• Gov to forward bill to Imo Assembly for establishment of centre

The Imo State Government has confirmed that the postponed 2025 annual Ahiajoku Lecture Series will now take place in the first quarter of next year. It was earlier shifted in September and November.

Also, a bill to formally spell out the establishment of the Ahiajoku Centre as a pan-Igbo affair, including all aspects of funding the centre and its activities, would soon be sent to the Imo State House of Assembly by the Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma.

The annual lecture was started by the late Chief Sam Mbakwe administration in 1979, and a total of 28 lectures have taken place, delivered by renowned Igbo scholars drawn from the seven states (Imo, Abia, Anambra, Enugu, Ebonyi, Delta and Rivers).

Briefing some journalists at the weekend in Owerri on the recent development, the Director-General (DG) of the Ahiajoku Centre, Nze Ray Emeana, disclosed that the same guest lecturer, Bishop Godfrey Igwebuike Onah, would still present his intellectual harvest paper.

Onah is the Bishop of the Nsukka Catholic Diocese and an academic.

According to Emeana, the cleric would speak on “The Future of Igbo Economy Amidst the Challenges of Insecurity: A Call for Paradigm Shift.”

He hinted that the lecture, which was billed for November but is now fixed for the first quarter of next year, was shifted due to the tension, especially the peak of Nnamdi Kanu’s trial and other attendant build-up that resulted as circumstantial issues of the period, adding that another lecture would take place in the usual period of November next year, while the Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, would unveil the next lecturer.

The DG of the centre disclosed that the six dominant Igbo-speaking states were working in tandem with Imo (the home of Ahiajoku) to ensure the sustenance of the intellectual cultural harvest.

He informed that the series were crafted to showcase the rich cultural intellectual values of the Igbo, dismissing the notion by some persons that it was a fetish enterprise.

His appointment as the DG, he stressed, has revived the centre into a viable venture, noting that massive renovation work had been carried out on the structure and its environment.

He said: “After consultations, it was agreed to be postponed to allow tension to calm down. Other developments led to the change of date. It was a painful decision. We are working hard with the Imo governor to fix the lecture in the first quarter of next year. Many invited personalities had prepared to arrive before the postponement. Some who arrived were informed, and they understood the circumstances. The next lecturer for 2026 has been chosen. He will be announced by the governor.

“Also, the governor will soon send a bill to the Imo State House of Assembly for its eventual passage into law establishing the Ahiajoku Centre.

“Before the lecture was shifted, we had planned to honour the 28 lecturers who have delivered lectures at one point or the other. We are also giving a posthumous honour to the late Sam Mbakwe, who started it; others include Am. Guis Anoka, Chief I.D. Nwoga, Dr Ihechukwu Madubuike, among others.”

Speaking on the expansion of the various sustainable sub-activities, Emeana disclosed that a research and tradition section, a digital library, a three-volume compendium of all the lectures delivered (from 1979 to 2019), a museum gallery, a platform for the preparation of various soups, a yam barn, the Ezeji (yam) festival to encourage farmers, a fan club, and registration of interested individuals who would contribute to the growth of the centre had started.

He hinted that he had undertaken tours of some European countries, including Germany, where prominent Igbo persons reside, to inform them about the resuscitation of the centre, funding, and ideas to expand its activities, adding that the responses were enormous.

He added, “We are going to have post-Ahiajoku lecture seminars and workshops to brainstorm on the past lectures; the Echeruo Exhibition Hall and so on. In Germany and the UK, which I visited, Igbo people have Igwebuike, Obi Igbo Nike, where they congregate and discuss Igbo issues.

“All the Commissioners for Culture in the seven states are members of the planning committee of the Ahiajoku lecture. It is a pan-Igbo affair.”