Professor Ebere Onwudiwe: A salute to mentorship

[Okey Iheduru]

Below is a piece I wrote about Ebere Onwudiwe as a back-page Thursdays weekly columnist for Business Day (Lagos) newspaper published on November 26th, 2009. I thought the write-up is still fitting today as we mourn Ebere's passing.

Okey Iheduru

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Professor Ebere Onwudiwe: A salute to mentorship

 

by okey c. iheduru

business day, Thursday, 26 November 2009 00:02

 

http://www.businessdayonline.com/ARCHIVE/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6386:professor-ebere-onwudiwe-a-salute-to-mentorship&catid=96:columnists&Itemid=539

 

For the second time, this column has appeared without the photograph and by-line of Ebere Onwudiwe who recruited me into, and with whom I have jointly written, this column since January 15, 2009. When we initiated this joint-column, the first of its kind in Nigerian journalism, we had in mind the famous Siskel & Ebert at the Movies, an American film review column appearing in the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper, and later online, co-hosted by Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert. The effable duo also wrote for two television programs, Sneak Previews, for a combined 23 years. Mr. Siskel died in 1999, while Mr. Ebert stopped writing in 2006 for health reasons, but their movie reviews are now syndicated to more than 200 newspapers in the United States and worldwide.

While we never got anywhere near the reputation and accomplishments of our role models, I would like to think that our joint column developed a substantial fan base that frequently challenged us to continue raising the bar for high quality fact-based, policy-oriented contemporary and comparative analyses of topical political and economic issues which Business Day readers have come to expect. I know, because we heard from our readers both by e-mail and on this newspaper’s comments and discussion boards.

It is therefore with mixed feelings that I formally announce that Onwudiwe, a professor of Political Science, an economist, and public intellectual, has moved on to pursue other humanity-elevating interests. His influence will continue to be reflected in this column as we move forward. More importantly, our just ended experiment remains a quintessential model of sustainable mentoring relationship from which we can all learn a few lessons.

The dictionary defines ‘mentor’ as a ‘wise man…and trusted guide and advisor.’ The verb form means to ‘serve as a teacher or trusted counsellor.’ In my book, mentorship refers to a developmental relationship in which a more experienced or more knowledgeable person helps a less experienced or less knowledgeable person—who can be referred to as a protégé, or apprentice—to develop in a specified capacity. That Professor Onwudiwe embodies these elements of mentorship is an understatement. Due to space limitations, only a few examples of his long track record will suffice.

Professor Onwudiwe single-handedly developed the study, teaching and celebration of African studies at Central State University (CSU) in Wilberforce, Ohio, USA where he began an illustrious teaching career in 1986. He not only founded a Center for African Studies that raised the visibility and national profile of that university, he single-handedly turned it into a Title 6 National Resource Centre, one of only 15 such centers directly funded by the Federal Government in the United States. CSU, a historically black college and university (HBCU), began to receive program funding on the same level with African studies power houses, such as Michigan State University, Indiana University, University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and Columbia University in New York.

While the American economy has been robust enough to absorb thousands of African, but especially nearly 10,000 Nigerian academics, more than 85 per cent of them are employed in institutions that offer pitiful, if any, research and travel grant opportunities. Professor Onwudiwe used the resources of his centre at CSU to support his less fortunate brothers and sisters (especially social scientists and humanities scholars) in North America, Africa and Nigeria by organizing all-expense paid research conferences and workshops that also inserted Africa’s own voice into the discourse on Africa’s future. The resulting academic papers, conference proceedings, and eventualy peer-reviewed journal articles enabled many Africans to earn the much coveted tenure in American universities that have recently ratcheted up tenure requirements. The most famous and seminal product of Professor Onwudiwe’s mentorship remains Afro-Optimism: Perspectives on Africa’s Advances published by Praeger in 2002 containing over a dozen works by African scholars which he also edited.

By 1996, Onwudiwe was already a tenured full professor and Executive Director of International Programs, as well as director of African Studies Centre at CSU. Rather than enjoy his elevated position of privilege, he revived the hitherto moribund Journal of Human Relations, changed its name to The International Journal of African Studies (IJAS), and became its editor from 1997 to 2007. The IJAS has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles, 90 per cent of them written by African academics whose scholarship often rarely make it into mainstream Eurocentric journals for reasons too complex to discuss here. Of the journal’s four ‘special issues’, the winter 2005 issue on ‘Democratic Development in Nigeria: Perspectives of the Nsukka School’ and the winter 2007 issue on ‘Igbo Political History’ (comprising 10 world-class papers) stand out as a testament to his commitment to providing expertise to less experienced individuals to help them advance their careers, enhance their education, and build their networks, even nudging them to aspire to outshine him. Thanks to Ownudiwe, scholarship on Igbo political history has been rescued one step from a quarter century of arrested development while the Nsukka School received invaluable global exposure unobtainable through locally published scholarship of sometimes dubious quality.

I am proud to be Professor Onwudiwe’s protégé, and I promise to build on what I learned from the master. He is still very much around, but only now mentoring the top echelon of the Nigerian military to re-orientate and reposition itself ‘as a professional, human rights-respecting and people-friendly institution at all times [to] win the hearts and minds of their Nigeria brothers and sisters.’ Please join me, this American Thanksgiving day in saluting this apostle of mentorship. We wish him well as the chief executive officer, FUTeLIV KONSULT and director of the comprehensive community relations project targeting the entire Armed Forces of Nigeria.

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Okey C. Iheduru

e-mail: okeyi...@gmail.com

[Harrow, Kenneth]

thank you, okey, for this moving tribute. more than accomplishments that redounded to ebere's own success are those you signalled that affected the careers of others in need of the helping hand--which all of us needed from the very beginning of our careers.

you wrote this inspiring paragraph: "While the American economy has been robust enough to absorb thousands of African, but especially nearly 10,000 Nigerian academics, more than 85 per cent of them are employed in institutions that offer pitiful, if any, research and travel grant opportunities. Professor Onwudiwe used the resources of his centre at CSU to support his less fortunate brothers and sisters (especially social scientists and humanities scholars) in North America, Africa and Nigeria by organizing all-expense paid research conferences and workshops that also inserted Africa’s own voice into the discourse on Africa’s future. The resulting academic papers, conference proceedings, and eventualy peer-reviewed journal articles enabled many Africans to earn the much coveted tenure in American universities that have recently ratcheted up tenure requirements. The most famous and seminal product of Professor Onwudiwe’s mentorship remains Afro-Optimism: Perspectives on Africa’s Advances published by Praeger in 2002 containing over a dozen works by African scholars which he also edited. "

along with recognizing ebere onweudiwe's accomplishment here, we should tip our hats to toyin falola who has done just this work, made this his life's goal, as well. his publication support for the work of others, his conference organizing and participation, has been based on the principles you enumerate above.

and i imagine it is true to say that many on this listserv have taken inspiration to try to do the same in their own small way as well.

k

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu

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Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Professor Ebere Onwudiwe: A salute to mentorship

 

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[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

Superb article

[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

Very true from Ken about Falola

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