Recently, the ECHO Editorial Team visited Ebonyi State as part of the organization’s tour of South East State and other Igbo speaking States, to explore areas of mutual co-operation and support as well as parley with some top government functionaries on issues affecting their services to the government as well as other issues concerning the South East and the country. One of the personalities the team spoke with was the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Higher Education, Professor Enyi Patrick Enyi, who spoke on a variety of issues concerning the Ebonyi State government, his office, the Igbo spirit and the Nigerian State, among others.
The ECHO: Good afternoon Prof. Please, can we meet you?
Prof: My name is Enyi Patrick Enyi. I am a Professor . Immediately I was seconded from Babcock University to come and serve Ebonyi State, as the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Higher education. Let me go to the basics. I schooled both abroad and Nigeria. I am from Uburu in Ohazara local government area. The war affected people of our age. In fact, I lost about four years of education. At the end of the war, everybody was running helter-skelter. My siblings who were older than I was, took me along with them to the west. There in the West, I completed my primary education. Because of the situation of things, I did not actually attend formal secondary school. Should I say that I educated myself. However, I used four years to obtain my ordinary level papers. Then, the following year, which should have been my final year at secondary school, I got my advanced level papers. So, I saved more time and got more value by staying at home than going to formal secondary education.
After I got my A-Level, I was able to save sole little money and then I travelled abroad, to London to be precise. to do professional accountancy course. Then, as God would have it, I qualified as a chartered accountant under ACCA in 1983 and was admitted into their membership in 1985. Then later I took a degree course at the Howard University in New York and finished in 1988 with a Magna Cum Laude. Then I settled down and did a lot of work as accountant. Before I studied accountancy, what motivated me was that accountants in those days, especially chartered accountants earned a lot. But y the time I finished my course, everything kept going down. After several years of working in many places under Chartered Accountancy firms, during which I obtained my license as a chartered accountant, I also went into the industry where I worked as a group accountant in the old Anambra State. Then in 1997, I started going into academics gradually. I started at the University of Calabar outreach center and from there, in 1999, I joined Madonna University where I worked until 2005. From Madonna, I came into Ebonyi State University. From there I hunted from Covenant University so I had to go, stayed only three years there and was again head-hunted from Babcock University where I was since 2010 until when I joined Ebonyi State Government in August this year. Within this period, I was able to get my Master’s degree from the Nnamdi Azikiwe University in 2001 and got my doctor of Philosophy in 2007. Before then I had another doctorate in Financial management. I rose through the ranks in academics and as God would have it, I became a Professor on September 1 2010 due to both experience and publications. You know I worked both academics and in the industry. Actually, I have discovered a lot of things through research work and that is why I advise people who want to go into academics to also try to go into the industry, if not on a permanent basis, at least on a temporary basis, just like the universities now require people to go on industrial work experience which is a very good idea because most of the things you find in academics lack The ECHO: What is your family life?
Prof: I am married with seven children, five boys and two girls.
The ECHO: Two more and you have a football team in your family
Prof: (Laughs) Well, if my family don’t make a full team, my grandchildren can complete team with a full reserve. (Laughter)
The ECHO: What is your Philosophy of life?
Prof: Well, my philosophy of life is that every human being is born or created for a purpose. And we should try as much as possible to ask God to show us our purpose in life. And that is what I did much earlier. I know that I am cut out for academics and I pray God that he should help me actualize my dream, despite that I had a very rough childhood, not in terms of may be violence, no, no, no, but in terms of poverty. During my time, I passed three secondary schools entrance examinations, the King’s College Lagos, the Federal Government College and another State secondary school. But I was not able to go to any of them, because there was no money. There was nobody to sponsor me. But all these did not deter me because I had to ask God to intervene. And he did. So I ended up doing menial jobs and because I was focused, all that I earned went into studies. In those days, you had something like Rapid Results College, and also there was the Nigerian-based Exam Success Correspondence College. I was their customer then. Those were the means how I was able to overcome those impediments.
The ECHO: What experiences would you readily recall as your happiest moments and any regrets, , if any?
Prof: Well, I was one of those who have the philosophy of life that whatever comes to somebody is the path God has chosen for the person to grow. So, I can say I have no regrets and whatever had been the case is how God wants it to be.
The ECHO: But you have had what you would call your happiest moments.
Prof: I thank God for this. Any moment is my happiest moment. You know the reason? When I count people that we started with, even people who were far better than me, are nowhere near me now, so anytime I remember that, I give God all the glory. When I finished my Ph.D, to me, is much an achievement because I knew I could do it. Let me just say, I think there is really no special time I can say I am the happiest. Each time I remember all that happened in my life, I give God the glory.
The ECHO: What of your moments of regrets? Moments you don’t like to remember?
Prof: There are so many of such. So many of such that I don’t really want to remember. But the most important aspect of all these is that everything eventually came the way that God wanted them to be. There are so many scientific discoveries in my own field that I made and because of our own environment here, some of them have remained silent, because here in Nigeria, the environment promotes mediocrity. We don’t really want to look towards excellence. And besides, when you are doing something as an Igbo man, the Hausa man will never be happy with you, no matter whatever you do. The government will not be happy with you. Likewise, even within us Igbos, if you are from Ebonyi, may be somebody from Anambra will not be so happy that somebody from Ebonyi is doing this type of thing. That’s just the major regret I have. However, I believe that hard times have a way of making somebody to become a better person in future.
The ECHO: Let’s veer a bit into politics. In your candid view and thinking, what do you think of Nigeria as she is today?
Prof: It is just like what I said earlier. I regret the environment. Not because Nigeria is not physically a great place. We have everything going for us. God gave us everything. I have been to the US and so many other countries of the world. I’ve been to China. The US is one of the toughest places you can live. The weather there is inclement. During the summer and some other period, in places like California, you see all these things like typhoons devastating and rendering so many people homeless. Such has not occurred in Nigeria. Here, we have oil, we have gold. We have so many other things. There are a lot of countries that don’t have all these. So I really thank God for making this country so. But the only problem we have is that those that coin habit the place, that is the real problem. You just narrated a story of somebody entering somebody’s farm. When the owner asked the person to leave his farm, the person just butchered the farm owner and ran away. That is animalistic behavior. They are not really supposed to be humans, you know, they belong to the animal world. But these are the type of people we have today, and for the reason that they were somehow maneuvered to positions of power, they decide to just dominate others and pulling everybody down. That is the thing. That is the experience which is not good in Nigeria. When the going was a little bit good, you can be proud of Nigeria one way or the other. There is really nothing Nigeria cannot achieve if we allow the right leaders to be there.
Let me give you an example. In Ebonyi State here, the first person who ruled this place was a military administrator, Feghabon. I know him. He tried his best. He was the person who put up this place and did some other work. But after then, he handed over and those he handed over did very little.
Look at the US, if oil becomes no longer in use, tourism will still be going for them. Many other things will still be going for them. Now, from a fishing port in1963, which Dubai is, is now a center of attraction. What happened? The same oil that Nigeria has, and which somebody said sometime that we don’t know what to do with the money. But now, where is the money? The money is no longer there. It has been frittered away. We are now looking for the money again. So the real problem we have is the problem of governance. That is the problem of Nigeria as a whole. We are not allowed to select leaders, people who can give us what we really need to develop. That is basically the problem of Nigeria. Nigeria is a good country with bad leaders. And those bad leaders are not prepared to give chance to those who can put things into proper perspective. If you look at the US, I always use Obama as example. Not that Obama is an excellent leader. No. Why I am using Obama is that Obama was just a university teacher, just like me. And because the American system allows you to forward your idea, so that people who love your idea can contribute so that you can enhance the idea, that was how Obama became a Senator. From being a Senator, he did well and campaigned equally. As God would have it, he became the first black president of America and ruled for two terms. That is the American dream, that anyone can come from any angle and become something, whether rich or poor. Now, what stops Nigeria from having such. It is because of our bias. Now, the war was fought here, not because the Igbos were the aggressors, no. It was just a gang-up against some people they perceive as too progressive and they said we have to stop this. Yes there was a coup. But before the coup, there had been so many other events of ganging against Igbos. There was the Okonkwo riot of Kano where people perceived Igbos as very rich, so they attacked them and looted their shops. There had been so many events like that. So the one that happened was only the climax. And after that, there was now a grand plan to stifle the progress of the Igbos, which is not supposed to be, in a country that calls itself a country. Everybody should be given equal opportunity. Rather than envying them, people should emulate them. Let it be a kind of competition between you and them. If I see that you are progressing, rather than say let me see how I can pull this person down, I will try and say, is there any way I can overtake you, or at least be equal with you. I will strive. That is the spirit of competition. And that makes everything go smoothly. The Yoruba’s have recently imbibed that spirit. They are no longer as antagonistic as they used to be. Rather, they are trying to go in to so many places. That’s how it is supposed to be. If you come to Ohaozara local government, Uru and Okposi practical backing. But the industry provides academics with the environment to apply the knowledge gained in academics.
have been competing with themselves for a long time, politically and otherwise. But that was a very healthy competition. When one side sees anything happening on the other side, they will try to do the same thing in their place. That is how it is. But in Nigeria, there are some people who think that hey must sit down and fold their hands, and they will be giving them food in their mouths. Those others that are striving to do something deserve to be put to death, so that it will remain only them. That is not how things are done.
The ECHO: You spoke about Biafra and also about the Okonkwo riot in Kano. Now, may I ask, does the Igbo man have a future in Nigeria?
Prof: Yes, Igbo man has a good future in Nigeria. Now, when you are talking about a nation. I am talking of Igbos as a nation, when you have a nation of about four million people, in fact far more than that, we are not talking of people living in the South East alone. They are scattered all over Nigeria and holding topmost positions in everything they do, even in places they reside outside the South East. Then, why wouldn’t there be a future? There is a future for them. The only thing is that Igbos themselves need to come together and think of a way to move forward and a way to counter whatever antagonism they get from their hosts. I was in the West for a long time. It is a mixed feeling. The majority will like you for being what you are. They envy you positively for what you do, while you see some of them that are very bad, who will say, how can this person come here and do this and do that and so on and so forth. At Babcock from where I came here, the Igbos are almost outnumbering other Nigerians there, as lecturers, students and workers. In my own faculty, I was the dean and my secretary was Igbo. As a chartered accountant, we started a district society at Otta when I was with the Covenant University. I was the first chairman of that society in the midst of Yoruba’s who are very many in the accounting profession. Why did they vote me in massively to be their leader for the first time? It was because of the quality they saw.
I served there for two terms before I left. Ever since then, it had always been a Yoruba affair. One thing with Yoruba’s is that if they see something good in you, if they are ten, if three hate you, seven will love you. And that seven represents the majority of Yoruba’s. That is how it is. They say that the Yoruba’s discriminate a lot. Well, to some extent, this is true. We Igbos too, also discriminate. We even discriminate even more than the Yoruba’s. The Yoruba man, if you can abide by his culture and way of life and everything he believes in, he will take you as his own brother. You can marry his daughter. Whatever you want, he will give it to you. But just don’t go against his ways of life. It is not really so with us. We are much more reserved and conservative than they are. And that is why so many of them are also progressing and developing their place but it is not only them that are developing Yoruba land. Igbos are contributing about 40% or more in the development of Yoruba land, any part of Yoruba land. Now to the question whether Igbos have a future. Yes, we have a future. And with our technological knowledge, with our God-given intelligence, if we are able to apply them very well, and if we remain in Nigeria and Nigeria is able to give us the opportunity to develop, you see that Igbos will carry Nigeria far into the future. Let me cite an example. Innoson now produces vehicles and Nigeria now prides herself as a vehicle manufacturing country. They now sell these vehicles to other countries. The other day, I read in the newspapers that Mali recently came to buy 400 of the vehicles . I was very proud of that, because it is the initiative of an Igbo man that is going on. I know that many vehicle assembling plants like Peugeot, Volkswagen and others used to be in Nigeria in the past but because of the way those they handed over to managed them, they all went away. But now, the Igbo man started from the scratch out of nothing. But from that nothing, something is there now. The good thing is what happened recently with the administration of Buhari, that he allowed the Nigerian Army to patronize Innoson. Not only Innoson, he also patronized the people at Aba. They now make their boots. They now realize that the people at Aba can actually make boots that can serve even better than imported ones. Now, when you encourage such indigenous entrepreneurship, you are encouraging the development of the country. Innoson has tried. The Buhari administration and the Nigerian Army have tried too. If they can do this to all others, in no time, Nigeria will come up. And it is no less thanks to the ingenuity and the struggles of the Igbo man who will always try to get something out of nothing.
The ECHO: you mentioned a lot of things striving under the administration of His Excellency Governor David umahi. as a Senior Special Assistant to the Governor, what inputs do you thing can be made for the substance of good governance and well-being of the people of Ebonyi State.
Prof: Thank you very much. You see, the question of Ebonyi is a case in point in proving that what was though impossible is actually possible and that there is nothing human beings cannot do if they can conceive it and be prepared to be honest about. That is exactly what the Governor has been doing. He is very committed. He saw these problems and knew that the only way you actually solve these problems is by being committed. The truth is that when previous governments want to build a house which should actually cost say one million, but because of how Nigeria has gone, they vote 120 million for it, and by the time the house is finished, even that one million will not be available to the contractor to build it the way it is supposed to be. But now, that’s why we thank God that the governor himself is a civil engineer, he is also familiar with all these construction companies, so he knows what it takes. So if he is giving you a contract, he knows exactly how much will finish it. As a matter of fact, he goes there to supervise it to know whether you are actually following the specifications or not, based on personal experience. He cannot cheat the contractor and there will be no mago mago in it. Where he thinks that funds will not be available to award a contract, he will do it by direct labour. All you need to do is to get your materials, get the labour and pay them local rates, and the job is done. All you need to do is bring in a supervisor, a consultant who will guide the workers and then the job will be done. Coming to the other aspect you mentioned, yes, Ebonyi State may not be an oil producing State, we have a lot of mineral resources. Some of them are being mined such as bauxite which is being mined by a Chinese company not too far from here, near the Federal University. There is also salt deposit which even the Federal government is interested in mining. There is also a lake at Okposi from where salt can be scooped. That is why they call it salt lake. We use it to cook salt and sell. In fact, during the civil war, that was one of the things that sustained the Igbos during the period. There are other minerals which are there but yet to be tapped. But that is not what the governor is looking for now, because that is still a long-term project. We are looking at that area but not as a priority. The priority is how do you get the State industrialized?
The governor himself is even making the plan to diversify into manufacturing for others to follow. He wants to start a battery manufacturing company with other car accessories. He wants to start so many other things and this will draw so many other people to come to Ebonyi and establish factories so that our people, instead of going to other states and those already there doing hawking and things like that can come home and become gainfully employed in their own home State. They are not just earning there, agriculture is a very big industry if it is well managed. And this government is already looking into that seriously, to see how it can galvanize people into agriculture, not just agriculture but real agriculture, including animal husbandry, real serious animal husbandry and I believe that very soon, things will start happening that area. The governor really wants all those boys in other states doing hawking business and other things to come home and find something more meaningful to do.
The ECHO: You just said that the governor is planning to go into other personal businesses. Don’t you think this is a conflict of interest?
Prof: There is no conflict whatsoever because his company, Brass Construction Company is different, under different management. As a governor now, he has no business with that company now. But they can talk to him for an advice or any other thing. So that is it. And he can always ask them, why not do other things. There are so many other things. You just said that government has no business doing business. But that is not how it is. I remember that when I was in the UK, there was one particular case where somebody was owing less than 1000 pounds, I think it was taxation, to collect the money, they had to write and post something that was three times the value of the money to the person just to collect the money. So you see. What does that mean? It is commitment. They want to do that job. But here in Nigeria, it is not so. When we are talking about business, it is government that creates the environment for the business, and then regulates it. From there, government makes its own money. So that is business. So when you say government has no business doing business, you are wrong, because when they create taxes, rates and so on, it is part of government business. So the more the people prosper, the more the government also prospers. So creating an environment where people thrive in business is a good area and a good way to think and one of the ways government can also prosper.
The ECHO: As a chartered accountant and Special Adviser to the governor, what are your plans to make the people engage in viable venture that can also make government prosper.
Prof: I cannot leave my own portfolio to dabble into other people’s areas, even though if I have any good idea on how to enhance any sector, I can always share my ideas with the people concerned, but for now, I am concerned with higher education. I am called to re-engineer the higher education sector in Ebonyi State, so that we will be able to have more enrolment and be able to have more purposeful graduates, graduates that will work out and be worthy to be called graduates, in terms of knowing what they are doing, in terms of speaking and writing, in terms so many other things. And also for those who have not been able to get into schools for one reason or the other, how to make them get into schools. And also for us to correct anything they have been doing wrongly in the system. Those are some aspects of my job. As simple as they may seem, they are not really so easy because when you look at what is on the ground, it is very enormous. Correctional work is always more difficult than building from the start. That is the area I am involved. We want to develop so many other things that will impact on the graduates when they come out, how to train some of them in something that is self-sustaining, rather than just depending solely on one’s course of study. We are trying to see what we can do so that whoever comes out of school acquires some additional skill so that he or she may be assisted to earn money to feed. As time goes on, such skill may earn more for the person than his initial graduate course. This is an area we are looking at, in addition to all others.
The ECHO: You have talked about higher education. Do you also have plans for the peasant farmers on how they can acquire more knowledge on agriculture like crop preservation, processing and other skills?
Prof: Thank you very much. You have asked a question that I had wanted to talk about before. Before I go on, I am the SSA on higher education. There is an SSA on lower education and also on agriculture and so on and so forth. But just recently, we launched BESDA, meaning, Basic Education Special Delivery For All. What is the aim of that? It is to ensure that those children that are already out of school, we have about 53,000 of them, for one reason or the other, either due to lack of money to train them or any other reason, to make sure they go back to school. As a matter of fact, it is a World Bank-sponsored project. We launched it two weeks ago and had a two-day training on it. That will take care of the basic education in rural areas.
The ECHO: We really appreciate granting us audience. The ECHO newspaper has recently hit the news stand and this is our fifth edition. Can you oblige us your advice on how we can sustain the newspaper and quality of service to the society?
Prof: I think that everything that is starting new must have its teething problems, and yours will not be different. All you need to do is to remain focused and have your objectives. Sometimes, you think things are not working out well, but before you know it, you will break out. I like the quality of production and also I think I like your way of interaction. Gradually, time will come when it will be a hot cake for everybody. Equally, I want to commend you for your efforts so far. I wish to encourage you. It is not easy. You are not getting anything from here for now but time will come when you will recoup your investments. It is always good to champion the cause of unity so that we can move forward and achieve our aims and objectives. Thank you very much for coming. As we go on, I hope to do more business with you to encourage you.
THE ECHO 