Book: Conscience and History - My Story

Author: Peter Odili

Year of Publication: Not Stated

Publishers: Not Stated

ISBN: 978-978-931-375-4

Reviewer: Chigachi Eke

Email: chigachieke@yahoo.co.uk

"The next few months (after the Biafra/Nigeria war ended January 1970) were most testing and trying. Linking up with the rest of the family, not knowing who survived and who did not, finding old friends on both divides. Ekeing out a living was a day to day affair. It was survival of the fittest and for me the dignity of labour was the key. I was ready mentally to work with my hands to survive, my pedigree was of no issue now. The reality was that I was an orphan, my family fortune had been destroyed by the war, no member of the family was in a position to carry anyone else's burden. So "you must take your destiny in your hand"- I told myself….An old school friend met me at Onitsha, having come Agbor, and gave me one pound. That started me up. I bought and sold bread, garri and toilet soaps from Agbor to Onitsha. In a few weeks I made a few pounds. I changed my clothing and now started thinking of a more appropriate engagement. Through some old friends and using my CKC (Onitsha) background, I got a school teaching job as a science teacher in a Catholic school in Afuze, in now Edo State, through a Rev. Fr. Nolan (Irish, now late) whom I met through auntie Helen Bokolo and her cousin Opene. This teaching job now repositioned me to pursue my interrupted academic ambition of becoming a medical doctor.

"In 1966 as a lower 6 student in CKC I had secretly sat and passed the entrance exam to University College Ibadan but by September 1966 the Nigerian crisis had reached a point where people were beginning to head home. I therefore aborted the resumption at Ibadan….(After the war) I secured admission to study medicine starting with the premedical year at the main campus at Nsukka. From my savings from my teaching job at Afuze and a little support from late Rev. Nolan, I managed to pay my deposit tuition of 20 pounds but could not pay for the hostel accommodation. Luckily I met some students who were luckier and so I squatted in room 101 Awolowo hall with Innocent Masi with whom I shared old family ties from Omoku….I bought a 6 spring mattress which I would fold in the morning and tuck under one of the beds and pull out at night for sleep. Not being an official boarder, dining in the refectory was out of the question unless I got a meal ticket from one of my friends. So I made do with snacks and soft drinks bought from kiosks most of the time. I focused on my mission-studying to qualify to the medical school at Enugu campus. Nothing else mattered. This was my situation, I had 2 sets of 2nd hand shirts and trousers and a pair of snickers rubber soled shoes all through that year, washing and changing them alternately. This was the situation until Gen. Yakubu Gowon visited Nsukka and declared free tuition and feeding for 'indigent students'. I was a beneficiary and life became more comfortable.

"….I passed my premed year exams and moved over to the medical school at Enugu campus of the University of Nigeria. I left Nsukka with one firm resolve "to kill indigence for good in the subsequent years." As soon as I settled down to the 1st medical year in October 1971 I started planning how to kill 'poverty'. Luckily I was fairly sociable and so interactively I picked up information that one could earn as much as 40 pounds per week working as a labourer in a factory abroad during long vacation. And so I started working towards a vacation trip early in my first year at Enugu campus. I secured my first international passport as a first step. The session ended and I was still hanging around on campus when fortune came knocking. One hitch hiking Swiss student got stranded in Enugu and came to the hostel to seek shelter. The hostel security men brought him to my room for assistance. After chatting with him for a few minutes I was satisfied he was genuine though he looked disheveled and dirty-stenchy indeed. I took him in, he had a bath, I gave him a change of T-shirt and took him to eat at the bukka. We got friendly and got talking and knowing ourselves. He turned out to be the son of a Swiss professor with a mother who was a PhD Psychologist, intellectual and practitioner and had a step brother who was a young medical doctor, all resident in Zurich. He was a student of history but was 'rebelliously' touring Africa.

"Through this contact I secured a letter of invitation to Switzerland with which I got an 8 week visa to Switzerland. With my little saving and loan of 15 pounds from my eldest sister Regina (Osademe, nee Odili), I made up the 30 pounds for the return ticket to Zurich and had $10 balance. I set out for Zurich by Swissair flight from Lagos. I was met by my Swiss friend's brother Mathew, he took me to a penthouse apartment he was sharing with his girlfriend and gave me a little room to stay. Within a few minutes I had told him what my mission was- to find a job to earn money and go back to school and put an end to indigence.

"By the end of the next day I secured a job at a construction site, the pay was 9 SFr per hour for 8 hrs/day and 150% for overtime. Yours truly jumped at the offer and worked like hell. At the end of the vacation I came back home a 'rich' student. I paid off the loan, paid off my fees for the next session, had a brand new wardrobe, one of the best on campus and set aside money for the next vacation. Life had taken a turn for the better. The next session was now more comfortable, I faced my studies, I became popular amongst my mates….Next vacation I made it to London and secured two vacation jobs, a day job in a brewery as a labour hand and the other a lift cleaning job at a hotel at night. Both jobs netted about 80 pound/week for me. At the end of the vacation I was able to buy a used Fiat car and shipped it home. I put the car into use as a taxi in Enugu. It made an average of N15/day. Level had changed, I was now easily one of the rich students on campus out of sheer will and determination stimulated by 'indigence'. My exposure on these trips showed me that it could also pay to buy and sell goods. And so with subsequent vacations I bought clothes and shoes for sale to students. I had become a source of support to my family and friends.

"My academics did not suffer as a result of these extracurricular exploits, rather the exposures matured me beyond my peers….I graduated in June 1977 as a medical Doctor- a dream come true. Life on campus was quite unique, the medical curriculum was structured so intensively that it left the conscientious student little or no room for socialisation. It took extra effort to relate and interact with non-medics who appeared to have more time on their hands. However, destiny had programmed me to meet my wife Mary on campus and that for me was all the socialization that mattered. It's a story for another page."

Mynd44:
Fact-checking the fact checkers.

Eketem:


Your bias is claring and sad.
The irony is lost on you that you are fact checking people whose history is known and documented but defending those whose history is questionable.

You refuse to take threads where actual evidence exists on a candidates fake history to the front page but dance around this one.

Such a shame, just as I guessed you rushed this one to the front page without traction but the one that had over 7 pages with real evidence that a candidate falsified his history you ignored.

There is no level playing field.

BluntCrazeMan:
Three Days Later.


And they are still talking about this??

Mynd44:
Fact-checking the fact checkers.

uwemetok:
Hope y’all fact checking agbado’s biography as well, that is if he has any.

Mynd44:
Fact-checking the fact checkers.

Mynd44:
Fact-checking the fact checkers.

Mynd44:
Fact-checking the fact checkers.

ALTERNATEID:
We all know Peter Obi is a crook and a shameless liar who lie just about almost everything.

NotKnown:


Cry me a river Nigeria must be great next year.

PrinceOfLagos:

Peter Obi is dia father , No cap