SGF: A VOTE FOR PROFESSOR NWALA
The United States of America is a country ruled by ideas, visions and men[women] of integrity. It is continuously in tune with realities of the times. This was why in the heat of the crusade for the emancipation of the Black Race in the USA in the 1960s, it elected youthful and visionary F.J. Kennedy so as to navigate it to the Promise Land. Kennedy did not only deliver, he saved America by shading his own blood.
Most of America's wonderful modernity achievements are linked to the J.F. Kennedy's glorious feats. In the same vein, when America was tormented by Iran in the 1970s leading to the detention of American forces by Ayatollah Hominy , the US had to do away with Jimmy Carter and beckoned on cow boy Ronald Reagan to rescue the country from international disgrace. As it turned out to be, Reagan re- branded, repositioned and repackaged America that it not only crushed its arch rival, the Communist USSR, it also made capitalism the global thrust of commerce. About two years ago, there was the popular demand for an American President of Black extraction and the God's own country historically elevated Obama to that enviable position. All these are pointers to the fact that America usually pander to the interest of the larger masses.
In contemporary Nigeria, the decision of Ohaneze Ndigbo to submit the name of the indefatigable professor T. Uzodinma Nwala among the prospective candidates to be screened for the position of the Secretary to the Federal Government [SFG], can only be described as a return from amnesia. Historically, it will be the first time an Igbo will be occupying such a position and Uzodinma is a perfect nomination for this spot. Nwala is a former lecturer in philosophy at University of Nigeria, Nsukka. A sound mind, Nwala is a working class intellectual committed to social revolution. He is the author of Mbaise in Contemporary Nigeria, a book that was the first literature that sought to bring Mbaise to national limelight. Although the book was a collection of articles from brilliant Mbaise scholars across the globe on the social, economic, religious, cultural and political ways of life of Mbaise people even as it also dealt with how the clan came into being, Nwala must be given credit for initiating such intellectual work. His other very popular work was Justice on Trial.
With the entry of Nwala as the SFG, Nigeria can be assured that things might be better just as it was with America following the emergence of Kennedy, Reagan or Obama. This is so because Nwala, just like so many Igbo, is a detribalised Nigerian. Going through his thought when he was one of the resource persons for the 1988 Ahiajoku Lectures was quite provoking. The theme of the 1988 Ahiajoku Lecture was: The Igbo Heritage Comment. Nwala delivered a key note address tagged: The Igbo Idea of the Sacred - Contemporary Observance. In his submission, Nwala displayed his intellectual sagacity by arguing against the popular postulation of Cardinal Francis Arinze which stated as follows: 'It is a body of truths, laws and rites [rituals] by which men are subordinated to the transcendent Being.' However, Nwala argued that 'We have qualified this definition by adding that the consciousness may be of transcendent Beings rather than one transcendent Being'. This is Nwala at his best. What he proved in the above quoted text is that he is not a religious bigot who will work to impose his religious beliefs on Nigerians thereby causing disharmony in the polity.
A strong believer in freedom of worship, freedom of speech, freedom of association, free enterprise and an unrepentant promoter of justice, fairness and democratic norms, Nwala hails from Itu, Ezinihitte Mbaise LGA, Imo State. This is how Anogwi Anyanwu, the President General of Mbaise People Congress (MPC) described Nwala. He is a disciplined intellectual who loves dialogue and promotes quality discourse. Nwala is polished and refined.