DEDICATION

To our mothers:
Elizabeth
and
Comfort

Who thought, smiled and toiled with he
who sought to build but who takes his
final bow today, August 4, 2001

INTRODUCTION

The challenge of philosophy is the invitation to think and there appears no better time than in the melancholy mind which is induced from without.

Perhaps, Chimaroke Nnamani, first son of the departed in this oration typifies what attitude of sobriety and reflection could bring about: moans, flashes and recollections, all to piece together the factors of life as they relate with the dead , and the living.

In line with the Igbo saying that the death of a mate brings the inquisition in the man, (onwu gbue ogbo, uche a diya n 'ilo) the younger Nnamani reveals his reflections, inquisitions, musings and recollections in this moment of sobriety a moment to say it with dead seriousness to make the right impact.
.
As usual, he takes on the issues he raises with some disarming insightfulness, provoking some thoughts on those major areas of life we have taken for granted.

This is an oration which is a departure from the usual.

THE ORATION AND REFLECTIONS

The children have cried, women and mothers wailed, men and fathers sobbed and the son and governor, even in his stoic' machismo shed a few tears. Yes they can all cry because indeed we mourn the passing of our father Nwankwo Anike Ferguson Nnamani. But more importantly they can also cry, tears of celebration, celebration of his life. As I look at all of you gathered here at Agbani today, I reflect on the antecedents of our father and so 10 say review the products of his life which we can celebrate.

As Ivanov Chirpenko on the demise of Marshal Igor Romanov, 1944, said "Shall we celebrate the perpetuation of our tradition in reflecting the terminus of a leader who has given a good. 'account of himself or shall we join in the mournfulness of your visage in this season of mixed feelings?"

It may be ironic if I say that it is with profound heart of pleasure that I stand before you. The foreground of us is the spot marking the exit of he who has been through his cradle, the peak of life and taken the bow. He who had sought after the values of the emerging world of his time and the clashing sentiments which . form the present society. .

Yes, before us is he who had come of the dust like every man and sought to appreciate the matters so that he could perpetuate himself and his peculiar kind but who is finally returning to the dust.

Lord Tennison in Ulysses said: "I have come to be part of all that I have met, though much abide, much is taken; that which we are, we are; one equal temper of heroic act, strong in will, to strive, to seek, to find and never to yield. N wankwo Nnamani: he strove, he sought and never yielded.

Today, as he lies here not defeated and never bowed, but in response to the divine dictum that man shall rise from the dust and unto it shall he return.

As we view and consecrate he who has taken this bow, I feel challenged to take another look at the enterprise called life. Indeed, I had deeply considered this business called life and in the" process observed that it may have been travestied by so many of us who do not appreciate their mission on earth and who have refused to raise questions about what it is all about.

It is actually in observing the attitude of men that I consider Tony Addler's
admonition so apt for us. He said, "sweet, rough and bitter as the world may be and 'Upon the truth that none of us was consulted before we were thrown into the
void, the hopelessness and the paradise called world, however, none of us is eager to quit this abyss of unending disaster."

Many may have viewed Addler with some scorn but the same writer and philosopher had raised our hope in the veracity of the world through efforts at perpetuating traditions, values and institutions.

It is in the degree of accomplishing any of these that we detect men and women of I character who seek to know the world, infuse belief and character in the world and pursue that which will be permanent.

All human creations are foibles and dispersible and they too can pass but the memory of Nwankwo Anike Ferguson Nnamani can never pass.

As we know, those who seek the permanence have accepted that all the others shall come and pass but that which must outlive us must go beyond the ordinary.

This is Agbani. From this cradle and heritage Nwankwo Anike Nnamani
emerged, called Nwankwo Joseph after a big brother, Late Joseph Nnamani and Nwankwo Hezekiah, after an adopted uncle, later an in-law, he responded to the faint echo of the spiritual, in search of the nirvana: yes I shall go to see what the end will be.

He came into the world seeking to follow the known path. Many have wondered why there are paths now and why they could not invent theirs or deviate from the old paths. Others have simple sailed with the tide.

What may not be overriding in its importance is the path followed but why the path is followed. Some fatalists, as noted by poet Chinyere Eze Mbulo, could deviate from what is the known path and “walk to their death”. This may have come of an interpretation of the Biblical injunction that the paths of men are made in heaven and ours is just to follow.

For Nwonkwo Anike Nnamani, nothing could have been more apt than the words of James Burroughs in E-ducere:, “Serene I fold my hands and wait. I fight no tide, nor fight the sea. I stay my haste.

and make delays for what avails this eager pace, for what is mine will know my face. "

No doubt, our paths appear to have been carved, if not paved as we encounter mystery after another to lay bare our claim of ingenuity and strength.

Men, have expended efforts at building institutions and moulding minds. Some
have spent Lime - wondering the need for seeking a new path when indeed the holy Book in Psalm 75(6) states that " . . . promotion cometh neither fro n the East nor from the West, nor from the North." So if it does not come from a region of the world then it could not have come from a level of knowledge obtained in anywhere.

Distinguished audience, this particular injunction which has been tested and accepted universally holds so much meaning to my people in Enugu State. Hence, they have evolved a saying that he who is selected by the God Almighty shall be and not he who has expended the greatest energy and resources. (Onye Chi ya nyere eze, nya biko buru eze; ana azodi eze azo).

Of course the world is not reduced to the tussle to lead or to follow. It is neither brought as low as to fill in the inquisition of the vane mind but if we have the liberty to follow that which has the lasting impression, it is in discovering the path which shall lead to the permanent foundation. As stated above, this is the path which has tasked the mind and body to pursue that which is extra-ordinary, impossible and sometimes unfathomable.

Because these can be extraordinary and so require the extraordinary act, it is not strange that some men like Nwankwo Nnamani are inflexible; some seek to purify the values of others, some pursue to worry about the deviations. in our tradition and modem values while some others pursue the seemingly absurd and so are adjudged difficult. What we are not sure of is the set of values to apply in judging ourselves and our world. The absence of conformity in determining these has left us with varied permutations on how to ascertain the trend of thought as it fits into universal values. In the work Purity in Madness, we have learnt that that which seem absurd may not in fact be out of place but in tune with its peculiar trend. For Sophocles,. it was heresy that the world was round and he was stoned to death. Where would the world b_,. if Albert Einstein did not explail1 to' us, even to our chagrin, the relationship between
time and space - the law of relativity. The continuum of life is just a collection 0 frozen time and space. Mozart was different yet he was perfection II musicology. Hence the poetic rendition that:
" Beyond
The tattered shirt,
The dirty trousers,
The naked child,
The unkempt hair,
The volatile violence,'
(lies) clear, sharp, genius"

No doubt, this poet cannot be universally right in a rational w,orld yet we must concede one thing before we raise objections. One clear objection could be in ascertaining when each dutiful mind in its level of sanity or purity goes through Plato's mankind's unhealthy instincts

education (inquisition), which gives birth to virtue to some or vice to others; food and drink which give satisfaction to some or gluttony to others and procreation which leads to passion for some or lust for the others.

Though this view of Plato could be consigned to the golden age of man's limited gregarity, these instincts - less the acclaimed biological drive - formed the foundation upon which the modem man directs his mind and meanders the rules of society.

If then a boy, or girl rises from the then dusty village of Agbani and seeks to grasp the old values while he is dazed by the emerging colonial (European) order and so accepts to embrace that which is virtuous, how do we assess his worth in a brutally materialistic world? And if such virtuous stance leads to the reinforcement of the mind of the immediate community . be it. in formal education or in the informal exercise of the mind, how much of his contribution can we quantify?

It will even be difficult for us to give the answers because the mystery of life has set our different paths and made us to follow, even though we will not accept to understand our standards rather than those of the others. The tragedy of this is that we shut ourselves off and try to classify the other in our own standards. We seem
to refuse to heed the Biblical injunction that the log in our eyes must be removed first, before we see the speck in the other's eyes.

In fact, takiLg Plato's "unhealthy desires" to some bits, we can see that the world has not agreed on what the education of man should be. This gives vent to the debate on what is "proper education and how much of it a man should acquire" and implant in the world before he stands before the open grave,

It may surprise this distinguished audience why I have taken this path of discourse, when in the words of the late Rt. Hon. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, we are literally "standing before an open grave."

Frankly, I am attempting to bring to you a part of my reflections on this vast world. A world where an inflexible father who does not accept to be moved could insist,
as a matter of right, that his son or daughter is properly educated only if he is a medical doctor rather than a historian; a lawyer rather than a philosopher; an accountant rather than a poet and a

computer analyst rather than a vernacular teacher.

Of course our conscription to. go by the rules of others and society go hand in hand with our stages in life. The child will follow the rules of the father and the mother and the adult will accept what is prevalent in the society but this does not remove the need for each to stand out to be counted for a project, an idea and a grouping, at the right time.

So, if the person recedes from the society to the individual, we have to raise the question on what he shall be counted for. Is it in the number of books he has read or in the quantum of know ledge he has implanted on others? Is it in the delicacy of his food and drink or in the multitude of stomachs he fed and so perpetuated the society? Or, is it in the number and beauty

of wives or in the gift to mankind of exemplary offspring who take up the torch and continue the track of the generation?

In the thinking of David Matthews, the questions can be resolved upon the appreciation of the relationship between the permanent and the transient.

The quantum of books read shall come to pass, the man holding the great know ledge in his tiny head shall stand before the open grave for the final bow,
but the knowledge implanted shall perpetuate and outlive his generation.

My dear brothers and sisters, I make bold to say that even the great mansions raised to quench our material avarice shall come to pass. On that note, I have come to reflect on the roles of some of us and

indeed our impact now or later before we embrace the open grave. Shall we rise in our cradle, face our personal .crises and peak in life as having followed th_ known path? Shall we seek to carve our paths and possibly walk into our death or shall we
seek to enhance the world through searches? Shall we hit on the world like the beastly man and amass material wealth only to depart for the' weak to inherit our flamboyant estates? Shall we pretend to be masters of the terrain when indeed we have not understood ourselves?
In truth, we may never have the universally accepted answers for these and I know as any other inquirer that we may never "tell when the answers we seek will hu_ so much". We may never be happy in finding these answers as they will expose the "weaker stuff we are made of and indeed alter our preconceived notions.

I stand before you to state that I have reflected, as I am still wondering on the reason of man on earth. Each time I see the helpless remains of man (or woman) lie motionless and cold, never to get warm again, I baffle at man's misconception of his world, his mission and his need. That is the transiency of life.

Of course, it all comes to it, that "we hew, tumble, ride in pomp and pageantry but crash," they say, "we must, if the time comes.

As we rise and peak, riding rough shod over others, relishing this or th_t momentary victories, we forget the admonition of the Holy .Book "that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all. " (Ecclessiastes 9:11).

In our usually celebrated ignorance, we have sought the vane glory, the magnificence which indeed is hollow, the pomp and fun which are beset with serial tragedy and the lust underneath which underlines the destruction of generations.

At the end of the day, we grace the reality of our vacuous world and so begin to live in recrimination. Then, just then, it may dawn on us that Shakespeare was right. "In pomp, majesty and panoply, live we how we will but bow we must... "

Today, Nwankwo Anike Ferguson Nnamani takes his final bow, but we have yet to settle how we assess him. Do we take on the magnificent mansions he never built or the quality of offspring? Do we question his capacity to meander the old culture of Agbani and Nkanu and the sweeping colonial/ European values of his time? Do we question his inflexibility and insistence on the set- rules for his chosen profession and career or dismiss him as an unrealistic visioner trying to live the sane in the insan'e world?

Questions, questions, questions!!!. We are in search of answers that will outlive our time.

As he bows, we take consolation in your presence, your kind words and' your support.

In the definitive nature of this very moment, we say with every thankfulness that we are elated by your presence. to witness the final bow.

Indeed Nwankwo Nnamani, my father, has bowed out as his time comes. Matthew 5:13-16: "you are the salt of the earth. If the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown
out and trampled by men (13); a city on a hill cannot be hidden (14); neither do
people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and
it. gives light to every one in the house. (15); in the same way let your light shine. before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your father in heaven. (16)

Let the light of Nwankwo Anike Ferguson Nnamani continue to shine, we say to you this day at Agbani, we proclaim to all men

and women of goodwill, all those whose cares have been his cares, all those whose desires have been his desires, his vision perseveres, his resolve conquers, let his hope endure, his heritage liveth, faith abideth and let the dream never die!

To God be the glory.