Dear Folks,
Hope you all remember our very dear Prof. Ezenwa Ohaeto the great Nigerian poet and scholar par excellence who died few years back. Ezenwa Ohaeto is best known for his authoritative biograpghy of Chinua Achebe and his legendary books of poems "Chants of a minstrel", "I wan be president", "the voice of the night masquerade" and his scholarly publication "Contemporary Nigerian Poetry and the poetics of Orality". His memory has been immortalized by his amiable wife, Dr Ngozi Ezenwa-Ohaeto who built a Library/Resource Centre in his honour at Awka. The centre which situates on the top floor of a storey building erected by the wife is supposed to serve as a community library, a book collecting centre, an art gallery, a research centre and a training school for developing young talents in the literary arts. According to Ngozi Ezenwa-Ohaeto, her husband had a very rich library and she desires to keep Ezenwa's memory alive by making the rich library resource easily accessible to people.
Located strategically within the precinct of AHOCOL Phase III Housing Estate just about a kilometre from Nnamdi Azikiwe University, it is fast becoming a beehive of activities. The centre was commissioned on Thursday 31st March, 2011, Ezenwa Ohaeto's birthday under the Chairmanship of Eugene Nwana, a Professor of Plant Entomology and a one-time Deputy Vice Chancellor at Nnamdi Azikiwe University. The colourful ceremony was attended by eminent scholars like the Vice- Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Professrs Odia Ofeimun, Charles Nnolim, Kalu Uka and many others. It was eulogies for Ezenwa Ohaeto. The recitation of his poem "if to say I be soja" by a secondary school pupil whose performance can better be imagined than described resonated with emotions and tears for the dead Ezenwa.
It is all praise to Ngozi Ezenwa-Ohaeto, a gem and epitome of African womanhood. Her love and commitment to keeping the dreams and memory of his husband alive is most commendable. As her dreams start to crystallize it has become obvious that she needs to be assisted and that is why I write you all. On a casual visit I was moved by her industry, I saw her personally shelving the books while many other volumes of books littered the floor begging for more book shelves.
The library has enormous space for books, book shelves, and computers for the proposed digital library. The centre is also in dire need of indoor equipment and backbone facilities for internet and even funds for recruiting staff to service the centre. How else can Ezenwa whose "record of … fellowships, and foreign visiting appointments (eight in ten years) is one yet to be equaled by any Nigerian scholar or Professor in any intellectual field of endeavour" according to Charles Nnolim, be best immortalized.
I have no special affiliation to the centre except that I was and still is Ezenwa's admirer and colleague before his demise; I am not employed by Ngozi his wife to solicit for assistance for the centre but I asked her permission to see how best we can assist in actualizing the dream.
Folks and comrades, you can benefit immensely from this resource. Our brothers and sisters in diaspora can find very useful and out-of-print books in the rich library and will find it useful as a research centre. I implore you to help sustain this centre through visitation and material support. You can contact Ngozi at n_ezenwa@yahoo.com or the Centre Director at profezenwaohaetoresourcecentre@gmail.com.
I call on you all to help keep "the voice of the night masquerade" and the "chants of the minstrel" on.
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