By Dongshuar Katlong & Emeng Patience.
The University of Jos has honoured renown novelist. Professor Chukwuemeka Ike to commemorate 50 years of his writing.
A lecture on the octogenarian’s popular novel, Toad for Supper entitled “Fifty Years of Eating Toads for Supper” was organized by the Department of English and Literary Studies where he once taught.
Speaking on the occasion, Ike who is now a traditional chief, urged teachers to assist in discovering and developing the potentials in young people saying he was a product of such encouragement from his teachers in secondary school.
“There is nothing great in me when I was a lad that is not in every school child”, he said and advised the younger generation to aspire for greatness.
The monarch acknowledged Unijos for its impact and contribution to his academic life during his short academic sojourn in the institution between 1982 and 1985 adding that his success story cannot be told completely without the mention of the University of Jos.
In his lecture, Mr. Jerome Dooga of the Department of English and Literary Studies of the university pointed out the different characters (toads) in the novel, and emphasized that the characters are symbolic as they represent issues of great importance in the society.
He pointed out themes such as; the good accompaniments of education, liberation, intertribal harmony, influencing international affairs and development, hunger for result without struggle in the educational sector, and unity in diversity, as amply captured in the eye-catching novel.
Dooga concluded his lecture by remarking that as University of Jos celebrates Professor Ike, one should decide wisely in choosing toads for supper as there are many in the rung of display.
In his goodwill message, the Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Professor Tor Iorapuu described Professor Ike’s visit to the university as spectacular and golden just as it is prophetic in the lives of the members of Unijos community, and those who graced the occasion.
The Vice Chancellor, Professor Hayward Mafuyai, represented by the Deputy Vice Chancellor Administration, Professor Theresa Nmadu, encouraged those present to strive for uprightness as they may not know when they will be celebrated.
She added that Professor Ike may never have bargained being studied and celebrated some day and thanked him for honouring the university’s invitation.
The occasion was chaired by former a Vice Chancellor, Professor Monday Mangvwat, and was attended by principal officers of the institution, academicians, students of secondary and tertiary institutions in Plateau State.
Professor Chukwuemeka Ike, a prolific writer and traditional chief with the chieftaincy title “Ikelionwu XI” of Ndikelionwu of Anambra State, who was born in April 1931, turns fifty this year as a novelist.
He has to his credit many published books, essays, journals; prominent among which are “Toad for Supper”, “Sunset at Down”, “The Bottled Leopard”, “Expo 77”, “Chicken Chasers”, “Our Children are Coming”, “The Potter’s Wheel”, “The Search”, “How to be a Published Writer” and lots more.
