Udeme Nana: Looking 30 at 60 with flowers of beautiful ideas
By Substance Udo-Nature
It is instructive that at 60, Dr. Udeme Nana is not celebrated amongst friends as an aristocrat with a skyscrapper in Shelter Afrique or Lamborgorinis sleeping in his garage, but for his quiet intellectual incursions, populist initiatives, and altruistic impact on humanity
NIGERIA is not a place citizens ordinarily would be so proud to disclose their age, let alone be so excited about celebrating it at the turn of the year. Flaunting one’s actual age could be a big risk that can betray one’s latest affidavit of age declaration if opportunities with strict age limit surfaces. In Nigeria, age is a delicate matter, a secret weapon to smash or snatch scarce opportunities. That’s because Nigeria has panel-beaten and tinkered Nigerians in so callous a way that discussions about age is approached with discreet caution. That’s also why, were age to be measured essentially by one’s accomplishments in pace with time, so many Nigerians would have forgotten their birthdays. Many would be so shy of their present status and station to be so excited to pop Champaign bottles on such days in a country that “is a dream killer… with terrible governments that destroy lives”, to quote the sanctimonious leader of UK’s Conservative Party, Olukemi Badenoch.
But in spite of all, trust Nigerians. They still proudly celebrate their birthdays. They do so largely because of the God-Factor. In a place where everything goes against the waves, seeing another day and another year can only be by grace, a big achievement not to be taken for granted. So, unlike the Bedenochs, there are still Nigerians who are patriotic optimists. Diehard Nigerians. Resilient Nigerians who, although they’ve been around all their life and can boast of having seen it all, they still strongly believe in the country with flourishing solidarity and refreshing hope that things can change for good the very moment Nigerians are allowed to elect their leaders, not selection by megalomaniac godfathers who have partitioned the country amongst themselves. Amongst these optimists and patriots is Dr. Udeme Nana.
Born today in 1965, the sexagenarian, visionary, poet, journalist, eminent scholar, mentor, philanthropist, inventor, celebrated writer and communication expert, is proud to mark his Diamond Jubilee in Nigeria many have deserted and are deserting because of their weak survivalist instincts and utopian dreams. Sixty years ago, he set out on life’s journey with faith and a handy answer to William Shakespeare’s existentialist inquiry in the tragedy of Hamlet: “To be or not to be!” Ask Dr. Nana about the magic of surviving for six long decades in the country of his birth where lifespan for men averages 47 to 50-something, he simply would ask you for time to develop a full doctoral thesis on the subject, for general good.
Accomplishment-wise, Dr. Nana is not ashamed of his 60th birthday. But he is not celebrating it at any stadium. He’s not among them. I’ve seen even unemployed Nigerians get a bank loan and close major roads just to gratify crowds with make-beliefs on their birthdays. Not Dr. Nana. He is one who lives contented with what he has at his disposal. His is an austere simplicity who is neither a wet blanket nor an Epicurean. But I have to advise him not to hide under the sophistry of “low key” and deprive well-wishers from clinking bottles. Interestingly, I personally don’t celebrate my birthday. I don’t vilify those who do. I celebrate every day I survive as a divine miracle given the untold story of my life and the times we live.
Dr. Udeme Nana
When Dr. Nana told me about a fortnight ago he is turning 60 on April 12, 2025, I resisted the temptation to doubt him. He doesn’t look it. If not for his practised self-discipline, he still catches the roaming eyes of concupiscent sweet-sixteens. And with just an affidavit, Dr. Nana can declare age today and still be eligible for a call up to the camp of the U-23 national football squad. So, while I was cooking this article, I shot a simple question at the birthday boy: Doc, what’s the secret that you’re looking 30 at 60 in a country like ours? His succinct response turned out to be a billion-dollar tutorial and elixir for simple living which I felt guilty making cheap and public the way I’m doing courtesy of this essay.
Hear him: “Take life easy. Declutter your mind and don’t keep or nurture any grudge. Don’t measure your life with the standards of others. Do everything in moderation, and exercise. I walk, I play table tennis. I don’t let unpleasant experiences to overwhelm me and I don’t allow circumstances to act on me. Rather. I try to take charge and act as the master of my fate. I do what I can and what I can’t, I let go. I rest and relax and don’t worry over situations I can’t change. I don’t worry about things beyond my control.” Waoo!
Nana’s life journey could not have been a walk in the park. It has not been a ‘hollow ritual”, a parasitic existence or aimless adventure of lamentations. He surely has his stories. By idiosyncrasy, Dr. Nana neither walks fast nor slow, but is always surefooted and focused on whatever he sets his eyes and mind upon. He remains one of the potent species on a fine soil and ambassadors of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka of its glory days, superfluously equipped with gold-plaited skills set that perpetually has made him a cynosure wherever he goes. Dr. Nana doesn’t compete, but would never lose in any fair competition. And he knows how quietly to set records without boasting, without gloating. He became a paragon of youth resourcefulness with his public service testimonial of having served as Media Adviser to two former governors of Akwa Ibom State, Obong Victor Attah and Sen. Godswill Akpabio between 1999 and 2008.
Thereafter, he yielded modestly to nobler causes and strong intellectual stimuli that escorted him majestically to the Ivory Tower. As a Chief Lecturer at Akwa Ibom State Polytechnic, Ikot Osurua, he has groomed and cloned and is grooming and cloning galaxies of stars. One of Dr. Nana’s intellectual flagship is the Uyo Book Club (UBC) he founded in 2015. I was curious about the background to the story. So, again I reached out to the visionary.
He told me: “I noticed the drop in the level of depth and deep thinking, low attention span, lack of comprehension, poor expression, poor quality of mindset, poor attitude, exhibition of poor values, tendencies, pursuits by folks in the society and general erosion of high ideals among people. I know that reading, apart from helping in the refinement of people, helps groom people to function better in the society. There are things that someone who has been exposed to books thoroughly won’t do. Overall, my personal motivation was to see how one could, through mobilizing folks to embrace reading, can start the movement towards building a new Nigerian society”.
What a lofty idea!
Uyo Book Club is for anybody who can read and write who loves reading and writing. Hence, the mission and message are clear: Revival of the dead reading culture in Akwa Ibom, nay Nigeria, and encouraging as many that can see essence to support the renaissance. Just that I have my reservations. It is almost fitting that the cozy venue that hosts the sessions, donated pro bono by the CEO of Watbridge Hotels, Sen. Ekong Sampson, an incurable bibliophile and bibliomaniac, is named Shakespeare’s Hall. I’ve observed that all the portraits hung on the walls of the venue are those of “outsiders” – and deservedly so: Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Ngugi Wa Thiongo, etc. Maybe the next icon shall be Chimamanda Adichie.
This crudely suggests, and mischievously mocks, the condonable reality that Akwa Ibom has no writers with faces deserving a space on the enviable backdrop. Sad. That must be one subterranean challenge Dr. Nana has left on the table even for this writer. We must, for history and necessity, rise from pleasure reading to creative writing of competitive value in global reckoning. In an article titled, “Overcoming the Fear of Books”, Lizza Fritscher, a freelance writer with interest in phobias, argued that lack of fondness for reading limits life’s chances. She then prescribes a cure for bibliophobia, fear of books, which she calls “exposure treatment”. With the prescriptive therapy, “You are exposed to the object of your fear in a safe, controlled environment, to help you overcome the fear of and break the cycle of avoidance”. Uyo Book Club adequately qualifies for a bibliotherapy – using reading materials as tools in solving personal problems or for psychiatric solutions”.
That’s by the way.
In 2015 when Nana celebrated his Golden Jubilee, he didn’t look any younger or less charming than he is today, smiling infectiously and promisingly. The divine interpretation to this is that when you look 30 at 60, you must see yourself as an indispensable workman on God’s register of workmen. It means that God still has many uncompleted and fresh earth projects for Dr. Nana to supervise, to initiate, to complete. The arithmetical dimension to the unction is that Dr, Nana potentially has opportunity to be closer to immortality than Methuselah before he down tools from his impactful human toil.
Live on Doc.! Grow chubbier cheeks; keep carving moons out of a wood, with more beautiful flowers of fruitful ideas!
