Ezeoguine’s Books Will Enhance Entrepreneurial Spirit Among Students

The Multipurpose Hall of Federal College of Education (Technical) Akoka, Lagos was jam-packed on Saturday, October 3, for the launch of two books written by a leccturer Ezeoguine Juliana Akunnaya. The two books are Home Economics Education and Entrepreneurship For Self Reliance For Schools and Colleges. The chairman of the occasion, Chief Gerry Ofor (Ukpaka Umuchu) extolled the author for her trailblazing intelligence, adding that he would return to the village with the knowledge he gained from the book to do snail farming.

Dr. Patricia Etuna Mbah did the review of Home Economics Education while Professor Emmanuel Chibundu undertook the review of Entrepreneurship for Self Reliance. The author, Mrs. Ezeoguine, showcases Home Economics as a very broad subject encompassing all other subjects known to man. For instance, the necessity in tailoring or body measurement is an aspect of mathematics. Preservation of food is a branch of chemistry and biology.

Farming methods and soil composition is pure agriculture. Dealing and relating with other people, their emotional disposition and development makes psychology a required study for Home Economists. The author dangles the tantalizing prospect before readers that Home Economics is a profession where people can become self-reliant. Forget the unending visits to companies with unavailable jobs. Worry less about the intimidating glare from interview panels where, more often than not, you are dismissed with a wave of the hand.

From the author’s point of view, any Home Economist of worth can easily be gainfully employed as a caterer, dietician, food technologist, weaver or launderer. The additional advantage for the Home Economist is being your own boss.

In fact Mrs. Ezeoguine would be happy to make a home economist out of every individual. Incidentally, she teaches the subject at Federal College of Education, Akoka, Lagos, and has taught for years in other institutions of higher learning in Nigeria. She is currently studying for a PhD at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State. Home Economics Education: And Emerging Societal Issues in Health & Environment is a not-too-common publication. The author, Ezeoguine Juliana Akunnaya, has not only demonstrated its importance but has also put it where it rightly belongs, right at the doorstep of the general public. Home Economics has a long history, dating back to pre-Independence Nigeria, when it began in Lagos around 1873, as missionaries of the Catholic church “set up marriage training schools…to prepare young girls for motherhood and marriage life.” Domestic Science courses like housewifery, cookery, needlework, home craft and laundry were introduced. The establishment of Queens College in Lagos in 1927 elevated a localized course to a full department: Department of Domestic Science.

The first university to offer a degree programme in Home Economics was the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, which admitted its first students in 1962. Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria followed suit in 1973, a subject now read in half a dozen or so institutions, among them University of Benin, University of Lagos, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife, Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Delta State University, Abraka.

The second book, Entrepreneurship For Self Reliance, is exactly what the title says: a how-to manual on everything from running a business successfully to making household items like cosmetics, disinfectants and consumables. With practice and the right ingredients or chemicals, the reader is taught how to self-produce handy household items like bleach, deodorants, germicide, hair cream, moisturizers, soap, starch, etc, nor does the author gloss over producing consumables like cassava and yam flour, milling rice and other cereals and grains.

Though with more pages and a lot more topics treated in Entrepreneur For Self Reliance than in the first, both books are targeted at students, especially secondary and post-secondary schools, which accounts for study questions at the end of each chapter. With rising unemployment in the country today, Entrepreneur For Self Reliance is a timely and invaluable publication. The author gives a step-by-step account of poultry farming, for instance, and snail production. Students of hotel management and interior deco have something to take away from this book. There is a chapter on floral arrangement, also.
Where the first book has no single illustration, the second comes complete with pictures, diagrams, graphs and sundry drawings.

The husband of the author, Chief Chris Ezeoguine, Chairman and CEO of Santo Cristo Ltd proved a very generous host, alongside his wide array of boys who served the guests efficiently. The double-barrel book launch was graced by eminent dignitaries such as Chief KK Ibedu of the Central Bank of Nigeria; the foremost industrialist and clearing agent Mr. Dona Agupusi; Barrister Vin Ezenwanjiaku, former Anambra State Commissioner of Special Duties; Mr. Luke Muo of the Nigerian Customs Service; distinguished freight forwarder Chief Nestor Ezelibe; eminent impresario Osita Nwankwu etc.