Those that refer to Anya O. Anya, Professor of Parasitology, as Renaissance Man, may not be wrong, after all. Even at a relatively advanced age of 80, though without appearing so, his intellect remains intact as he virtually takes on every topic, in this enchanting discourse on his life and time with IKECHUKWU AMAECHI, OGUWIKE NWACHUKU, EMEKA ALEX DURU and DANIEL KANU.
You turned 80 recently. What is it like, what does that age means to you?
Well, I can say nothing special except what the Bible says, God gives us 70 years and if He likes you, He can give you another 10. That He has given me 70 plus 10, means He likes me and I thank Him for that. But if you also look at the Bible, the allotted span is actually 120 years. So, I am looking forward to the next 40 years.
But on a more serious note, the important thing for me is not just that I have turned 80 because that is a number. But that I have turned 80 and still feel healthy, reasonably strong and in many ways I believe none of my senses have dulled either the brain or whatever, I am particularly grateful to God.
When I look at the age, I can tell you there is no decade of my life that there is nothing special that I should thank God for. He allowed me to have that kind of unique run in life.
For you it’s not only in being able to achieve but being as strong as you are. What do you attribute to all this? Could it be a matter of lifestyle?
It has to do with God, the Grace of God because when you look back, there are people who were healthier than me at younger age, there were people that were more brilliant but when you look back, you find that the story has changed. There were colleagues, Professors like me who retired and they were reasonably strong and strong but it looks as if once they say they are retired you just see them going down and down but in my own case, considering what people say, you know I don’t see myself, it looks the other way round. I am strong and strong because as I seem to be getting older, some say I am getting fresher.
But let me also say this, my guiding mantra is the Lord’s Prayer: Give us this day our daily bread. You see it’s a simple one sentence but it means that it removes responsibility for your life on you completely. God will give you your daily bread today and He is giving you today because He gave you yesterday and He promises to give you your daily bread. So, tomorrow is His business. So, I have no worry.
I live for each day. I don’t have worries. My wife says I have the heart of a child because one of the things I do and she is now getting used to it and it’s no longer an issue, is that things happen and if they are unpleasant things, I forget them. I don’t remember them and when I say I don’t remember them, she won’t believe me but she has now come to realise that I am actually not joking with it when I say I don’t remember unpleasant things.
Why should I remember the unpleasant things of the past? For me what matters in any experience is the lesson you get out of it. I get the lessons and move on. And those things that were meant to happen in my life, brought their own lessons.
Are there any regrets so far on certain things that you did which if you had another opportunity you would do differently?
There is nothing I regret because for each day of my life God has programmed it. Like I always say, about the things normal people may not be happy about I just take them as they come, believing that God has a purpose for them. I will draw the lessons and each time that has happened it makes me stronger. Because of that, I don’t have any regrets. For instance, in all the jobs I have done, without exception, there was none I applied for. Something would happen and they would say come and do this, come and do that and finally I would have it. For me, that is part of God’s Grace. It means He has programmed things for me and whenever such opportunities come, I just say a simple prayer: ‘God please help me to do this job better than it was done before and if that is not possible, let me not do it worse than it’d been done before’. And God has been faithful.
Every day comes with its memories can you recall one that you can say it’s amazingly ever green than others?
I can’t mention one such event because there are series of them. In each epoch, there is something that happens and it changes the direction of things. I came from a background that people could consider as a wealthy background but suddenly, my father died and from being a well- provided and favoured child I became a destitute. What do I mean by destitute? Everything my mother had including my own cloths were taken away. But because my father loved education my mother was also determined that I must be educated. There were challenges. Paying school fees was a challenge, through primary school. When I went to the secondary school, it was a challenge in the first three years. At times, school fees could not be paid and I would be sent out of school only to just come and take exams most times. But when I left Class Three for Class Four, I thank God for Calabar County Council Scholarship which now meant that from day one to the end, I would stay in the school and of course as to be expected, I went top at the class. It now meant I finished my school certificate and then went in on the same scholarship to do my higher school.
After my higher school, I went to the University, again with Federal Government scholarship. After that, I got another scholarship that took me to Cambridge. If that breakthrough at the County Council level had not happened, these other things would not have happened.
So, when I look back, there are so many things that happened and you just thank God and ask: ‘why are you so partial’, even though the partiality favours me.
There are some people well educated as you, accomplished too but do not seem to have this your attitude about the supremacy of God over our lives. Why do you think it is so?
Well each individual must speak for himself or herself, After all that’s why on the judgment day even husbands don’t speak for wife or the wife for husband; each one is on his own. But let me say that there is no great scientist that does not really believe in God because even Bertram Russel who made so much talk about his atheism, towards the end, the love letter he wrote to his dear loving wife, was one of the most profound acknowledgements of God. What am I saying? We struggle as scientists and we think we are discovering things, exciting things but there is always a realm beyond which you cannot understand it and the most successful you are as a scientist the more you realise that what you don’t know is more than what you know, vast area of knowledge. And it makes you humble to realise the intelligence that made it possible for the world to move the way it does and makes it possible for us to even be the kind of machine that we are because we are one of the most intricately functioning machines. The little that He allows us to know is only a very small part. As I grow older, I realise then that even as you argue about this, or argue about that, there is a point beyond which logic breaks down. They are mysteries associated with this world that you cannot explain. Therefore, with God, you can only say, please teach me. That is why we also have revelation and revelation is important because it’s what God allows you to know. So the sum total of it is that only God knows the universe and its creation. For those who are Christians like myself, read the book of Job. Remember that Job was a righteous man and he went through all that he suffered. At the end of the day when he started sounding as if he was querying God, God asked him who are you to ask questions? Where were you when the earth was created? Where were you when I did this and did that? You then realise how small and how ignorant you are. It means what you don’t know is far more than what you know. It teaches you humility. If you do not have humility, the best that God can give you will not come.
Looking at your life and your achievements there was this culture of merit running through. Are you worried that this culture of merit is gradually giving way in our scheme of things in the country?
When you read my latest book you will see my concern over our country in the last 50 years and that is my cry, that brilliant young people are not given the kind of opportunity that I was given. But that is also where the God factor comes in because during my time there were equally brilliant people who at the same time didn’t have the type of opportunities I had. There were also people who you can say were probably more “Christian” (if it’s possible to say that) than me and therefore to that extent you think they deserve more. But then the Bible says that: I will have mercy who I want to, bless the one He wants to bless. That is why He is sovereign, you don’t question Him on His decisions.
A society that does not believe in justice and fairness is not likely to understand what merit is and then, not likely to pursue excellence, which is what the Universities are there for. When you understand truth and you understand justice those are the two pillars on which God create His word.
The truth is that a society evolves on the basis of the values. When you don’t pay attention to the values of justice, fairness and the truth, you will not understand the other values that are necessary for you to have a prosperous or stable society. The problem in Nigeria is that there is so much hypocrisy, there is so much deceit and we have devalued all that should be valuable. That is why we are where we are. But on the other hand, I believe we are about to come out of this and the reason is simple: when you hit the rock bottom there is only one way. You can’t go lower than we are now. So we can only start moving up.
And the young people of Nigeria give me hope, whether journalists, bankers, or those in the private sector, in the ICT sector. There are young Nigerians that are doing fantastic things but a society normally will pick on these as examples that the newspapers and everybody will honour and in honoring them you are drawing attention that these are the values that this society stands for and you are telling your young people that these are the things to aim for; this is the model you should cherish. But that is not what is happening.
And the reason is also simple: there is in Nigeria a clash of culture and a culture defines the values that are important. The culture of at least the Caliphate part of the North, is different from that of most other parts. Therefore, the way they look at justice is different. The issue of who is your father is important for them. There is no competition because you grow up and if you are meant to be on the right side you are there and if you are meant to belong to the poor, you are there. So there is no competition and you are not given an opportunity, most times to prove yourself. You now come to the East, they are hardworking, intelligent, competitive etc. These are the values that built the civilization of Western Europe. These are also the values that have changed the South East Asian countries because unless there is this competitive spirit, measured against a code of values, the progress you are expecting is not possible in any society. It is because of this trying to fix things that we have some of the things we have like the federal character. It does not make sense. Like all this issue of educationally disadvantaged states, tell me one state regarded as educationally disadvantaged state in the 1970’s when the concept came up that has graduated to educationally advantaged state. This is because once you remove initiative to try to be better than you find yourself, there is no longer the incentive. And a society is built on the basis of the incentives that you give people to succeed, on the rewards you give people for doing the right things and on the sanctions you give people for doing the wrong thing. I can see those values on one side of the fence but I don’t see it on the other side. Then when you yoke them together, it becomes a problem unless you have visionary leadership that sees a future and a better country and is prepared to bring all together towards that better country. But we have not been fortunate to have leaders with such vision.
What am I saying? Despite the disparity between one part of the country and the other, it is still possible to bring Nigeria to a point where they see the common values they share and they start interacting on the basis of those common values; where they also see the differences and they now try to understand the differences and in understanding it, they become better educated and understand each other better. With that, you set the foundation for integration in the society and then a nation-state can come out of it.
But because we have not done that, that is why we will continue to walk in circles. Some people say Nigeria is more divided today than it was 30 years ago. Indeed it was said in a public lecture recently for those of us who lived in Nigeria in the 60’s – we were adults then – there are times when you look at the period 1964-66 and then 67-70, then look between 2013 -2017, you can see echoes of what is happening as if we have gone full-cycle and returned to the past. That is just one aspect. But then, when you talk about the leadership, it is not possible for people to understand the magnitude of the damage that the military occupation of Nigeria did on us. Take the economic data and check the period that the military was in power and the short period that civilians operated, you will see that the comparison is unbelievable. The reason is that God never intended the military to rule human beings.
The military is trained for emergency and emergency does not last but for a short time. That is why we are where we are.
Some enlightened minds have come up with the restructuring option as a solution. Do you share in that view?
Well, first, this is part of Nigeria problem. Discussion starts and we start throwing words around and those words mean different things depending upon use and the context the person is using them. So when you say restructuring, I will want to ask, restructuring for what and how? There is no doubt that if you want to build a progressive society, you must be able to harness the competences of the people towards achieving common goal. But there is also no doubt that common goals are best achieved when individuals do their best to the best of their ability. But because they are peaceful and tolerant of each other they aggregate all that they have brought to the table and then you get to the point where something good that all can share will come out.
What I am saying is simply that you must devolve responsibilities to other levels so that each individual can find full potential and then when you have aggregated that at the local level you can now get them working together at the communal level and then you start moving up that way. But the important thing is that the real achievement is at the local level because that is where initiative resides on the individual, that is where if the society is fair you will know who is bright and who is not bright and you will harness all of it. But if you have the right kind of values, the fact that you are brilliant does not give you all the rights to run roughshod over others. It means then that there is the code of values that tells you: look you are bright, the society appreciates it but on what has been given to you, you are a steward to use it for the building of the society.
I have said it somewhere else that the way to judge a society that is matured is how it treats the disadvantaged, the deprived, if you like the poor people among them. One of the things God has given is that He has given us intelligence and all that but He has also given us compassion. When you are not compassionate, or let me put it this way: a society that is not compassionate is not a society of human beings and Nigeria is no longer compassionate.
Take a very simple example, you walk along the road, there is a body lying there and people will skate round it and pass without caring. We have lost that sense of sacrilege, nothing is sacred any longer. No normal society functions that way and the reason of course is that we have lost our sense of value.
With the picture you are painting, do you still believe in the Nigeria project?
I believe in Nigeria and I believe this period is like the darkest period of the night before the dawn. You know the period before dawn is the darkest period. We are in that period now. I am seeing signs that Nigeria is going to come out of this, stronger, better and will now start performing the functions that God created it for. Among Christians, we are very expectant about the end time events. Some think we are already in the end-time events.
I belong to a special group that has been praying for Nigeria and once in a while we compare notes and the pastors brief people like me and the indications show that God has a role for Nigeria and we are about to move into it.
Are you not speaking in philosophical terms? Are the economic indices there?
There was a lecture I gave a group of Chief Executive Officers in 2016 – “The Economy and You: Tales of the Unexpected”. There, I made the case that if you take 2014 and you take 2016, in 2014 we were still being rated as one of the emerging economies and because of it a whole lot of foreign investments was on its way to Nigeria. Indeed it was estimated that up to 14b US dollars was on its way to Nigeria. Then you come to 2016 after this government has been there for a year Nigeria barely got $700m dollars coming in from $14b which means, in less than two years, we could not get one-twentieth of what we could have got a year before. Why? Word is a very powerful instrument. God created the world with the word of mouth. He said “let there be light” and there was light.
First of all, Nigerians speak very negative things about their country. It’s unbelievable and when you do all the negative speaking and then things start happening according your prophesy what do you expect? But the most important thing in the lecture I gave in Abuja where four former Heads of State were present was that all the economic indices we used; exchange rate, inflation rate, GDP growth rate are only measures of particular patterns of human behaviour. So economics is based on human behaviour. So when your leaders come to say that ah… this country is terrible, we are all corrupt, we are bad, we are this, we are that, the world is run by signals. You are sending signals, signals to those rushing to Nigeria to hold on, that events are still unfolding. And that is what exactly they did, which was why the $14b that was to come, a year later has vanished because money is a restless commodity. If you keep it and you don’t immediately apply it, it will decide where it will go and it will go because in the world the things you don’t use there are people who, need them and they will use it.
In other words, part of what brought the recession is the negative speaking. When the leader says it’s not possible everybody takes note and that’s what happened to us. We need to be positive, speaking positively about our country.
What is the thing that you have passion for?
I have passion for my wife and I have always had time for that. But let me put it this way. In Cambridge there were two of us. The other person, Thomas Odianbo, unfortunately is late now. We got our PHD the same year 1965. He graduated from Makerere University, Kenya then came back to Britain, went to Cambridge and started to do another Bachelor’s degree. He then finished it and started his PhD. When he started his PhD was the time I came to join him. We met in seminars. One of the issues we were worried about and deliberated on was that: how come, Africa with all the resources we had was not developing and here we were in Britain much of their wealth came from Africa. We finally came to the conclusion that the only difference why we have not been able to move away from the situation was that they discovered science and technology and applied it to their development.
Why am I telling this story? It meant that from then till now, the paradox of African underdevelopment has always been something I couldn’t understand. And the reason why it never made sense to me was that both Thomas Odianbo and I were outstanding in Cambridge and we competed with the best and we beat them. So it is not that Africans were intellectually deficient but how come the difference between the two societies? So apart from my professional scientific work that question has remained a central question that one must answer. How come the difference in the two societies, the gap even widening when intellectually we are in some ways even ahead of them. This brings me back to the issue of society. Obviously there are impediments in our society that do not allow certain things to happen and part of it is the inability to allow individuals rise to their full potentials to use their initiative.
What was your growing up like?
Growing up was fantastic, Abiriba is a very interesting community, you have your age mates and there is competition and that is what sets Abiriba apart from most communities. You are encouraged to be the best that you can be. Most people think or see Abiriba people more as traders, business men but at the core of Abiriba code of values is the sense that it is an achievement-oriented society. There is competition and when you do better there is recognition and you are encouraged to do more. But Abiriba also has the other things: which is that you have made money, you have done this, you have done that but that does not place you above anybody in your age grade. So there is certain kind of humility that goes with achievement. So I grew up in that kind of setting and that was why in spite of all the difficulties where ever I got to I was in the mood to compete.
How did you meet your wife and have remained steadfast with just one wife unlike some of your contemporaries?
I met my wife in Calabar, I was at Hope Waddle. When I saw her, I thought she was an Efik girl because having been brought up in Calabar she used to win prizes writing in vernacular in Efik. So, I thought she was Efik. But I later found out she was the daughter of an Abiriba business man. I courted her for eight years. The most important thing is that she also is a Christian not one by appellation but she tries to live it and it helps, that has helped some of my sins to be covered because she is forgiving. So since we both met, it is both ways. She also has been tolerant and I recognize that on this journey we are in it together.
In any case when I look at some of my friends who tried other experiences by marrying more than one and see how disastrous, maybe their second marriage was, over the first one, you now realise that it is better to make the most use of the opportunity you have to be happy and make it fun-filled. And if you believe in God then He will help you solve the problem. On 7th August, 2015 we went to Cambridge and we had our 50th wedding Anniversary there.
What was your first job like and how did you get it?
My first job was as a teacher in Qua Iboe mission secondary school Etinan. How did it happen? When I finished the higher school, my principal called me to his office he said I have told Mr. Justin (principal of one of the secondary schools in Etinan) that you will report to him. And I said as what? He said you will teach there. That was my first job. That was where I thought Ufot Ekaette, former secretary to the government of the federation and Bassey Ndiokho, one time Chairman of UAC and a whole lot of other brilliant young people.
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