HOUSTON, TEXAS – May 5, 2025 — The Omambala Cultural Association in Houston hosted a vibrant and heartfelt Mother’s Day celebration on Sunday evening at the Igbo Catholic Community Hall on Creekbend. The event brought together families and community members to honor the enduring strength, love, and sacrifices of mothers within the Igbo community.

Led by the association’s president, Ichelle Awkuzu, the Isaaka of Igboland, the gathering featured prayers, cultural music, dance, and speeches dedicated to celebrating motherhood. Awkuzu described the event as a moment of reflection and appreciation for mothers, emphasizing their central role in shaping families and preserving cultural values.

The association’s president, Ichelle Awkuzu, the Isaaka of Igboland, addressing the group.

Celebrants celebrate at the Omambala Cultural Association’s Mother’s Day celebration on Sunday evening at the Igbo Catholic Community Hall in Houston.

Celebrants

“Mothers are the heartbeat of our homes and the foundation of our culture,” Awkuzu said, urging attendees to honor and support mothers every day, not just on special occasions.

The celebration included lively performances of traditional Igbo music and dance, homemade meals prepared by members, and the presentation of thoughtful gifts to each mother in attendance. Vice President Chief Ugochukwu Chukwuka, known as Omemma Igbo, also delivered remarks, recognizing the vital role of mothers in nurturing future generations.

Photo from left_ Vice President of the group, Chief Ugochukwu Chukwuka – Omemma Igbo, and the President, Ichelle Awkuzu, the Isaaka of Igboland.

The evening was filled with laughter, music, and shared memories, reinforcing the communal spirit that defines the Omambala Cultural Association. Elders and youth alike participated in storytelling sessions and interactive cultural activities, creating a multigenerational experience that underscored the importance of preserving Igbo heritage. Several attendees expressed appreciation for the sense of belonging and cultural pride the event fostered.

The Omambala Cultural Association Inc. is a community-based organization representing people from the Old Anambra Local Government Area in Anambra State, Nigeria. It remains committed to promoting cultural education, unity, and socio-economic development for Igbo people in the diaspora and beyond.

• Author
• Recent Posts

Texas Guardian News

Latest posts by Texas Guardian News (see all)

• OPINION: What Has Quality Got to Do With Soludo’s Made-in-Anambra Brands - February 5, 2022
• Buhari Appoints Olatunji NDPB Pioneer National Commissioner - February 5, 2022
• Why ‘Side-chicks’ Remain in Business – Benin Residents  - February 5, 2022

On 25 November 2012, my late pregnant sister, Ijeoma, was rushed by her husband to a hospital in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, but the doctors and nurses at the hospital callously and insensitively refused to attend to her without initial payment. They had demanded N20,000 (about €150 then) as precondition before they could attend to her. Her husband begged them to commence treatment and that he would go home to get money since the only money with him – N5,000 – had been spent on other procedures, including registration, as required by the hospital. He told them that the nature of the emergency made him even forget to put on his shoes. They vehemently refused the plea.

Everyone around noticed – especially women that had gone through child bearing – that death was knocking on my sister’s door. As her pain was increasing, people advised that she should be rushed to another hospital. Her husband drove her out in his car in search of a hospital. But unfortunately my sister did not make it. She painfully died in that pregnancy.

About 14 years after, the same system again has failed us. This time, it has consumed my young intelligent and promising nephew, Muna. His life was cruelly and mercilessly snuffed out by a corrupt failed system. It is so heartbreaking and disheartening because the closer we had thought we were in saving his life the more the failed structure had made it difficult and fastened his death. 

Munachimso shortly called Muna was diagnosed with leukemia and everything happened so fast. He went to hospitals in Imo, Rivers and finally in Abuja where he died.

When he was taken to the first hospital in Abuja, we had hope because they were able to stabilize him. After a short period, he was no longer depending on oxygen and started eating and playing with toys. All results carried out showed tremendous response and improvements, but the bills were rapidly increasing like thunder lightening. Within two weeks we had a deficit of more than 60 million naira and that was when the problem started. The hospital threatened to discharge Muna if we would not pay. We pleaded with them to be patient, continue his treatment and give us some time to pay the money. We went public seeking for financial help. Two days into this process Muna was forcefully discharged. He was taken to another hospital that had lesser equipment to save his life. There, his health situation again started to degenerate. 

With the help of the public, we the family members made arrangement to go back to this hospital where he was forcefully discharged. But it was not easy getting back. We made calls and chatted with some people in this regard for intervention so that Muna could be readmitted. We were still in this process and ready to agree on any term given by the management of the hospital so that he could be taken back when the worst news came. Muna was pronounced dead. It is devastating and my heart aches, for Muna’s death was preventable.

Who knows how many Nigerians have died like Muna? How many are currently on death row in various hospitals with death certificates already stamped, waiting to be issued? How long shall ordinary citizens continue to suffer and lament over government representatives’ low performances and uncaring attitude? With all Nigeria has got, why are the people in this state of despair? Who do we blame for Muna’s death? The hospital management that chased him away because of money or the government that failed to create a working healthcare system for all?

In all sincerity, while it is true that norms of medical ethics should at all times be observed, private hospitals are equally doing business too and must be sustained. They are not charity organizations. The problem is the government, its harsh policies and its lack of proper implementation. The Nigerian system in almost everything is only theoretically functional, but practically not existent because the system is corruptly structured. Nothing owned or operated by the government runs justly and smoothly, from schools to hospitals and courts etc. Muna’s death was avoidable but the system made sure that he did not survive. We are so deeply pained and so sad that we lost him. 

Hardly one finds government officials’ children in public schools. So, why should one be proud of a country where the minister of education cannot proudly send his/her own children to a public school preferring private schools or sending them abroad, or the minister of health cannot go to a public hospital for treatment when sick because of its poor standard? Why the deceit?

Why this high level of hypocrisy and compromise? Why do Nigerians condone such arrant nonsense? These are some of the reasons lecturers could go on strike for months and government officials care less to resolve the issue and why Nigerian government hospitals are substandard. Why should they care when their children are in well-equipped expensive schools/hospitals abroad? This is shameful and despicable. And we will all continue to lament until it becomes a law that no minister of education is allowed to send his/her children to a private school in Nigeria or to study abroad, and likewise no minister of health and his/her children are allowed to go abroad for medical treatment except in a few specified cases – including the children of every Nigerian president, lawmaker, and governor. This will revolutionize our schools and health sector to acceptable standards. Until then, Nigeria failed Muna and people like him. 

Yes, the 11-year-old boy was just a casualty of a failed system – a victim of the effect of corruption, nepotism, mismanagement and incompetence. Who will be the next victim? Does anyone know the nature, when and where? 

Good night Muna, and may your innocent soul rest in peace.

♦ Uzoma Ahamefule, a refined African traditionalist and a patriotic citizen writes from Vienna, Austria. WhatsApp: +436607369050; Email Contact Uzoma >>>>

• Author
• Recent Posts

Texas Guardian News

Latest posts by Texas Guardian News (see all)

• OPINION: What Has Quality Got to Do With Soludo’s Made-in-Anambra Brands - February 5, 2022
• Buhari Appoints Olatunji NDPB Pioneer National Commissioner - February 5, 2022
• Why ‘Side-chicks’ Remain in Business – Benin Residents  - February 5, 2022

• Book Title: A Journey in Service
• Author: Ibrahim B. Babangida
• Publishers: Bookcraft
• Reviewer: Emeaba Emeaba
• Pages: 440

In the annals of Nigerian history, few figures loom as large—or as polarizing—as Ibrahim Babangida, the military ruler who held sway from 1985 to 1993. Known to some as the “Maradona” of politics for his nimble maneuvering and to others as an “evil genius” for his controversial decisions, Babangida has long been a cipher, his legacy a battleground of competing narratives. His new autobiography, A Journey in Service, promises to peel back the layers of this enigmatic leader. What emerges, however, is a portrait both revealing and reticent—a calculated blend of candor and evasion that invites readers into the mind of a man wrestling with his past, yet unwilling to fully confront its shadows.

The book opens with a disarming simplicity, tracing Babangida’s arc from humble origins in Minna to the corridors of power in Lagos. His prose, clear and occasionally lyrical, sketches a life shaped by ambition and camaraderie, from sharing shirts with childhood friend Mamman Vatsa in their bachelor days to navigating the treacherous currents of military hierarchy. This early narrative sets the stage for his presidency, a period he frames as one of service and sacrifice. He highlights tangible achievements—economic reforms, infrastructure projects, and institutions like MAMSER and DIFFRI—casting himself as a steward of progress amid turbulent times. Yet, as the story unfolds, it becomes clear that A Journey in Service is less a reckoning with history than a meticulous exercise in self-fashioning.

At the heart of the book lies the annulment of the June 12, 1993, election—a wound that still festers in Nigeria’s collective memory. Widely regarded as the nation’s freest and fairest vote, it was poised to usher in civilian rule until Babangida’s regime abruptly voided the results, plunging the country into chaos. For the first time, Babangida expresses regret, acknowledging Moshood Abiola’s victory and calling the annulment an “accident of history.” “The nation is entitled to expect my expression of regret,” he writes, a statement that has stirred both praise and skepticism. Yet, his attempt to shift blame to General Sani Abacha and other officers feels like a sleight of hand—an effort to cast himself as a reluctant participant rather than the architect of a decision that altered Nigeria’s trajectory. The admission, while striking, lacks the depth of accountability that might have transformed it into a genuine mea culpa.

This selective candor extends to other fraught episodes. The execution of Mamman Vatsa, convicted of plotting a coup in 1986, is recounted with a mix of nostalgia and froideur. Babangida paints a vivid picture of their closeness— “we did several things together as peers”—before revealing a “recurrent peer jealousy” he now perceives in hindsight. The decision to approve Vatsa’s death, he argues, was a stark choice “between saving a friend’s life and the nation’s future.” It’s a poignant reflection, yet one that sidesteps broader questions about the trial’s fairness or the political climate that made such a choice inevitable. Similarly, his discussion of Nigeria’s first coup in 1966 challenges the “Igbo coup” label by highlighting the diverse ethnic makeup of the plotters and the role of Major John Obienu in quelling it. This revisionist take, while intriguing, feels more like a footnote than a fulsome exploration of a pivotal moment that sparked the Biafran War.

Perhaps the most unguarded moments come in Babangida’s tender tribute to his late wife, Maryam, Nigeria’s iconic first lady until her death in 2009. “Her ebony beauty set off enchanting eyes,” he writes, recalling a partnership marked by mutual devotion and rare discord. Their love story, woven through four decades, offers a humanizing counterpoint to the book’s political machinations, revealing a man capable of vulnerability—if only in the personal sphere. Yet even here, the narrative serves a purpose, reinforcing Babangida’s image as a figure of depth and relatability amid his sterner legacy.

What A Journey in Service omits is as telling as what it includes. The assassination of journalist Dele Giwa, the mysterious $12.4 billion Gulf War oil windfall, and other stains on Babangida’s tenure are met with a resounding silence. These absences lend the book an air of strategic curation, as if Babangida seeks to polish his record rather than illuminate it. The timing of its release, amid Nigeria’s current struggles, and the lavish donations at its launch by people who have never set up a business, manufactured any products or even sold any goods suggest is an eloquent reminder of his enduring clout within the elite.

Critics and admirers alike will find fodder in these pages. Babangida’s willingness to address June 12, however imperfectly, has won plaudits from some, including President Bola Tinubu, who hailed his courage at the launch. Others, like Abiola’s son Jamiu, see it as a belated balm, a step toward peace if not justice. Yet the book’s detractors decry its evasions, arguing that it sidesteps the raw honesty Nigeria deserves. This divide mirrors Babangida’s own duality—a leader lauded for infrastructure yet lambasted for corruption, a reformer who clung to power until forced out.

In the tradition of political memoir, A Journey in Service is a study in the malleability of memory. It offers a window into a complex figure, but the view is obscured by the author’s own hand. Readers seeking a definitive account of Babangida’s rule will emerge unsatisfied; those intrigued by the interplay of power and narrative will find a richer vein to mine. Sophisticated yet guarded, the book is a testament to its author’s skill at controlling the story—even if, in the end, it reveals more through its silences than its words. Babangida’s journey, it seems, remains as much a riddle as the man himself, a legacy still contested in the crucible of history.

_________

♦ Dr. Emeaba, the author of “A Dictionary of Literature,” writes dime novels in the style of the Onitsha Market Literature sub-genre.

• Author
• Recent Posts

Texas Guardian News

Latest posts by Texas Guardian News (see all)

• OPINION: What Has Quality Got to Do With Soludo’s Made-in-Anambra Brands - February 5, 2022
• Buhari Appoints Olatunji NDPB Pioneer National Commissioner - February 5, 2022
• Why ‘Side-chicks’ Remain in Business – Benin Residents  - February 5, 2022