[Naijanet] EKWUEME : THE MAN PIUS OKIGBO
jojo
Tuesday, October 24, 2000
The man Pius Okigbo
By Alex Ekwueme
IT was January 1940. I had just returned to my village Oko at age seven after
moving from mission station to mission station with my father who was a CMS
(Anglican) Church teacher. I started school at the CMS Central School,
Ekwulobia which was the only school in the then Isuofia (Aguata) Court Area to
read up to Standard 6. One half a mile away from us was the St. Joseph's Roman
Catholic Mission School (RCM) Ekwulobia which then read only up to Standard 4.
Thereafter, the pupils went on to continue their schooling at Adazi, the RCM
Headquarters nine miles away.
Mr. Okigbo, the father of Lawrence, Pius, Christopher and others, and uncle of
Bede, Goody and others was the Headmaster at St. Joseph's's RCM Ekwulobia.
Pius was then in his last year at Christ the King's College (CKC) Onitsha and
only visited Ekwulobia during the holidays, occasionally modelling the cream
and blue striped CKC blazer much admired by primary school pupils.
In those days, the educational system in Eastern Nigeria consisted of an
eight-year primary school section starting with Infant Class 1, then Infant
Class II and then continuing to Standard 1 through Standard 6. Invariably, the
primary school section was preceded by at least two years of "Vernacular
Classes" which would add up to 10 years of schooling before admission to
secondary school. Since many children started school as late as age 8, it was
not unusual in those days to see boys and girls (or rather men and women)
completing primary school at age 18 or later! But there were a fortunate few,
especially children of church and school teachers (including Pius and me), who
grew up in a mission environment moving from one mission station to another as
our parents went on posting or transfer, who could not actually pinpoint when
exactly they started schooling. Such children were able to complete primary
school at 14 or even 13 or 12.
The secondary school system itself was generally of four years duration only,
running from Form 1 through Form 4, except for the Government Colleges (Kings,
Queens, Ibadan, Umuahia, etc) which ran a six-year secondary school programme
running from Class 1 through Class 6. In the standard four-year secondary
schools especially those run by private proprietors, students were allowed to
sit for the Junior Cambridge Certificate examination at the end of their
second year (Form 2) and for the Senior Cambridge Certificate examination at
the end of their fourth year (Form 4). In the early 1940s, the mission four
year colleges introduced a preparatory year, and in the mid-1940s the
government colleges permitted their students to sit for the Senior Cambridge
Certificate examination at the end of their fifth year (Class V) so that in
practice, most secondary schools then had a five-year programme leading to the
School Certificate examinations. This was before the introduction of the
Higher School Certificate programme in the early 1950s. But I digress.
Back to Pius Nwabufo Charles Okigbo. He was at CKC for only four years and
passed the Senior Cambridge School Certificate examination at 16 in December
1940 in Grade I with exemption from the University of London matriculation
examination. Bearing in mind that the minimum age for matriculation in London
University was 17 at that time, it was obviously no mean feat for a pupil in
"backward" colonial Africa to qualify for matriculation at 16. But that was
Pius.
The principal institution for higher education in Nigerian in 1940 was the
Yaba Higher College; a colonial institution designed to produce trained
African man power for the public service, and accordingly not degree-granting,
so as not to present a competitive threat to the "European posts" which were
then the exclusive preserve of the expatriates. So it is that Yaba produced
"Masters" and not "Education Officers", Medical Assistants (later Assistant
Medical Officers) but not Medical Officers; Engineering and Surveying
Assistants rather than Engineers and Surveyors. Pius Nwabufo Charles Okigbo
(PNC) could have fitted into any of the disciplines offered at Yaba because he
was just as good in the Science and Mathematics as he was in the Arts and
Languages. But he chose to read "Arts" for a Teachers Diploma, first at Yaba
and then because of the war situation at Achimota in the then Gold Coast.
He completed his Diploma programme and in between he had passed the London
University Intermediate B.A. examination. He returned to Onitsha and elected
to teach in a private second school rather than in a Catholic secondary
school, a decision which ruffled some feathers in the Catholic Church
hierarchy. Many secondary school teachers in Onitsha at the time, not having
the opportunity for university education (the University College Ibadan was
opened in late 1948) had no option but to study privately for external degrees
of the University of London. In this, they could draw inspiration from such
legendary and pioneering personages as Alvan Ikoku who as a trained teacher
and later superintendent of schools, was able to take an external honours
degree in philosophy from the University of London after which he established
Aggrey College in Arochukwu which represented a model for private school
proprietorship in Eastern Nigeria and made a tremendous contribution to
secondary education in the region.
At this time I had just entered King's College but had always spent my
holidays at Onitsha with my in-law, Pa J. A. Ifeajuna at Umuasele Quarters in
the Inland Town. For his brilliance (and for a few other escapades not
relevant here) Pius was well known in Onitsha academic and social circles. His
multi-talented capacity for multi-disciplinary work was astonishing and
inspiring. Until his (and Chike Obi's with an external MSc in Mathematics and
a few others') emergence on the academic scene, those who then took external
degrees of London University managed to scrape a pass or at best a Third Class
Honours. There was the very occasional 2nd Class Honours (Lower Division). But
Pius shattered all that myth. Not only did he, after obtaining the
Intermediate B.A., also obtain the Intermediate B.Sc. (Economics) and the
Intermediate LL, B of London University, when he did offer himself for the
final B.A. examination, he came out with a 2nd Class Honours (Upper Division)
degree. There was, of course, no doubt that if he had been an internal degree
student, he would have come out in the First Class, possibly Pius in First
Class! So whenever, as secondary school boys, we walked along the streets of
Onitsha and sighted Pius, we would say to ourselves and sometimes to his
hearing: "P.N.C. Okigbo: B.A. 2nd Class Honours Upper Division in History,
Inter LL.B., Inter B.Sc Econs". Remarkably, I still used to salute him in
those terms, to our mutual amusement, until his death, except that from 1948 I
used to add the words "Development Officer" at the end. There is no doubt that
Pius' grounding in History, Economics and Law, inspired me when I decided to
take my first degree, a B.A. from the University of London, to offer the
subjects, History, Philosophy and Constitutional Law.
Pius' brilliance, indeed genius, could not go unnoticed. When, therefore the
colonial authorities decided to emphasize grassroots development in their
Nigerian colony and to elevate capable Nigerians to the "European post" of
Development Officer, there was just no way they could ignore a person like
Pius. He was so appointed. While working as a Development Officer, he
completed the London B.Sc degree in Economics again coming out with a Second
Class Upper Division Honours. Thenceforth, Economics became the major field of
his interest.
To be continued.
It was perhaps part of the then colonial educational policy of Britain to
brainwash Nigerians into believeing that all American degrees were
sub-standard, cheap and worthless compared to degree from British
universities. However, it was no longer possible to sustain this fiction in
the second half of the 20th century in view of the enormous scientific and
economic studies which the United States had made. The Nigerian colonial
government therefore set up an office styled the "Committee for African
Students in North America" (CASNA) in the Nigerian Secretariat at Broad
Street/Marina to advise prospective students wishing to study in Northern
America on choice of universities, courses, fees, orientation, etc.
In 1952 the British Government decided to allow some colonial students to
participate in the Fullbright exchange programme of the Untied State
Department of State as part of the UK quota. Nigeria's first four Fullbright
scholars consisted of two postgraduate students and two undergraduate students
selected deto study Economics and Comparative Government respectively (at
postgraduate level) and Architecture & Urban Planning and Geology respectively
(at the undergraduate level). By some stroke of good fortune, both Pius and I
were among the lucky four: Pius to study Economics at Northwestern University,
Evanston, Illinois, and my humble self to study Architecture and Urban
Planning at the University of Washington, Settle, Washington.
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