Ebira Personality profile: Reverend George Ehusani

Reverend George Ehusani

The Reverend Father George Ehusani is the outgoing Secretary General of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria. He holds the Doctor of Ministry degree from Howard University, Washington D.C. He was ordained for the Catholic Diocese of Lokoja in 1981, and held several pastoral responsibilities before his appointment to the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria in 1994. A theologian, teacher, poet, musician, human rigths activist and social commentator, Father Ehusani has preached several retreats and published numerous books and articles covering a wide-range of issues, from Social Anthropology to Social Justice, and from Christian Humanism to Christian Spirituality. His publications include two poetry antologies as well as over 10 music CDs in both the English language and his local Ebira. Over the years, Father Ehusani has gathered a wide readership within and outside Nigeria. His website, http://www.georgeehusani.org/ which features a large selection of his works, is aimed at making his thoughts more easily available to a wider public.

In one of his reflections, LANGUAGE AND THE NIGERIAN PROJECT based on a paper he presented at the 2nd National Conference of the School of Languages, Federal College of Education (F C E), Okene, May 3, 2005, Rev. George Ehusani concluded thus:

I shall conclude this presentation with a dream for my country and for my motherland thus: I dream of a day when a Nigerian Scientist will discover a star in the heavens and give it a Nigerian name, such as the Ebira Uhue Upogoro. I dream of the day when a Nigerian Medical Researcher will discover a vaccine and give it a Nigerian name such as the Ebira Ahono-Etahi. I dream of the day when a Nigerian Computer guru shall design a computer game and give it a Nigerian name such as the Ebira Ichekene-Ege. I dream of a day when a local car will roll off from the assembly plant made largely from the Ajaokuta Steel Products and given such name as Epa-Eganyi. And why not? Is this not how such Asian words as Toyota, Samsung, Nintendo and Sanyo have become household names in Nigeria and elsewhere? This was made possible because the Asians held on to their languages, and pursued modern knowledge using the medium of their local languages.

The Nigerian Project can never be said to have been brought to fruition or fullness if we do not remove this cancer of inability to communicate in one language as a people with one identity and one vision; for even our visions can only be expressed, evaluated, pusued and so properly actualized in language terms. Without a common vision the Nigerian Project could be doomed to failure even before it takes off, for “Where there is no vision, the people do perish.”