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Professor Inno Ụzọma Nwadike was my academic mentor and father.

Professor Inno Ụzọma Nwadike was my academic mentor and father. It's sad I used past tense. More sad to believe he's late.

When you talk about writing, social criticism, you needed to meet my mentor. He wrote Okwe Agbaala, Nwata Bulie Nna Ya Elu, Adaeze, etc.

One of his popular novels is "Ụwa Bụ Agha." He wrote the famous Mbido Igbo in the 80s. Ụwa Bụ Agha is a book criticizing university dons in Nigeria. That book is bravely. Nwadike's promotion was delayed for 11 years. His colleagues hid his documents and file so that he wouldn't be appointed a professor— out of jealousy and strife. He would later be backdated. Let me not talk about another professor—one of the authors of Intensive English whose professorship was confirmed after 20 years+. They ensured he wasn't a professor till he retired. When I was with him to show him my recent publication then, and congratulate him for his professorial appointment, he said to me:
"They thought I was going to dịe..."

I felt it. The intelligent ones were becoming a threat to them.
I understand the game and politics of Bongo University system. It's like a cult where you have to belong to a certain clique before you can succeed. This is different from Western educational system where everyone is happy for others. A win for one is a win for the entire faculty.
Let me not digress...

I was trained by the best. I am not just an ordinary Facebook writer who write on social issues because I have all the time in the world, and looking for traffic. I was mentored by fearless scholars who weren't writing for pity, but used literary language people can understand to expose and criticize societal anomalies. If you read my novels and plays, even poems, they are mostly criticism.

However, Nwadike told me how he became a lecturer. Professor Nolue Emenanjo drove all the way from Alvan Ikoku College of Education, Owere, where he was a Dean, School of Languages to Ụmụndụgba, in Isu Imo State — Nwadike's village to trace him and call him over to be a lecturer. That was before Emenanjọ released the most famous Igbo scholarly textbook: "Element of Modern Igbo Grammar" in 1977 by Oxford University Press.

Nwadike at the time was in Kafanchan, Kaduna where he was undergoing additional training as a teacher. Emenanjọ dropped the letter. There was no phone then. He told his people that anytime Nwadike returned, he should come over to take his job.

Best brains were sourced out from every villages and communities in Nigeria back then to come contribute to the educational discourse and cultural richness of the country.

When Nwadike returned, he was handed his employment. That was in the 70s. He became a lecturer in Igbo Department at Alvan. Remember, Bertram Iwunwa Osuagwu— whom I was privileged to meet when I published Igbo Physics — founded Igbo Language Department in Alvan in the 60s.
Let me not digress...

Shortly afterwards, Nwadike traveled to the Buffalo State University, Sunny B, United States for his master's. Then returned after his studies in the 80s. He became a lecturer at the University of Nigeria, Nsụka. He was the first person to design a university course in Igbo language. Back in the days, English was used to teach Igbo courses. He used Igbo to teach courses in linguistics and literature.
I was privileged to sit, dine, and spent a few years with this kind of personality, beyond classroom.
Why did I share this short story?

Nwadike was sourced out by Emenanjọ. Nwadike positioned talented and young scholars, including myself. Some became jealous he was grooming me to take over his position, hence there was certain kind of battles and campaign against my person even as a teenager, by some some old folks in their 60s and 70s then.

I was an undergraduate and studied all the master's and PhD materials in Igbo literature just in his office. I read all the materials . I read Critical Theories. He trained me in grading students. He trained me as a professional Igbo editor. He believed in me and became the first Professor to approve my book for undergraduates and later for master's and PhD in Igbo literature. We read together in his office. The books in his office were bigger than most libraries. He awarded many books to me. Sometimes he would say: "Mark, you will not find this book anywhere, keep them to yourself." I inherited numerous books and materials across Igbo literature, general literature, African studies — in fact Arts and Humanities.
Unfortunately, it's rare to find such a personality today.

I will share someday, what happened and my stories as he tried to get me into some Universities where HODs were the same students he helped and positioned. They saw my CV, my books, and wanted to frustrate themselves, not me. The old Nwadike was disappointed and feeling for me. And I said to him:
"You have played your part in my life. You have really been there for me. Don't worry about me. I will take care of myself. I don't need their institutions. I will create mine."

I founded my school where I teach. Nwadike would call: "I am proud of you my son."
He would watch me on television, buy newspapers I appeared in, then call...
"Mark, Mark.... You see...."

I will write a book, it will be like a memoir about my relationship with Professor Inno Ụzọma Nwadike.

Their generation care about the success of others and younger ones. I am glad to have met his mentor— Professor Nọlue Emenanjọ, then himself — Professor Inno Ụzọma Nwadike. These guys were the giants and authorities in Igbo studies and literature. I sat with duo, learned from them— when education was education. Their publications are in different world libraries today.

Back in the days when people work together as team of scholars. Today, it's all about competition and who pass who— who first you get PhD and who first you present paper or travel abroad. The reason I am not interested in being party to some ndị be anyị or mingle with them. They say I play one-man's wolf. Isn't that better for their own mental health? My energy will unsettle them; except we align and think alike.

When I see people who have the same mentality like the men I used to work with: Nwadike and Emenanjọ — you will find out that I also love a team work. I have been with the best, and cannot step down for mediocrity.

Some only get into the circle of Igbo studies because they have no other jobs. It's about money and never interest and real passion. We know them, and see their BS from afar. They are the ones who feel intimated and assume they are in competition when they come across those with natural passion without sweating for validation.

I have paid my dues, and I don't even need anyone to tell me.

I paused!

By: Maazi Ogbonnaya Okoro II

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