Reciting The Recent Abia State University Anecdote (Part 1) -By Ahamefula Israel

If the anecdote of this vibrant and promising university will necessarily be tied to how it stands in the world university ranking, it is doubtful if it would ever get told. Abia State University will simply serve as the first course mixed gravel and cement holding the intimidating pillars of world Ivy league universities that annually make the list of Times Higher Education Supplement world university ranking.

Indeed, Abia State University has come of age and we need to tell the anecdote of this rising God’s Own University of the Sahara.The importance of anecdote and their telling is self evident. We are who we are as a result of the time tested art of storytelling. Our identity as a nation, as a people and as institution is a product of a story or anecdote. Although our original identity, in the course of time, may be negotiated by a number of factors, the truth about our becoming cannot be completely obliterated. Therefore, either as a people, or institution, we must learn to tell our own anecdote to the world. We must take control of the means by which people perceive and represent us. To be able to do this, we must learn to tell and retell our own stories. Just like the proverbial “until the lion learns to tell his own story, the story of the hunt will always glorify the hunter” accurately describes the reason why telling one’s own anecdote amounts to giving a true picture of who one is, what he does and represents.

In other words, stories narrate information about us, either as individuals, as a people, as an institution, and as a nation.  In fact, this proverb of the lion taking control of his own story has since become a widely exploited metaphor for deconstructing colonial discourses and the basis for reinterpreting them. The anecdote thus far is simply saying that we are what we are because of the stories we tell. We are a people and a nation because of the narrations woven around and about us.

Consequently, our survival is tied to our ability to tell our own stories over and over again. People, institutions and nations die from the moment they are unable to tell and sustain stories about themselves. It is for this reason that I set out to recite the recent Abia State University anecdote.

To be continued!

Ahamefula Israel, a Bureaucrat, sent in this piece from Umuahia, Abia State. Email- anyameleisrael@gmail.com