Celebrating the Life and Time of Hon. Emma Osigwe

Celebrating the Life and Time of Hon. Emma Osigwe

- By Ingram Osigwe

According to Abraham Lincoln,"in the end, it is not the years in your life that counts, it is the life in your years" 

The above underpins the life trajectory of the late Hon. Emmanuel Osigwe.

Born 88 years ago in Umuopia, Akokwa, Ideato North local government area of Imo, the late Osigwe was an educationist who encouraged many young people to embrace education.

Not only did he preach the gospel of education through out Akokwa, as a headmaster, he was instrumental to the establishment of a primary school at his immediate community, Umuopia.

As a bridge-builder, he not only ensured that Akokwa kids got quality education, he also collaborated with his friend and traditional ruler of the neighbouring Umuchu in Aguata LGA Anambra State , HRH Igwe Ignatius Offorbuike( Ezeora)of blessed memory   to ensure that many got admitted to Umuchu High school.

In the same manner, it was through his instrumentality and friendship with the late Umuchu monarch that several Akokwa indigenes got employed as teachers in Anambra State.

A one-time councillor in Ideato North local government, the late Hon. Osigwe was a stickler for discipline and honesty, virtues he wore like a garb through out his 88 years on earth.

He was indeed an embodiment of the virtues of honesty and integrity.

As a political leader, he held tightly, stubbornly to these virtues and applied them to his everyday conduct.

For example, piqued by the corruption that oozed from the Ideato North local government then, Hon. Osigwe had petitioned the then Imo state Military Administrator over the frivolous spending of the council Chairman, a situation that was to cost him his position as councillor, salaries and comfort.

As a politician and community, Hon Osigwe was a sincerely altruistic person, never known with no attachment to material things. He served his people selflessly, attracting development to them.

He was contented with his pension and never longed for ostentatious, ill acquired wealth. Sadly, the country he served meritoriously denied his pension to the end.

As a loving husband and father,Hon.Osigwe greatly brought his virtues and philosophies of life to bear on his household. No wonder all his children turned out shining stars in their various areas of endavour.

Right from their young age, the late Hon. Osigwe had  ensured that all his children imbibed the value of education.

For example, they all grew up to see the massive library in the house which he got International Organisations to equip with books.

He would later strive to ensure that all the kids got quality education up to university level.

Emma was born when education had started to make meaning to Akokwa people. He was bracing up for the white man’s education when his father Osigwe, died in December 1940. Emma was just eight years old.

Together, his most senior brother Celestine, and their mother Nwanebe saw him through primary education. The young Emma obtained the then respected Standard Six Certificate and had a stint in teaching before proceeding to a Teachers Training.

Born in 1932, the late Hon. Osigwe was trained as a teacher at Azaraegbelu Teachers Training College where he obtained grade- three teacher's certificate  and then became a full fledged teacher.

He later did a required one year course in Education and became a grade- one teacher(an equivalent of today's NCE)

His last posting was to Community Secondary School, Osina in Ideato North, Imo State from where he meritoriously retired in 1997.

Hon. Emma Osigwe spent his retirement life farming (on a higher scale), reading and writing as well as in rendering some humanitarian services.

His zeal for selfless community service was unwavering. For example, on retirement in 1997, Emma Osigwe took it upon himself to continue to check the devastating erosion from central school (near his house) to Ama-Agba junction.

To crown it all, in 2011, Emma used both his Federal and State Pension  to construct deep gutters on both sides of the said road up to a point.

The news of this uncommon patriotic act got to the leadership of the Umuopia Development Union of the time. The President- General then, late Chief (Sir) Anthony C. Okpara (Aputaifeadi) approached the Opia of Umuopia, Eze (Dr) Don Opurozor who approved of a well-worded letter of commendation to this icon.

A consumate family man, In 1965, Emma met his heartthrob, a fashion- designer of all-time, late Mrs Ifeoma Osigwe (nee Munonye- Asiegbu) from Umuojii Umukegwu- Akokwa. The union was blessed with five surviving children- all with family.

A strong- willed personity, few heart rending occurances in his later life were to directly tugged at Emma's heart.

These were the death, almost in quick succession of  two of his children- both science graduates- and then that of his dear wife after a protracted illness few years later.

Emma succumbed to the vagaries of old age on February 26, 2021 and was immediately buried in accordance with his last wishes.

Nollywood and the Image of Nigeria in the Global Village

Nollywood and the Image of Nigeria in the Global Village

(Written in 2006 for an African American magazine)

We all know that action speaks louder than word and seeing is believing.  And nobody can deny this fact of life.

The history of the film industry in Nigeria did not start with the emergence of Nollywood as the Nigerian movies have been dubbed by the rest of the world and now celebrated as the third largest film industry in the world after American Hollywood and Indian Bollywood. 

“The world has continued to marvel at how Nigerians "manufacture" and "fabricate" scores of movies in a week.  It is reported that but for India, Nigeria produces more movies in quantitative terms than any other country in the world.”

~~ Tayo Aderinokun, Managing Director, Guaranty Trust Bank

Glover Memorial Hall was the venue of the first film to be shown in Nigeria in August, 1903 and this was done by the ruling colonial office of the British Empire that went on to show primarily educational clips, features and documentary reports of the royal trips to Nigeria and other colonies, English football matches, Westminster Parliamentary debates and other films of little or no value to the culture of Nigeria. And the cinema houses that soon showed up all over the popular cities in Nigeria from Lagos to Ibadan to Kano also showed Western films and later Indian films. But it is important to note that "Sanders of the River" by Edgar Rice Buroughs made in 1935 had some unique parts shot in Nigeria. The film featured the first world class Nigerian actor Orlando Martins (1899 – 1985) and was the first film to put the motion picture image of Nigeria on the map of the world.

Then Nigerian filmmakers such as Adamu Halilu, Mallam Brendan Shehu, Dr. Ola Balogun, Chief Eddie Ugbomah, the late Chief Hubert Ogunde and Francis Oladele produced classic films on celluloid since 1968 and Nigerian films were also competing among the foreign ones in the cinemas until the Indigenization Decree of 1972 transferred the ownership of over 300 cinema houses in the country from their foreign proprietors to Nigerians who did not have the expertise and capital to run them successfully and the economic depression of the late 1980s and the mass importation of Video Cassette Players worsened the situation as cinema houses lost the patronage of cinema goers who now preferred to buy the cheaper pirated films in video cassettes and watch them in the safer and more comfortable privacy of their homes. The popularity of home videos also affected the stage performances of plays by Nigerian playwrights as the numbers of people going to the theatres and town halls to watch live plays began to reduce. As the saying goes that necessity is the mother of invention, the challenges of survival for Nigerian theatre arts practitioners prompted them to dare the production of their plays in home videos. The Yorubas who were always the pioneers of the popular street theatre were also the pioneers of the home movies industry with “Aje Ni Iya Mi” by the late Isola Ogunsola who employed an Ibo man Nnebue of Nek Video Links to produce the video.  And Nnebue seeing the great opportunity went on to produce the best selling “Living in Bondage 1 and 2” in 1992 before others joined the bandwagon.  And now Nigerian movies have taken over TV screens all over Africa from Anglophone countries to the Francophone countries and over 20 million people watch Nigerian movies of which over 15 million are within Nigeria and the rest among the over 7 million Nigerians living in different parts of the world and most of them are in America, Western Europe, Asia and Australia. We are now living witnesses of the emergence of the phenomenon called Nollywood.

Over 50 movie titles are released weekly in Nollywood and attracting the attention of the rest of the world and Nollywood has become the picture of the Nigerian culture in the eyes of the world. Therefore, we must address the importance, relevance and significance of Nollywood as the image of Nigeria. As Dr. Odia Ofeimum stated in “In Defence of the Films We Have Made” in his keynote address at the second National Film Festival, 27 November 2003 and I quote:  

“Powered by its home-grown sense which has been the source of its viability, it was primed to travel and to breach porous borders. Nigerians travel a lot and their video films have been traveling with them. Due to the surprise of self-recognition in our stories or the manner in which Nigerians tell them, other people have connected with the video films. So it was not enough to overcome the Nigerian market place. Through saturation marketing, Nigerian home-video mania crossed the borders even beyond the necessities of trade. Once the barn-storm-rating of the video camera overtook the cinema house, and by-passed its camp-following of foreign dominated distribution networks, it began to turn into a super-asset in a makeshift revolution that only those who are thoroughly impervious to social promptings have been able to ignore. The rest of the world may not have wanted to pay attention.”

(http://www.westafricareview.com/issue5/ofeimun.htm).

Therefore, I believe the next stage of the sustainable development of the Nigerian film industry is the management of the aesthetics and ethics of the Art and Craft to portray a positive image of Nigeria to the rest of the world.

The desperation for quick profits and short-cuts to fame has made both the majority of Nigerian filmmakers and their domineering marketers to disregard the international standards of filmmaking as they rush to make over 50 movies weekly and careless about the content and context of the script and the craft. Thus making Nigerian movies to be known more for the quantity than the quality and millions of viewers have complained about the horrors of juju, lawlessness and bribery and corruption of the Nigerian public officials and others shown in most of the movies. Millions of foreigners have been shown the images of gawky Nigerian police officers collecting bribes at police check-points and engaged in other sharp practices and these negative images have only worsened the bad image of the Nigerian Police and of Nigeria as one of the most corrupt countries in the wrong. And this is the irony of the popularity of Nollywood. Because, as at present Nollywood is like a trailer overloaded with goods on the express way being driven by a desperate man without a driver's license and the others on the vehicle are struggling to correct the driver or even take over the steering from him. So, people are gasping and moping in awe and fear at the daredevil stunts of the vehicle and praying it does not crash. But is this the true picture of Nigeria?

No! 

We must tell the true stories of Nigeria to the rest of the world.

The stories of our great heroes and heroines or “sheros” like Queen Amina, Emotan, Moremi, Madam Tinubu and the contemporary role models such as Dr. Dora Akunyili, Hajia Sambo and others.   

Nollywood has become synonymous with the ingenuity of the smart Nigerian as Nigerians never give up in their pursuit of their goals to catch up with the leaders in whatever field of human enterprise they are interested in all over the world.  But Nollywood should not ape Hollywood or Bollywood.  Nollywood should be the mirror of Nigeria from the past to the present and the future.  Therefore, Nollywood actors and actresses should not be competing to master who can fake the American Yankee accent or Cockney accent and should not be apes of Hollywood or Bollywood stars.

Nollywood should be proudly Nigerian, heart and soul.  

Nigerian filmmakers should work in cooperation and support and pool their resources together to make Nigerian films that should be as good as any of the best films in the world. We should no longer be ridiculed for the common B-rated movies flooding the home videos rental shops and corners of the streets.  We have had enough of the same rehashed stories with the same plots and badly produced too.  We have had enough quantity without quality. Because, we must do our homework before we can produce excellent films that we can show at the Cannes and qualify to be nominated for the Oscars and not turned down again for poor standards.

We have a vehicle for the global village and we have already succeeded in impressing the rest of the world.  So, we can now decide what our vehicle should convey and show to the whole world.

The world should see the hardworking Nigerian widow, who is the mother of six children as she wakes up at 4 am in Lagos and leaves for the far away Mile 12 market to trade and earn the means of livelihood.

Why?

She is doing it for the upbringing of her fatherless children she must send to school and pay their school fees, buy school uniform and textbooks and feed and clothe them and pay their medical bills whenever they fall ill.

The world should see the honest to God Nigerian police officers as they work day and night and they shun all temptations of bribes.

The world should see the hard working Nigerian labourers toiling daily to make ends meet.

The world should see the diligent Nigerian pupils walking miles to go to school and later to the farms, streams, and back to their.homes to do the chores.

The world should see the work-in-progress of proud Nigerians at work and at home doing their best in cooperation and support for the government in the nation building of a new Nigeria in the leadership of Africa in the comity of nations in the new millennium.

 

These are the true illustrations that our movies should portray and show to the rest of the world and let us be proud of Nigeria. 

- By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,

Novemeber 5, 2006.

Leader McCarthy's Statement on President Biden's Afghanistan Speech

Leader McCarthy's Statement on President Biden's Afghanistan Speech

August 16, 2021.

Washington, D.C. – House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (CA-23) released the following statement following President Biden's address to the nation on Afghanistan:

“After six days of silence, President Biden finally addressed the worst foreign policy disaster in decades. His remarks did not answer any questions about the disastrous troop withdrawal that has failed to protect American citizens, put thousands of American troops in harm's way, and heightened the threat of terrorism around the world. But President Biden is right about one thing: the buck stops with him. He owes the American people a cohesive plan to get every American out of Afghanistan immediately and safely, target terrorists wherever they seek refuge, and secure our border.

“President Biden’s poor judgment produced the worst possible outcome in Afghanistan in only a matter of weeks. He has done long-term damage to America's credibility and our capabilities. The American people, and especially our troops who have sacrificed so much, deserve more than this catastrophic leadership and empty words.”

First Bollywood Film Adaptation of a Nigerian Novel: Sin is a Puppy that Follows You Home

First Bollywood Film Adaptation of a Nigerian Novel: Sin is a Puppy that Follows You Home

First Bollywood Film Adaptation of a Nigerian Novel: Sin is a Puppy that Follows You Home

Only a couple of the Hausa novels have been translated into English. “Sin is a Puppy that Follows You Home” was translated by Indian publishers and subsequently made into a Bollywood movie. The book is available on amazon.com, which describes it as “an Islamic soap opera complete with polygamous households, virtuous women, scheming harlots, and black magic.” Author Balaraba Ramat Yakubu, a veteran founder of the movement, was herself a child bride twice, after her first husband returned her to her family, and she only learned to read and write as an adult. https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-ap-top-news-religion-international-news-marriage-3fc0caa13a8646908219306c3e08225b

###

Sin is a Puppy That Follows You Home: Publishers: Blaft, 

126 pages.

Dear reader, I was rather charmed by it. Comparing the plot to Ekta Kapoor’s soaps or Karan Johar’s family dramas misrepresents the scale of the story because, for all the theatrics indulged in it, the plot is uncompromisingly stark about how patriarchy, society and religion interfere in women’s desires and autonomy. I found far more resonances with the pragmatic tragedies of Mahasweta Devi’s stories, or the deceptively mundane female worlds of Ismat Chughtai’s work. Women tear each other down, draw dramatic lines between sluttiness and respectability, rely on brothers and extended family while suffering spousal abuse and abandonment. Romance and courtship are abbreviated to a few fast-moving dialogues because the author wants to spend time on the minutiae of how a selfish second wife neglects her kitchen duties. Yakubu’s matriarchal lead Rabi—with her culinary enterprise born of desperation, her baffled rage at her husband’s mistress, her fierce determination to promote her children—is soul sister to Parvati from Kiran Nagarkar’s Ravan and Eddie. Rabi’s daughter Saudatu—dignified, dutiful, happily desirous—resembles Sita in her deference to narrative fiat.

The main reason I would recommend reading this book is because of how much it made me feel at home. It is not heartwarming in the treacly manner of popular films, but instead, like the family histories your aunties tell you, full of compromises and small justices, and the “life goes on” approach to domestic tragedy. This is not a story of exotic Africa, nor of epochal moments in histories of colonialism and its aftermath, nor yet about the fetishized tensions of being Muslim. Instead, it is shopkeepers falling in love with women stopping to buy dress material, and mothers vacillating between the street being unsafe and being a good place to meet eligible men, and bored wives eyeing comely electricians summoned to fix the wiring. Let other books talk about purdah and polygamy; this is a book that concerns itself with soap.

- The Review of The "Sin is a Puppy That Follows You Home" of Balaraba Ramat Yakubu by Deepa Dharmadhikari.

Balaraba Ramat Yakubu is a Nigerian author who writes in Hausa. She is a leader in the genre of littattafan soyayya or "love literature", and one of the very few Hausa-language writers whose work has been translated into English. She has also worked as a screenwriter, producer, and director of Kannywood films. Her stories have focused on issues such as forced marriages and women's education.

What You Need Most To Make A Great Movie

#movies

#filmmaking

#cinema

#filmmakers

#budget

#actors

#Bollywood

#Hollywood

#Nolllywood

#Netflix

What You Need Most To Make A Great Movie 

"My mentor said what you need most to make a great movie are not big cameras, not big budget, not big cast, not big crew and not a big story. But a Big Imagination."

- Success Iyoha, from Benin City, Edo State, NIGERIA.

Case Study:

The Blair Witch Project is a 1999 American supernatural horror film written, directed and edited by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez. It is a fictional story of three student filmmakers—Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams, and Joshua Leonard—who hike into the Black Hills near Burkittsville, Maryland in 1994 to film a documentary about a local legend known as the Blair Witch. The three disappear, but their equipment and footage are discovered a year later. The purportedly "recovered footage" is the film the viewer sees. Myrick and Sánchez conceived of a fictional legend of the Blair Witch in 1993. They developed a 35-page screenplay with the dialogue to be improvised. A casting call advertisement in Backstage magazine was prepared by the directors; Donahue, Williams and Leonard were cast. The film entered production in October 1997, with the principal photography taking place in Maryland for eight days. About 20 hours of footage was shot, which was edited down to 82 minutes. Shot on an original budget of $35,000–60,000, the film had a final cost of $200,000–750,000 after post-production edits.

Budget

$200,000–500,000

Box office

$248.6 million

Nupe Historians Say the Original Ilé-Ifẹ̀ was Located in Nupe Land

 #ife

#ifeart

#oduduwa 

#kingdom

#nupe

#historians

#archeology

Nupe Historians Say the Original  Ilé-Ifẹ̀ was Located in Nupe Land

I have read a very long piece of historical analysis on the origins of Odùduwà published on https://nationalsportslink.com.ng/amp/oduduwa-the-nupe-man-by-ndagi-abdullahi/ . The writer claimed that Odùduwà was a Nupe demigod by the River Niger and that the name of Odùduwà came from Odù, the Nupe name for River Niger and so Odùduwà means the man from the river. And that the Yoruba were Nupe people who migrated from KinNupe to the South West region of Nigeria.

He quoted historians and scholars, including Bishop Ajayi Crowther, Rev. Samuel Johnson and Prof. David D. Laitin, he called authorities whose analyses are indisputable and irrefutable facts of history. But unfortunately for him and his hypotheses, he did not provide any archeological evidence. If the original Odùduwà and Ilé-Ifẹ̀ were in KinNupe, then how come the sculptures of ancient Ilé-Ifẹ̀ were discovered in the present location of Ilé-Ifẹ̀ and not by the banks of the River Niger? The only sculpture found in Nupe land is included in the history of Ifẹ̀ Art on https://africa.uima.uiowa.edu/chapters/ancient-africa/ife/?start=13.

He said an Arabian historian, El Bakri, "writing in the 1060s, made it clear that the Nupe Nation, or Ed-Denden, was the greatest and most powerful empire in Africa south of the Sahara". But he failed to give any archeological evidence of this so called greatest and most powerful empire in sub-Saharan Africa. 

How come we have not discovered Bronze sculptures of ancient KinNupe in the present location of Nupe people?

Not a single archeological evidence in Nupe Art and not a single link to IFA Divination.

History is full fairy tales and hearsays, but archeology is full of concrete works of facts of life.

From the dating of Ifẹ̀ Art , I can emphatically state that the history of Ilé-Ifẹ̀ dates back to 600 BCE and not in KinNupe. 

- EKENYERENGOZI Michael Chima,

Publisher/Editor, 

NOLLYWOOD MIRROR®Series 

247 Nigeria (@247nigeria) / Twitter

https://mobile.twitter.com/247nigeria

https://www.amazon.com/author/ekenyerengozimichaelchima

President Buhari is Not As Competent and Efficient As Former President Obasanjo

Chief Olúṣẹ́gun Ọbásanjọ́ , GCFR remains the best and greatest Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces of all the Heads of State in the history of Nigeria. Nigerians were safer under his military administration from 1976-1979 and under his civilian administration from 1999-2007. The failures of his successors in national security have been caused by administrative incompetence and political corruption since 2007 to date.

As the former Presidents Umaru Yar'Adua and Goodluck Jonathan failed in the national security of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari has also failed woefully in national security.

Do you know that hundreds of thousands of the millions of Hausa Fulani people in Nigeria are from Mali and the Republic of Niger and not bona fide citizens of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The most dangerous reality is, majority of them have access to arms that majority of Nigerians don't have. And President Buhari has failed to disarm them.
The military can disarm them within 100 days and end the widespread violent attacks by their  fellow Hausa Fulani bandits, terrorists and unknown gunmen. The so called gunmen killing people can be called "Unknown Soldiers" whose identities are well known by the Nigerian military and security intelligence agencies.

Former President Ọbásanjọ́ was not a saint, but he was a very competent and efficient President and Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces .President Buhari has failed to prove that he is a competent and efficient Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces. And unfortunately, the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo does not have the calibre of a leader of political pragmatism for the fearless political leadership of Nigeria to secure the future of Nigerians in the most populous country in Africa.

- By EKENYERENGOZI Michael Chima, author of "The Victory of Muhammadu Buhari and the Nigerian Dream", "The Prophet Lied" and other books. The new book, "The Political Phenomenon of President Muhammadu Buhari" will be released on Amazon.

The Binary Systems of AFA, IFA and EPHA Divinations and Computer Science

#God

#revelation

AFA Divination System of the Igbos of south east region of Nigeria, IFA Divination System of the Yorubas of south west region and Epha Divination System of the Urhobos of the mid-west region have the same origins of the binary system used in computer science.

Coincidence?

Nope. 

Origins? Between the first and third millennium BCE.

Of course I can do further research on the historical origins, but I don't want to. 

The Great Commission is my mission on earth. Finis.

But why do I have deeper revelations of the origins of the Igbos, Yorubas and Urhobos?  Because they have been revealed to me for a higher knowledge of the universe.

When I say you don't know who I am if you have not read my books, I am not joking. And only fools will lie that they know who they don't know the origins.

Only Almighty God knows who I am. 

Those who have the intellectual and spiritual insights to read between the lines of what I have been publishing in prose and verse on Instagram and my blogs will understand me thoroughly.

How can you traverse the universe,

When you have chosen not to see beyond your nose?

- Ekeyerengozi MichaeI Chima, 

Author of "The Prophet Lied" and other books distributed by Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other booksellers worldwide.

Women To Take Driving Seat in Nigeria’s Male-Dominated Farming Industry

 Women To Take Driving Seat in Nigeria’s Male-Dominated Farming Industry

Farming collective Alluvial Agriculture is training 50 women in tractor mechanics

The initiative will create female-owned tractor businesses serving women farmers

Programme is part of a joint initiative with Mastercard Foundation, with training from Tata International Nigeria.

Lagos, Nigeria, 4th August 2021 – For the past 13 years, Linda Sheknami Auta has grown rice, maize, yam and soybeans by hand. It is a long and arduous process that has prevented her from expanding her business as quickly as she would like. 

Ploughing her 20 hectares farm in Niger State in Nigeria’s Middle Belt takes the equivalent of five months of hard toiling. With the right specialist equipment and training, this could be cut to just 10 days. But finding the financing, tools and farm workers is tough – especially as a woman.

“Women in my industry are often looked down upon, considered too weak to be doing what is traditionally considered a ‘man’s job,’ so it has been hard to hire labour,” says Linda, 34. “Unfortunately, some men just do not want to work for a female boss.”

A new initiative by farming collective Alluvial Agriculture seeks to level the field for female farmers. The company, which provides education and market access for smallholder producers across Africa, has begun training and financially supporting 50 women across 15 Nigerian states to become tractor owner-operators. 

“For too long, women have been excluded from agricultural finance and mechanisation, despite the fact that they are the backbone of our industry,” said Dimieari Von Kemedi, co-founder and managing director of Alluvial Agriculture. “Our program is an important step in addressing this imbalance.”

Training is being provided by a joint venture between the Indian conglomerate, Tata International, and Alluvial. After the three-week course is completed, each of the women will form partnerships or cooperatives, and each cooperative will be provided with state-of-the-art John Deere tractors and will work on at least 5,000 hectares of female-led farms that are part of Alluvial’s community block farm projects. A percentage of fees earned by the women will be used to repay the loan for their tractor. Based on expected earnings from tractor leasing, the women should have paid for their first tractor within two or three years. Each of the new female-led businesses is expected to own between 20 and 50 tractors by 2028.

“The Mastercard Foundation is very excited about this partnership as it is an opportunity to drive inclusive growth for women in farming,” said Chidinma Lawanson, Nigeria Country Head at Mastercard Foundation. “Training young women to take up space in the male dominated sector is innovative and promotes gender equality. We look forward to many more women gaining such jobs in agriculture a major sector of the Nigerian economy.”

Female farmers across Africa struggle to cultivate their own businesses, cut off from formal financial support and agricultural training – symptoms of continued gender inequality that permeates through African society, says Chijioke Okoli, Nigeria Director for agriculture and construction equipment at Tata Africa Services. 

“Expert training and education in tractor operations will significantly support women in agriculture for the long term,” Okoli said. “We are honoured to be working with Alluvial Agriculture and the Mastercard Foundation to advance women’s economic empowerment.”

Linda is one of the first women to be approved for the new scheme. Once she has received her training, she plans to pass on her knowledge to other women. 

“I never imagined that I would learn to drive a tractor, but I am not one to turn down a challenge – I have a passion for trying things that society believes aren’t for women,” says Linda. “Women in agriculture must be empowered. Only then can we achieve gender equity in farming, afford a better life for our families, and help grow the economy.” 

About Alluvial Agriculture

Alluvial is a highly scalable private sector response to decades of failure by various parties to tackle one of the world’s most pressing issues: food security. We deploy an innovative business model that provides comprehensive support to small farm enterprises and smallholder farmers. This support spans training, technology, land preparation, irrigation, input supplies, and market access within contiguous farms in community and virtual blocks. Our partnership with communities, research and financial institutions, agtech companies, and value chain actors produces several high-quality crops and an enabling environment for farmers to sustain and scale up their activities. More information at https://www.alluvialtrade.com/

About the Mastercard Foundation 

The Mastercard Foundation is a Canadian foundation and one of the largest in the world with more than $39 billion in assets. The Foundation was created in 2006 through the generosity of Mastercard when it became a public company. Since its inception, the Foundation has operated independently of the company. The Foundation’s policies, operations, and program decisions are determined by its Board. For more information on the Foundation, please visit: www.mastercardfdn.org

About the Mastercard Foundation COVID-19 Recovery and Resilience Program

The Mastercard Foundation COVID-19 Recovery and Resilience Program has two main goals. First, to deliver emergency support for health workers, first responders, and students. Second, to strengthen the diverse institutions that are the first line of defense against the social and economic aftermath of this disease. These include universities, financial services providers, businesses, technology start-ups, incubators, government agencies, youth organizations, and non-governmental organizations. More information at: https://mastercardfdn.org/covid19-recovery-resilience-program

For further information, photos, videos and interviews, please contact:

Alluvial Agriculture

Ebiuwairo Uwagboe

+234 810 175 7344

uwagboe@alluvialonline.com

New Markets Media & Intelligence

Gavin Serkin           

+44 20 3478 9710 

gserkin@newmarkets.media

Mastercard Foundation

Nonye Mpho Omotola

Country Lead, Program Communications, Nigeria

nomotola@mastercardfdn.org

Facts You Don't Know About the True Origins of the Igbos in Nigeria

Facts You Don't Know About the True Origins of the Igbos in Nigeria

IGBO AMAKA!
The Igbos of Eastern NIGERIA have the oldest monarchy in Africa dating back to the Bronze Age when the Igbo Ukwu Kingdom flourished and famous for the awesome bronze artworks of classic naturalistic sculptures of the lost wax casting of the same period of time with the Indus Valley Civilization of South Asia.

The progenitor of the Igbos was among the "Sons of God" who fell in love with the fair daughters of men before the days of Noah.

The ancient Nsibidi writings which were discovered in 1904. Historian Robert Farris Thompson erroneously misinterpreted the meaning of Nsibidi as "cruel blood thirsty". But Nsibidi actually means "In the Beginning" or "The Beginning".
Igbos are "UmuChineke" which means Children of God. 
Do you know that the word, CHI which is the Igbo root for the name of Almighty God, Chineke and Destiny is a universal name for destiny as the CHI in Chinese and Japanese which means the Vital Life Force of the universe.

Symbolism Of The CHI
In Plato's Timaeus, it is explained that the two bands that form the soul of the world cross each other like the letter Χ. Plato's analogy, along with several other examples of chi as a symbol occur in Thomas Browne's discourse The Garden of Cyrus (1658).

Chi or X is often used to abbreviate the name Christ, as in the holiday Christmas(Xmas). When fused within a single typespace with the Greek letter Rho, it is called the labarum and used to represent the person of Jesus Christ.

- By EKENYERENGOZI Michael CHIma,

"Orikinla OsinaCHI

Igbo-Centric and Igbo+Centricity
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