Calista Ume-Ezeoke:

Your Excellency, I recalled you hosted the Nigerian men’s national soccer team dubbed the Super Eagles by the erstwhile Chief of General Staff, the late Admiral Augustus Aikhomu at the Presidential Villa on Wednesday 30th May, 2018. However, as the nation still nurses the ambition of hosting the Commonwealth family in the near future, it behoves one to ponder on the fate of the nation’s first commonwealth champion, the late super athlete, Major Emmanuel Arinze Ifeajuna, who brought the country’s first major honour in a major international sporting competition way back at the Vancouver 54 Commonwealth Games. But Ifeajuna unlike the biblical Mordecai, who was honoured by King Ahasuerus after the King discovered to his utter disbelief that no honour has been bestowed on a man worthy of honour, it is mind boggling that this record setting sporting hero in spite of his illustrious 2.03m golden leap that pushed Uganda’s Patrick Etolu and Nigeria’s compatriot Osagie Nafsio to the second and third spot with a 1.99m jump has been consistently denied national honours befitting his sporting prowess by successive administrations even when lesser mortals have been adequately rewarded. (The late trail-blazing champion was scandalously excluded from the list of 50 distinguished Nigerians even when those with lesser pedigree in the sporting circuit had their names inscribed in Gold!) . It is on record that the victorious 1980 Green Eagles squad all had houses, cars and national honours;1985 Golden Eaglets had street named after them with scholarship attached; 2007 Eaglets had houses, Saudi 89 Silver winning squad were rewarded with N75,000 and stocks, 3SC 1992 CAF supremo had houses, ditto for Tunisia 1994 Eagles,1996 Dream Team and the super cop Chioma Ajunwa received National honours and N1million each for their efforts; the 2003 CAF Champions league numero uno Enyimba FC are today proud KIA automobile owners, the victorious Delta contingent to the Abuja 2004 national sports festival had N100,000 for gold medalists and a swimming pool to be constructed and named after the pool queen –Blessing Forcados, and those who fulfilled Frenchman Baron Pierre de Coubertin philosophy of participation all got N10,000 each, to cite but few cases.

If the sole reason for ignoring the monumental achievement of this conqueror of the British Empire (at least in High Jump) as being insinuated in certain quarters is his prime role in the January 1966 maiden coup de tat, implying that a coupist cannot be honoured or decorated with national award, then the hogwash proposition is not only laughable but smack of sheer double standard, and the hallmark of travesty and miscarriage of justice. It is an open secret that seasoned coupists and allied conspirators have been duly or unduly honoured with state and national awards while having national and state monuments dotting the entire landscape of the nation named and renamed after them, and have contested (and still contesting) elections at every sphere of national polity (I beg to be corrected)!

What is sauce for the goose should equally be sauce for the gander. Even if the triple Rreconstruction, rehabilitation and reconciliation deliberately excluded Ifeajuna and co, the Obasanjo administration has been magnanimous enough to restore the ranks of officers and men involved in the heady civil war. Thus it is pertinent to ask why the lack of courage in giving honour unto whom honour is due? Or is it a case of a prophet is without honour save his land? Opeyemi Ajala FCA, former sports presenter - Eagles Sports Hour on Eagle Cable Television, Ikeja, Lagos

Can anybody controvert the fact that Anambra State is the home of achievers, who have gained global recognition for their outstanding and sterling performances in their chosen careers and endeavours? Have we forgotten that the late Nnamdi Azikiwe, a freedom fighter, and nationalist par excellence hailed from Anambra State? And, Anambra State is the home-state of Rev. Father Cyprian Iwene Tansi, who has been canonised for sainthood; Chinua Achebe, the iconic , peerless, and inimitable novelist, whose novel ‘Things Fall Apart’ has sold millions of copies; Chief Emeka Anyaoku, the former Commonwealth Secretary General, and many others I will leave out here for the reason of space.

Anambra people who are fiercely patriotic and sedulous, are excelling in many different spheres of human endeavours like sports, trading, music, politics, teaching, and others

In fact, for the past three successive years, teachers who are natives of Anambra State had brought laurels, glories and honour to themselves and their home-state through their uncommon and laudable pedagogic feats. At a time the quality of education obtainable in the country has nose-dived, and teachers in the country are treated cavalierly, they have been working assiduously and relentlessly to mould the personalities of students and impart knowledge to them, effectively.

Thankfully, their hard work and teaching expertise did not go unnoticed, as they received awards and prizes instituted by the government and corporate organisations to reward brilliant, knowledgeable, and sedulous teachers as well as boost their morale and enthusiasm for teaching or pedagogy.

In 2015, the fair-skinned , unobtrusive, and prepossessing Rose Nkem Obi, who hails from Agulu, Anambra State, won the maiden edition of the Nigerian Maltina Teacher Of the Year Competition, which was sponsored by the Nigerian Breweries plc. She received a handsome cash prize for her victory. And in 2017, Clement Okodo,a teacher at Abagana Central School, and a native of Abatete in Anambra State, won the best teacher award for primary school teachers in the country.

Both Rose Nkem Obi (nee Akpulu) and Mr. Clement Okodo are champions of learning and education. And they are very zealous and passionate about imparting knowledge to school children, not minding that teachers in Nigeria are oftentimes neglected and treated with utter disdain. And, despite, the fact that we live in a milieu of Philistinism, and that teachers are not accorded respect in the country, the duo evolved a hands-on and participatory pedagogic methodology of teaching, which earned them prizes and national recognition, and endeared them to their students and pupils.

However, it’s not only Rose Nkem Obi and Clement Okodo, who are the Anambra awardwinning teachers. There is Mrs. Calista Chika Ume-Ezeoke, a native of Umuoji, Anambra State, who has come into her own regarding teaching. Mrs Ume-ezeoke , who is married to a man from Amichi, Anambra State, has earned acclaim, respect of her contemporaries, through her teaching prowess. Today, she has entered the pantheon of Anambra awardwinning teachers.

She was the Lagos State champion of the Nigerian Maltina Teacher of the Year Competition for 2016 and 2017, respectively. And, she was the first runner-up in the 2017 edition of the Nigerian Maltina Teacher Of The Year Competition at the national level.

Those who know her well are not surprised at her winning those priceless teaching diadems, laurels, and prizes. Chiedu Uche OKoye, Uruowulu-Obosi, Anambra State