19/05/2021
GOVERNOR DAVE UMAHI : HARNESSING THE DIAMOND IN THE DUSTBIN
When I published my first novel in 2008 entitled “Diamond In The Dustbin,” I had set it against the background of the superiority and inferiority complex between the Abakaliki people and her Igbo brothers of the south eastern Nigeria. The old Abakaliki people were highly denigrated as the backyard state, poverty headquarters and the dust of the nation. As an undergraduate in Unizik from 2001-2005, I experienced and equally observed the contempt with which Abakaliki man was held by his Igbo brothers from other states, especially Anambra. He was looked upon as uncivilized, retrogressive, unintelligent, backward, a non-entity, violent oriented, sadist and a menial jobber. Some of my few brothers from Ebonyi State then in Unizik denied coming from Ebonyi State especially our brothers from the southern part of the state for fear of being derided and socially ostracized. Only few of us were bold enough to speak our Ezza dialect before our colleagues in the University. We termed it the language of the masters and we spoke it with pride amidst banters and derisive laughter from those who saw us as barbaric.
It was against this premise that I derived a title for my new novel and created characters that represented the two divides :Abakaliki and other Igbo people in the south eastern Nigeria such as Enugu, Abia, Anambra and Imo. Anambra no doubt was very outstanding in their contemptuous treatment of Abakaliki people. They saw us as second class citizens and riffraffs. Thus, I created my heroine from Anambra while my hero came from Abakaliki. The protagonist symbolizes both the Diamond and the Dustbin in the sense that he possess the rare quality of a diamond which unfortunately is to be found only in the dungeon (Dustbin) in Abakalik, Ebonyi state.
Neverthless, our amiable heroine spots the diamond even in its raw state lying in the dustbin and insists on harnessing it despite divergent voices from her