ONE AMONGST MY MANY INFLUENCES; A PIECE ON AN INTELLECTUAL GIANT

Today I remember one of my intellectual influences in the university days especially in University of Calabar. I will have a valid assessment across planets if I dub him "an intellectual iroko". He was more! 

There was this lecturer who had 13 academic degrees. Among them are 6 PhD's, many Masters.l degrees and many Bachelors. I am not talking about his Diplomas. He was one of the reasons I chose to accept studying Philosophy. His story was first mentioned to me by my then guardian and brother Barr. Bethel Nnaemeka Nwaogwugwu. 

This particular man I am about writing of went as much as having double doctorate in law. That is, he bagged 2 PhD's in law alone. He also had a PhD in Philosophy, PhD in Religious Studies, PhD in Sociology and DD (Doctor of Divinity).

He also read the 4 languages with which the Bible was written and could correct the translations of the Bible using the meaning of the original language and the contextual situation. This is to state that he was also an expert in epistemology and hermeneutics, respectively. 

He was an ordained Catholic Priest but eventually jettisoned his oath of celibacy and took to marriage. He did so after, according to him, he met the Holy Father and asked him why they won't marry as priests and the pontiff told him that it was out of the dogma of the church. He then threw away the dogma and abided by his common will. It was from his interactions I knew for the first time that olden days Catholic Priests married and in fact many of them were polygamists. 

Unlike some myths will say that priests will never be successful after abandoning the priesthood to marry, he had Medical Doctor and Lawyer among his children and other successful professionals as offsprings. He was a successful father, a fulfilled man and a priest without the sacrament till he died, sometime 3 years ago.

As at the time he gave his Inaugural Lecture as a Professor, he was also an undergraduate studying Environmental Protection Management. I won't be surprised to learn further that he may have acquired more other degrees after my knowledge. 

When his profile was being read by one of the greatest orators on this planet earth, Prof. Chris Nwamuo of English and Literary Studies in the University of Calabar, this professor in question was referred to by the University orator, Prof. Nwamuo, as an intellectual maniac. Indeed, that was his best ever picture painted in lucid and candid words. Of course, no artist on earth had the profundity, apt and sublimity of Prof. Chris Nwamuo who painted a zillion satans into saints.

While his profile was being read out during this inaugural lecture, the hall which almost filled to the brim by professors was a silent sea listening to the halo of something seemingly unknown. His character was echoed by the orator such that every other learning seemed incomplete if you never read from the maniac. The day was one huge fulfilment for me and many as me having a god of letters and words in experience expressing profound regards to another god of some encyclopaedic stance. Needless to say that both Professors were intellectual gods. I could abandon my best lecture to listen to Prof. Chris Nwamuo if I heard he was delivering lecture anywhere on campus. I hear people eulogise Barrack Obama on his power of oratory but I ask them to hold on till they hear Prof. Nwamuo speak. Gush! He pronounced the English words and every of its eclectic adumbration as though he personally crafted them. And their sounds came differently alive from his groins and bowls. Haba Prof. Nwamuo!

Well, the profile of the inaugural lecturer was yet another challenge and motivation, not only to students but also, to lecturers and other professors around. And when the reading of the profile was done and it was time for him to deliver his lecture, it wasn't by any dint a lie, this man was an epitome of knowledge. His registers were so rich and versed that we heard Philosophy, Law, Sociology, Religions, and the entire sciences from the same man on the same lecture. That lecture was titled, "Religion Morality and Law: The Inseparable Social Trinity".

Let me state that I can write about this professor inexhaustively even in a million paged narration. And so, you won't have the opportunity of the rest. Maybe those who graced his feet to learn will add more to my short statement on him. But under his tutelage, I learnt that no student should be failed in an examination who put in some effort. With 75% attendance, you cannot fail; that is enough effort. And results were posted on his office door few days after his exams. You will go on holiday with the knowledge of your results. That is how he taught us. 

I may have forgotten most of his intellectual coinages formed from the admixtures of very many disciplines but I always remember his saying that "this is an undemocratic truth". His expressions were an art and craft of many professional languages forming a totally extraordinary dictionary of jargons. I recall his assertion that "they are intrinsically intertwined". Common! 

Today I remember and honour one of my great influences and academic models and mentors, Professor Nwachukwu Silvanus Sunde Iwe.

Wherever he is, Prof. N. S. S. Iwe is an Intellectual Saint.