Charles Achilike Njoku (1944) was born in Owerri , Imo State. First son of Raymond and Magdalene Ulumma Njoku. Attended St Gregory's College Lagos & Belmont Abbey Sch Hereford , England; he won prizes in study & sports in both places. Voted the most promising athlete in the Commonwealth by World Sport magazine. Held Nigerian schools' high jump record & English schools' high jump record.
BA cum laude in economics Harvard University- graduated in three years '64-'67. LLB Hons King's College, London University; Post graduate studies, London Sch of Economics. All-Ivy football team. Executive chairman West Africa Chemical Co. Ltd which was the largest agro-aviation company in West Africa (1977-1999); it had FAO, WHO, Fed Gov of Nigeria & Shell among its clients.
Appointed first Hon Commissioner for Infrastructure & Social Sector 2000-2004. As an economist he established with the Fed Govt of Nigeria the centrality of infrastructure in any development strategy at the National Planning Commission. He was succeeded to Infrastructure portfolio by former Head of State Chief Ernest Shonekan- unprecedented. He spoke & wrote extensively, in the media, on the Nigerian Political Economy. At the Planning Commission he led the production of a book, in collaboration with United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), titled " Children's & Women's Rights in Nigeria: A Wake-up Call".
At the launching of this seminal book , President Olusegun Obasanjo said: "It gives me great pleasure to be here today, to launch the all-important publication titled 'Children's & Women's Rights in Nigeria: A Wake-up Call', essentially the most comprehensive assessment and analysis of the situation of Nigerian children and women to date. My pleasure derives not at all from the unsatisfactory situation of Nigerian children and women as depicted in the book, but from its close examination of the causes and proposal for redressing the setbacks our children and women have suffered."
Njoku received commendation for the book by the Nigerian senate. At the invitation of UNICEF he attended the United Nations General Assembly in New York. He addressed the UN & Donor Community in Nigeria at the invitation of coordinator, the UNDP Resident Representative. Topic: Economic Policy & Donor Community.
His exercise of the 2 portfolios led to outcomes such as these among others:
a) He persuaded & reached an understanding with Lockheed Martin about a significant airspace management investment programme which would make Nigeria the air travel hub of the West Africa sub-region.
b) He signed an N18 billion ($120 million) HIV/AIDS prevention protocol, on behalf of the Fed Govt, with the United States & United Kingdom government agencies represented by their ambassador & High Commissioner; the United Kingdom minister for Africa, Baroness Valeri Amos, was in attendance.
c) By getting the President to pledge $100,000 towards UNICEF funds worldwide he obtained a commitment from the body to spend $275 million on Nigeria over the following 5 years.
d) Got a Madrid company - world renowned for providing potable water - to demonstrate, at their cost, in a 600-page feasibilty study, how they could produce potable water, in any part of Nigeria, at 25% of the prevailing general cost.
e) Sourced large funding for infrastructural development at concessionary interest rate of 1.5% p.a. However the Ministry of Finance advised that interest rate above 1% would not be acceptable because of the extant Stand-by-Agreement between Nigeria & IMF/World Bank.(2001)
f) He obtained duty waiver from Ministry of Finance on certain nutritional inputs (vitamin A ) for the flour millers.
i) His advice against the refineries' privatisation policy was rejected; he offered alternatives when he saw the firm refusal of Shell & the major oil companies , in Nigeria, to participate in realising the policy as predisposing it to failure. Unfortunately he was proved right.
ii) He produced a new set of criteria for Ministry of Transport/ Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation regarding the quest of local operators to participate in lifting Nigerian crude oil to buyers in Europe & US. Previous conditions demanded they should own vessels, but he believed that if they had good chartered vessels & first class insurance they should be given a chance.
iii) Asked NISER & Federal Office of Statistics to produce a model for the National Planning Commission to measure the impact of government spending on social sector programmes in annual budgets. The model was yet to be perfected.
iv) Advised the National Economic Council on the interest rate & how it predisposes the economy to trading mainly & not production of goods & services. The Vice President & Governors seemed to agree.
Charles Njoku has written a book of memoirs- Images of a Native Son- which was critically summarised thus: "Chinua Achebe, about his universally acclaimed classics, Things Fall Apart, Arrow of God, said he told his people's story, from their point of view , when colonialists intruded into their lives & world. Of late there have been lauded efforts to present post-colonial Nigeria in the grip of the fratricidal, Biafra civil war. However, Images of a Native Son shows how the diverse subnations & ethnic groups adapted & inherited this British, geographical configuration called Nigeria: and attempted to forge a national sovereign state before & after obliging the British to exit. Charles Njoku has, involuntarily, filled the hiatus between Achebe's pioneer chronicles of Igbo society's reaction to colonial rule & the wider canvas of post-colonial Nigeria's story; employing spare, graceful prose. As a memoirist whose life moved on various levels, the Njoku family is the human prism & mirror by which he has penetratingly recreated this period of Nigeria's story that climaxed with the struggle for, and, independence from British rule : still the most significant political event.
The memoir is published by Author House, ISBN 9781452086422. Njoku also wrote novels: The New Breed, Longman; Race To The Navel, Bell Publishing Co.
However, their children embraced the colonial culture, receiving education & indeed becoming christians. Images of a Native Son depicts the process of acculturation exemplified by Raymond Njoku & family.By the late 1940s/'50s they had taken what they thought they needed from the colonisers such that when the nationalists began, in earnest, the movement for self-rule & independence they were ready.
Images of a Native Son represents the sweep of history in personal terms: hostility to colonisation, adaptation & acquiescence to it, and engineering its overthrow on 1st October 1960. This was achieved in the Nigerian context mainly by the use of English language- in the constitutional conferences aided by the burgeoning anti-colonial world view- instead of a resort to arms.
The memoir ends when Charles leaves for the United Kingdom shortly after independence; but the forces, reflexes & preoccupation unleashed by the 1st Oct 1960 event could not be husbanded so that by 1967 a civil war was precipitated. The fledgeling democratic experiment was frail having failed to take root. Charles Njoku's memoir succeeds as a seminal literary work which illuminates a significant episode of Nigeria's socio-political history.
Who Raised Motion for Independence ?
For Charles Njoku's contribution to this smouldering issue above click on the link below to read the article:
http://allafrica.com/stories/201012200737.html
He refused to approve the budget of the Ministry of Communication in 2002 because it overspent its previous budget by 10 billion Naira. The minister and permanent secretary were outraged. He demanded an undertaking from the ministry before he gave his assent.
Etienne Tshisekedi, former prime minister of Zaire, asked him for an audience with president Obasango which he arranged. Although the former prime minister spoke no English, assisted by translators, the meeting went so well that he was invited to be part of a meeting to be scheduled for Kinshasa in the New Year. However, the president of Zaire, Laurent Kabila, was assassinated before the end of the year.
Juan Somavia, director general, ILO, wrote President Obasanjo asking if he could be granted audience when he visited South Africa. His letter was unanswered; when Hon Commissioner Njoku was briefed he directed Amb Coker, chief protocol officer, to see to the request and he was obliged.
The head of FAO in Nigeria briefed him that his director general had met the president in Beijing and when he showed him his organisation's agricultural investment programme for Nigeria, amounting to about $100 million, he was invited to Abuja where a protocol was signed between Nigeria and FAO. However, for an investment by UN agencies to take off, the recipient country has to contribute a counterpart fund of 10% of the investment.
Upon being briefed by the FAO he took the matter up with the president. He sent for the minister of Agriculture who pleaded negligence of the civil servants. He was then warned to make provision in the next budget. Njoku had reservations and when the minister's promise was not fulfilled in the subsequent budget, the Hon commissioner exercised his statutory powers and the minister was relieved of his portfolio.
The First Republic Leaders of Nigeria - Azikiwe, Sarduana, Awolowo, ministers, premiers, heads of judiciary and legislatures - produced offspring a number of whom became ministers, governors, ambassadors and professionals. Of all the offspring 2 are adjudged by observers to be the most significant : Charles Njoku, first Hon commissioner for Infrastructure and Social Sector; Umaru Yar Adua, governor of Katsina State.
Njoku for his formidable work at the National Planning Commission; he also built up West Africa Chemical Co.Ltd from a domestic pest control outfit to the largest agro-aviation company in West Africa ( 12 helicopters and fixed winged planes).
Njoku and YarAdua are in brackets together not because of the latter's work as governor of Katsina State but because President Obasanjo apparently chose and singularly ensured he succeeded him as president. He died shortly in office: his seminal, ethnically obliged choosing by Obasanjo followed by flow of events brought his deputy President Goodluck Jonathan to office.
Charles Njoku is among Harvard University alumni notables: Barak Obama, Don Graham, Natalie Portman and such like.
References:
Mrs Magdalene Ulumma Njoku:http://munjoku.blogspot.ie/
Mr Raymond Amanze Njoku: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/
BA cum laude in economics Harvard University- graduated in three years '64-'67. LLB Hons King's College, London University; Post graduate studies, London Sch of Economics. All-Ivy football team. Executive chairman West Africa Chemical Co. Ltd which was the largest agro-aviation company in West Africa (1977-1999); it had FAO, WHO, Fed Gov of Nigeria & Shell among its clients.
Appointed first Hon Commissioner for Infrastructure & Social Sector 2000-2004. As an economist he established with the Fed Govt of Nigeria the centrality of infrastructure in any development strategy at the National Planning Commission. He was succeeded to Infrastructure portfolio by former Head of State Chief Ernest Shonekan- unprecedented. He spoke & wrote extensively, in the media, on the Nigerian Political Economy. At the Planning Commission he led the production of a book, in collaboration with United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), titled " Children's & Women's Rights in Nigeria: A Wake-up Call".
At the launching of this seminal book , President Olusegun Obasanjo said: "It gives me great pleasure to be here today, to launch the all-important publication titled 'Children's & Women's Rights in Nigeria: A Wake-up Call', essentially the most comprehensive assessment and analysis of the situation of Nigerian children and women to date. My pleasure derives not at all from the unsatisfactory situation of Nigerian children and women as depicted in the book, but from its close examination of the causes and proposal for redressing the setbacks our children and women have suffered."
Njoku received commendation for the book by the Nigerian senate. At the invitation of UNICEF he attended the United Nations General Assembly in New York. He addressed the UN & Donor Community in Nigeria at the invitation of coordinator, the UNDP Resident Representative. Topic: Economic Policy & Donor Community.
His exercise of the 2 portfolios led to outcomes such as these among others:
a) He persuaded & reached an understanding with Lockheed Martin about a significant airspace management investment programme which would make Nigeria the air travel hub of the West Africa sub-region.
b) He signed an N18 billion ($120 million) HIV/AIDS prevention protocol, on behalf of the Fed Govt, with the United States & United Kingdom government agencies represented by their ambassador & High Commissioner; the United Kingdom minister for Africa, Baroness Valeri Amos, was in attendance.
c) By getting the President to pledge $100,000 towards UNICEF funds worldwide he obtained a commitment from the body to spend $275 million on Nigeria over the following 5 years.
d) Got a Madrid company - world renowned for providing potable water - to demonstrate, at their cost, in a 600-page feasibilty study, how they could produce potable water, in any part of Nigeria, at 25% of the prevailing general cost.
e) Sourced large funding for infrastructural development at concessionary interest rate of 1.5% p.a. However the Ministry of Finance advised that interest rate above 1% would not be acceptable because of the extant Stand-by-Agreement between Nigeria & IMF/World Bank.(2001)
f) He obtained duty waiver from Ministry of Finance on certain nutritional inputs (vitamin A ) for the flour millers.
i) His advice against the refineries' privatisation policy was rejected; he offered alternatives when he saw the firm refusal of Shell & the major oil companies , in Nigeria, to participate in realising the policy as predisposing it to failure. Unfortunately he was proved right.
ii) He produced a new set of criteria for Ministry of Transport/ Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation regarding the quest of local operators to participate in lifting Nigerian crude oil to buyers in Europe & US. Previous conditions demanded they should own vessels, but he believed that if they had good chartered vessels & first class insurance they should be given a chance.
iii) Asked NISER & Federal Office of Statistics to produce a model for the National Planning Commission to measure the impact of government spending on social sector programmes in annual budgets. The model was yet to be perfected.
iv) Advised the National Economic Council on the interest rate & how it predisposes the economy to trading mainly & not production of goods & services. The Vice President & Governors seemed to agree.
Charles Njoku has written a book of memoirs- Images of a Native Son- which was critically summarised thus: "Chinua Achebe, about his universally acclaimed classics, Things Fall Apart, Arrow of God, said he told his people's story, from their point of view , when colonialists intruded into their lives & world. Of late there have been lauded efforts to present post-colonial Nigeria in the grip of the fratricidal, Biafra civil war. However, Images of a Native Son shows how the diverse subnations & ethnic groups adapted & inherited this British, geographical configuration called Nigeria: and attempted to forge a national sovereign state before & after obliging the British to exit. Charles Njoku has, involuntarily, filled the hiatus between Achebe's pioneer chronicles of Igbo society's reaction to colonial rule & the wider canvas of post-colonial Nigeria's story; employing spare, graceful prose. As a memoirist whose life moved on various levels, the Njoku family is the human prism & mirror by which he has penetratingly recreated this period of Nigeria's story that climaxed with the struggle for, and, independence from British rule : still the most significant political event.
The memoir is published by Author House, ISBN 9781452086422. Njoku also wrote novels: The New Breed, Longman; Race To The Navel, Bell Publishing Co.
IMAGES OF A NATIVE SON REVIEW
The generations of Africans who inhabited the area now called Nigeria were instinctively hostile & suspicious of the colonialists. They were pre-Governor Lugard & amalgamation among whom could have been Achebe's character Okonkwo & Njokundudu, Raymond Njoku's father.(It might be interesting to speculate how these people would have evolved without the trauma of colonial rupture)However, their children embraced the colonial culture, receiving education & indeed becoming christians. Images of a Native Son depicts the process of acculturation exemplified by Raymond Njoku & family.By the late 1940s/'50s they had taken what they thought they needed from the colonisers such that when the nationalists began, in earnest, the movement for self-rule & independence they were ready.
Images of a Native Son represents the sweep of history in personal terms: hostility to colonisation, adaptation & acquiescence to it, and engineering its overthrow on 1st October 1960. This was achieved in the Nigerian context mainly by the use of English language- in the constitutional conferences aided by the burgeoning anti-colonial world view- instead of a resort to arms.
The memoir ends when Charles leaves for the United Kingdom shortly after independence; but the forces, reflexes & preoccupation unleashed by the 1st Oct 1960 event could not be husbanded so that by 1967 a civil war was precipitated. The fledgeling democratic experiment was frail having failed to take root. Charles Njoku's memoir succeeds as a seminal literary work which illuminates a significant episode of Nigeria's socio-political history.
Who Raised Motion for Independence ?
For Charles Njoku's contribution to this smouldering issue above click on the link below to read the article:
http://allafrica.com/stories/201012200737.html
INTERVENTIONS:
Prof, Kankwenda, head of United Nations in Nigeria, UNDP, who although he had been in the country for 2 years was unacknowledged by government. When he was introduced to Hon. Commissioner Njoku, he took him to the villa where he tendered his credentials to a surprised president.Thereafter, he became a frequent guest at the villa.He refused to approve the budget of the Ministry of Communication in 2002 because it overspent its previous budget by 10 billion Naira. The minister and permanent secretary were outraged. He demanded an undertaking from the ministry before he gave his assent.
Etienne Tshisekedi, former prime minister of Zaire, asked him for an audience with president Obasango which he arranged. Although the former prime minister spoke no English, assisted by translators, the meeting went so well that he was invited to be part of a meeting to be scheduled for Kinshasa in the New Year. However, the president of Zaire, Laurent Kabila, was assassinated before the end of the year.
Juan Somavia, director general, ILO, wrote President Obasanjo asking if he could be granted audience when he visited South Africa. His letter was unanswered; when Hon Commissioner Njoku was briefed he directed Amb Coker, chief protocol officer, to see to the request and he was obliged.
The head of FAO in Nigeria briefed him that his director general had met the president in Beijing and when he showed him his organisation's agricultural investment programme for Nigeria, amounting to about $100 million, he was invited to Abuja where a protocol was signed between Nigeria and FAO. However, for an investment by UN agencies to take off, the recipient country has to contribute a counterpart fund of 10% of the investment.
Upon being briefed by the FAO he took the matter up with the president. He sent for the minister of Agriculture who pleaded negligence of the civil servants. He was then warned to make provision in the next budget. Njoku had reservations and when the minister's promise was not fulfilled in the subsequent budget, the Hon commissioner exercised his statutory powers and the minister was relieved of his portfolio.
The First Republic Leaders of Nigeria - Azikiwe, Sarduana, Awolowo, ministers, premiers, heads of judiciary and legislatures - produced offspring a number of whom became ministers, governors, ambassadors and professionals. Of all the offspring 2 are adjudged by observers to be the most significant : Charles Njoku, first Hon commissioner for Infrastructure and Social Sector; Umaru Yar Adua, governor of Katsina State.
Njoku for his formidable work at the National Planning Commission; he also built up West Africa Chemical Co.Ltd from a domestic pest control outfit to the largest agro-aviation company in West Africa ( 12 helicopters and fixed winged planes).
Njoku and YarAdua are in brackets together not because of the latter's work as governor of Katsina State but because President Obasanjo apparently chose and singularly ensured he succeeded him as president. He died shortly in office: his seminal, ethnically obliged choosing by Obasanjo followed by flow of events brought his deputy President Goodluck Jonathan to office.
Njoku has, probably, out of modesty never sought chieftancy titles
nor indeed desired or missed national honours which is uncharacteristic
of a Nigerian. He would always point to ideas or actions he
had been identified with in public office or his writings. However,
those who have scrupulously examined his CV and exercise of his
commissionership say that although he was appointed Hon Commissioner for
Infrastructure & Social Sector by the Federal Government of
Nigeria at the National Planning Commission, he was also aptly &
evidently Presidential Advisor extraordinaire.
Charles Njoku is among Harvard University alumni notables: Barak Obama, Don Graham, Natalie Portman and such like.
References:
Mrs Magdalene Ulumma Njoku:http://munjoku.blogspot.ie/
Mr Raymond Amanze Njoku: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/
