
Anambra State Commissioner For Education Lauds UNN VC
The Anambra State Commissioner for
Education, Prof. Kate Omenugha, has
praised a former vice chancellor (VC) of
the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN),
Prof. Bede Nwoye Okigbo, attempting to
revive the deficient reading culture in
the country and the Igbo language.
He is also launching the book, titled ‘Uwa
gbara ayi gburugburu’ (meaning ‘the
world around us’) is aimed at teaching
school children at all levels about their
environment.
According to Omenugha, the Igbo science
book is a welcome development as the
ministry is doing all it can to promote the
Igbo language and culture. “We have
appointed a desk officer for Igbo
Language and culture and designed
trainings for Igbo teachers both in
private and public schools,” Omenugha
said, adding that an Igbo science book
“would go a long way to help entrench
the love of the Igbo language and culture
in our people.”
Explaining the rationale behind the book,
Okigbo said the need to improve students’
knowledge and understanding of the Igbo
language around the country was the
driving force. “We don’t have Igbo names
to cover certain concepts in science,”
Okigbo noted.
He further stated that the environment
is made up of plants, animals and
minerals. “What are plants; you say
‘Osisi.’ What are minerals? You say
‘Ngwuputa ala.’ We know osisi has stem
and branches and produces leaves,
flowers and seeds or fruits. But
mushroom is osisi; however, it doesn’t
have green leaves nor does it produce
flowers and fruits. If we think of
anumanu, you have birds that fly and
mammals that suckle their young ones but
plasmodium and bacteria if they are
animals do not have the simple animal
characteristics such as eggs, embryos and
so on,” Okigbo told LEADERSHIP Weekend.
According to him, it took a lot of
creativity and innovation to suggest
solutions and provide answers to these
problems. “I had to divide plants in two
groups – ‘osisi dum’ (all plants) which
includes mushroom; then ‘osisi kpam-
kpam,’ which have green leaves, flowers
and seeds. I did the same with animals so
we have ‘anumanu dum’ and ‘anumanu
kpam-kpam.’ Animals like birds, goats
and sheep are anumanu kpam-kpam but
some of the other micro-organisms are
included in ‘anumanu dum,’” said Okigbo,
a former Deputy Director-General at the
International Institute of Tropical
Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan.