A few good men are what comes to mind anytime I think of my lord, Chief Emeka Anyaoku. Very few are this distinguished with the kind of unblemished public record as this elder statesman. On a few occasions, I have had cause to have tea with daddy and what used to marvel me is his diction. When he speaks, I will close my eyes, and it will be like it is the Duke of Edinburgh that is speaking. I am writing about Chief Anyaoku because I had a very brief but incisive conversation with him the other day. You see, I have set up a new online platform called The Alvin Report. This platform will take essays from highly cerebral Nigerians in a bid to change the narrative. There is too much noise out there.
Empty heads are screaming and shouting, crowding out the intelligentsia, which unfortunately does not bode well for national development. No matter the issue, be it insecurity, restructuring, or the economy, all you hear is a cacophony of meaningless noise. This has done a lot of damage to public policy and execution. So, the Alvin Report will give highly intelligent minds the platform to engage and engage powerfully through logic-based arguments, data and verifiable positions with a slim chance that, slowly, common sense will start to seep back into public discourse. Already we have about 36 contributors drawn from different sectors of the polity, of which seven are SANs, with people like Olumide Aju and Bode Olanipekun leading the charge. Others are Mohammed Garuba, revered investment banker and developmental economist Magnus Onyibe, to mention a few. Now you will ask how this concerns Chief Emeka Anyaoku.
I decided to institute the Chief Emeka Anyaoku prize for the best essay submitted in driving the vision. This will be our own Nobel Prize but this time from Shomolu. The prize will be N1 million and given annually to the best-researched essay on “economy, business and impact.” When I told Chief Anyaoku, he was elated and screamed, “Duke, I didn’t know you were that rich!” and I laughed, saying, “Chief, what else can we do? The fact is that I can’t afford this money, but if I cannot raise N1m every 12 months for a worthy cause like this, then what am I still doing in Lagos? Na to go back go Uyo go dey tap palm wine na?” We all can’t be sitting on the fence and shouting Buhari, Buhari, Buhari. We must all start folding our sleeves and be constructive. It is almost getting too late o. Nigeria must be pulled back from the brink. Simple.
