the 872 home videos recorded in 2006.

Nollywood noisemakers can even claim that Nigeria is the largest producer of home video movies in the world, but they must tackle the problem of the poor quality of their productions. If Nigerians want to celebrate a UNESCO Report on being the second largest producer of B movies in the world, they can do so shamelessly, but they are only celebrating their mediocrity and continue to be the laughing stock of Hollywood and Bollywood. It is ridiculous for Nigeria to boast of making over 872 movies annually, but not a single one has even qualified for screening at the Cannes Film Festival and most of them cannot make the box office in America!
How many Nollywood movies have been shown in cinemas?

What we should be proud of is quality and not quantity.

You must improve and perfect your craft and art, no matter the format of the Media you are using.

Quality has no substitute.


HIGHLY RECOMMENDED BOOKS ON NOLLYWOOD:

Nollywood
Nollywood: The Video Phenomenon in Nigeria

Viewing African Cinema in the Twenty-First Century: Art Films and the Nollywood Video Revolution






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