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12 Year old Amos Oche Ebiega, another Professor Chinua Achebe in the making!

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12 year old Amos Oche Ebiega3

A Senator in the present dispensation once said that the Nigerian child who are supposed to be the hope of the country’s future are unfortunately not industrious and responsible. Today, a boy of 12 years old is here to prove him wrong and give him reasons to rethink his statement.

“One day i sat on the dinning table in the house and it dawned on me that children of my age were writing books and launching music albums. I saw it as a challenge and i decided to brace up and face that challenge. That was how the inspiration came on me to write this books” – A line from the back page of one of Amos’ books.

Last week, precisely on 6 September, I had an interesting one-on-one chat with Amos, where he told me about the books he has written, his motivation, advise to children his age out there, and what he expects from the Nigerian government.

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Excerpts:

May we meet you please, tell us about yourself?
I am Amos Oche Ebiega, i am 12 years old, am from Benue state and an Idoma by tribe, i live in Kaduna State and am also a writer.

A writer you say, what kind of book do you write?
I write story books

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How old were you when you started writing?
I was 9 years old and i was in primary 4

Impressive, so what motivated you to start writing?
I see other children who do extraordinary things in the movie and music industry on the positive side, and the question that came to my mind was, Amos, if this children are doing something like this, can’t you do like them, the answer was yes i can

Thats very impressive, so how many books have you written so far?
I have written three books with two stories in each

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Ok. Can you give us a recap on any of your top books so people can know what await them?
I will love to start with the “Ruthless Ruler”: This book tells the story of a ruthless, womanizing and greedy ruler. Greedy in the sense that when his people harvest their crops, he picks the best of them all, and every animal caught on the hunt must pass through his palace for him to pick his choice before they go away with the remnants. He was marrying and divorcing women, and when he divorces a woman, no man dares to propose to that woman as it was an abomination, to taste what the ruler has tasted.

The second book “The Twin”: This is about two woman, a rich woman with no child and a poor woman with two children. The rich woman got Gods intervention with instructions, and she got pregnant. The poor woman also got pregnant, and the two women delivered the same time, the same day and in the same hospital. The rich woman lost her baby because she fail to follow instructions, while the poor woman on the other side gave birth to twin all boys and identical, and the rich woman couldn’t face the disgrace of having carried the pregnancy for nine months without a child, so she connived with the hospital nurse to buy one of the identical twins of the poor woman…if they want to know more about the books, the books are on sale.

 

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You heard the young boy, if you want to know more, the books are on sale. Amos, did your parents assist you in writing any of your books?
No they didn’t

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So you came up with the idea, the concept and you develop it yourself?
Let me start from here. When i started writing, i wrote 10 stories, at the fifth story, i got stuck with a word, and i asked my mum the meaning of the word and she asked if the word wasn’t big for me, and i told her that i wanted to use it for my story, she said story? I said yes, so i brought the book with which i was writing the story, and she saw and read through, but she was not convinced, she told me to keep writing and as i was writing, she was watching me, when she was later convinced, she took the book from me and thats how we are here today.

Thats amazing, our society is actually turning into something else on the positive side. Tell us about your parents Amos?
My father’s name is Mr Emmanuel Idoko Ebiega, he works with the Bursary Department, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. My mother’s name is Mrs Mary Enali Ebiega, she works with the Nigerian Prison Service, Kaduna  State Command, she works with the Welfare Department, and they are all civilians

They are all civilians!
Are there schools that currently use your books?
No, but i don’t wish for that, i want my books to be read all over Nigeria and all over the world

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Do you have a mentor, who do you pick as your model?
Well i don’t have a mentor, but i do have a role model, my role model is my mother

Why do you pick your mother as your role model?
Ah! thats a good questions. Well, she encourages me, she lives a life of discipline, she’s very hard working and she never gives up

I know you one day would get into the university, what course would you love to study?
I will love to study Aeronautic Engineering

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Why Aeronautic Engineering?
I love the course, because thats where i am supposed to be

What advise do you have for children your age out there?
I want to advise them, that every child has a talent in him or her, and they must work towards developing that talent, instead of watching cartoon and spending there time on all those things. Those are animations, they should get into reality, they should wake up and begin to try to develop their talent

Do you have any advise for parents who are presently reading this piece?
Yes i do, i will want to advise parents to have time for their children, because in the quest to make ends-meet, most parents don’t have time for their children and so the children are left on their own to go the way they like and do things they want to do, if my mother didn’t have time for me, we wouldn’t have been where we are today. So parents should create time for their children.

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If you are to ask the government to do one thing for the Nigerian child, what would that be?
I will like for Nigeria to have peace, because in the face of crisis, we the children suffer. I will like to call on UNICEF and the Communication industry to partner with the Ministry of Education in raising the standard of education of the Nigerian child.

Well, you’ve heard young Amos Oche Ebiega, a 12 year old boy. Quality care and education for young children helps make society fairer. I believe there is hope for the Nigerian child. Looking at the world today, its made up of  children who are ready to take up the challenge and make a difference, all they ask is for encouragement, enabling society and a peaceful nation. [wpaudio url=”http://www.opinionnigeria.com/wp-content/uploads/audios/OpinionNigeria-interview-of-Amos-Oche-Ebiega.mp3″ text=”Click to play the audio file” dl=”0″]

 

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To get hold of any of these books or its author, call: 2348033175567, 2348156996960, 2348065850331

Jeff Okoroafor is a leading member of a new generation of civic advocates for government accountability and democratic change in Nigeria. The Citizen Affairs Initiative is a citizen-driven governance initiative that enhances public awareness on critical issues of service quality in Nigeria. It encourages citizens to proactively seek higher standards from governments and service providers and further establishes new discussions in communities about the standards that citizens should expect and deserve from those they have given their mandates. Jeff is the Managing Director of SetFron Limited, a multimedia development company that is focused on creative and results-driven web, mobile app, and ERP software solutions. He is the co-founder of the African Youths Advancement and Support Initiative (AfriYasi), a non-governmental not-for-profit organisation that provides tertiary education scholarship for young people from low-income homes in Nigeria. He is a Fellow of the Young African Leaders Initiative and the United Nations World Summit Awards. A Strategic Team member of the Bring Back Our Girls movement, and a member of the National Technical Committee on the Establishment and Management of Missing Persons Database in Nigeria. Jeff holds a Bachelor and Postgraduate diploma degrees in Computer Science, and a Certificate in Public Administration from Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, GIMPA.

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