In Three Books, Nnabuife Recounts Homecoming, Nature’s Rage
THE Managing Director and Editor- in- Chief of National Light Newspapers, Chuka Nnabuife, is storming the public space with three new publications.
The three books weave into the warp of the past and recollect indelible encounters with developments with their somewhat fictional historicity.
Nnabuife, while addressing newsmen ahead of the public presentation of the three books at the Anambra Newspapers and Publishing Corporation ( ANPC) Event Hall, Awka, Anambra State, Tuesday, March 23, 2021, asserts that journalists write history in a hurry with their daily/ periodic reports while historians latch in on them to churn out their documented history - reports of past events!
According to him, the journalists by their calling as investigators of events and articulators of ideas create works for the benefit of future generations.
He points out that “though putting facts and information into books is mostly about articulation, good understanding of the major properties of issues and steep in written communication skills, not many journalists feature in the turf.
“Where they do, not many establish their passion for legacy or have a nose for engaging developments that are significant for the evolvement of a progressive society.”
Though equally gifted as sculptor, painter, filmmaker, social thinker and active creative mind, Nnabuife hints that his mission is as a writer is to fulfill his duty to make the society functional
According to the author, the books are “vital relevance to our society and our generation’s legacies. “They are my modest contributions to mankind as a writer, social thinker, active journalist and keen articulator of our contemporary history for posterity.
The books are: Homeland Catalysis: More than just Anambra Narratives, which is a 728- page compendium with three sections on Anambra State and Igboland. To Nnabuife, the publication of the books is his own way of admitting: East, West, North or South, home is the best.”
As a journalist who had worked all his life in the West - for about 30 years – until 2014 when he came down to Anambra State to take up appointment with the State government under the watch of Willie Obiano - he was wont to seeing things from the point of view of an outsider-Westerner. But all that changed with the “home- coming”! As he puts it: “I started seeing and articulating things from the prism of of an Anambra nay Igbo man, be they governance or political issues, etc.”
The second book, Mbize: Rage of Red Earth in Igbo Land, is an insight on landslide and devastation by gully erosion in Anambra State, laden with prose and pictorials.
The idea behind the book was the period when, as an Editor staff of the Compass Newspaper, he undertook an assignment to x- ray the level of erosion degradation in Igboland. We visited some erosion sites, but at Nanka gully erosion, my jaw dropped seeing the magnitude of the havoc.”
The observant journalist recollects: “The Nanka erosion spot is contesting for Guineas Book of Records. It is one of the worst erosion sites in the world.”
On return from the assignment, Nnabuife wrote stories about the environmental degradation and a German Foundation working on intellectual and environmental activities thought it wise to adopt it and sponsor its publication.
His target is to get the young ones to know about the realities of erosion threats and develop management plans and solutions. The book is as entertaining as it is engaging.
The third title, Nigeria Civil War ( 1967 — 1970): Holes in Our Rubbles, an investigative reporter’s insight into an often-misrepresented saga. The 184- page book is in two parts.
Part One of the book features accounts of the war by Nigerian Army generals of the war era who served in the fire fronts of the conflicts while Part Two, entitled ‘ Ozoemezina’ features interviews with Biafran Army colonels and war theatre commanders.
The Tuesday, March 23, 2021 preview of the three books heralds the proper public presentation of the books at the Event Hall, ANPC Garden, ( National Light Newspapers), Awka, Anambra State on Saturday, April 14, 2021, at 12 noon.
According to the Chairman of the books’ Public Presentation Committee and Senior Special Adviser to Governor Willie Obiano on Secondary Education, Dr. Paul Ifeanyi, “the three books are classic, though they are fictional. But in the real sense if it, they are not fiction because they reflect realities of life and contain views of real persons talking.