Nigerian Politics and A Nigerwife’s Story

Nigerian Politics Update

Atiku Abubakar was declared the PDP presidential candidate recently, as I told you last time. Now he has chosen his vice presidential candidate, former governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi.

There has been praise for the choice. But one group has complained. The major Igbo cultural association, Ohanaeze Igbo, has been the loudest. Why? Because they were not consulted ahead of time!

According to one reporter, “They were ABSOLUTELY right to be angry and aggrieved. If I were in their shoes, I would have expressed disappointment for the fact that they heard the announcement on the social media like every other Nigerian. They should have been given firsthand information as stakeholders before it went public.”

The reporter, Chidiebere Nwobodo, explains his thinking about the choice: “I think that Atiku’s choice . . . is to reward loyalty of Ndigbo [the Igbo people] in standing with the PDP during its trying times,” since it has been 30 years since an Igbo was in the position of vice president.

Using Abubakar’s traditional title, Nwobodo says, “Another factor I believe Waziri of Adamawa considered, is to pick someone who is on the same intellectual wavelength and ideological spectrum with him as co-pilot.”

He is also outspoken about what should happen next: “Southeast PDP stakeholders, it is time to accept our son, bury the hatchet and collectively work for the victory of the party.”

Campaigning has hardly begun. We will have plenty of opportunity to learn more about the candidates. Will they get past talking about tribe to talk about policies, climate change, and the economy?

Who Gets Stopped?

Our grandson Kenechi and his girlfriend Mary came to Westport on Sunday for breakfast and church together.

At the diner we were discussing race and when actions are clearly racist. Mary and Kenechi lived in a luxury apartment building in Manhattan for several months. Kenechi says he was occasionally questioned as he entered the building, especially when he wasn’t particularly well-dressed. Mary was never stopped.

“I think the guards weren’t afraid of possibly offending a Black American,” Mary said. “They were sure he wouldn’t complain, and would accept their apology.”

“But we noticed an interesting pattern with Asians entering the building,” she said. “They were never stopped or questioned. I have a theory!”

“What’s your theory?” I said.

“I think the guards couldn’t recognize the Asians who lived in the building, since they all seemed to look alike to them. So rather than risk offending someone who lived there, they just didn’t stop any!”

What do you think?

Friends at Saugatuck Story Fest

The Westport Library’s Saugatuck Story Fest took place October 12-14. On Saturday afternoon I enjoyed hearing Gabi Coatsworth and several other writers read entertaining stories from their recently published anthology When to Now.

Sunday afternoon the Connecticut Book Awards ceremony was held at the town’s high school. The keynote speaker was Okey Ndibe, friend and author. As I suspected, his wife Sheri and mother-in-law Doris Fafunwa, whom I knew in Nigeria for many years, came with him.

Doris and I, with our friend Jean Obi, were the founders of Nigerwives in 1978 or 79. The organization is going strong today, with 20 branches in Nigeria, two in the UK, and a group in the US.

It was lovely to see them all and to hear Okey speak brilliantly about having the courage to risk a lie!

A Nigerwife’s Story

I just learned about a new book is coming out soon, Surviving Biafra, A Nigerwife’s Story, by Elizabeth Bird and Rosemary Umelo. On the publisher’s website, I read, “In 1961, Rosina ‘Rose’ Martin married John Umelo, a young Nigerian she met on a London Tube station platform, eventually moving to Nigeria with him and their children.

“As Rose taught Classics in Enugu, they found themselves caught up in Nigeria’s Civil War, which followed the 1967 secession of Eastern Nigeria–now named Biafra. The family fled to John’s ancestral village, then moved from place to place as the war closed in.”

I must have met Rosemary at some point in Nigeria, but I admit I don’t remember her. And I’m fairly sure I did not meet her during the Biafran War.

I may try to get in touch now. I do know Elizabeth Bird. She and I have been at Igbo conferences together.

Reading about her Biafran experiences will be fascinating, I’m sure. The book is coming out in December in the US, and will be on my reading list very soon after that!