“1981-1985: “Off To Build Technology On The West African Coast: The Thrill of Success And The Agony Of Challenges”

Planning and Preparation.
It is September, 1981. I am one year away from completing a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), in the town of State College. I am thinking, “ what next, after graduation?

What to do after graduation was a no-brainer for me. I had been in the United States for fourteen years. I had acquired a Bachelors Degree in ‘Engineering and Applied Science’(1971) from Yale University, New Haven Connecticut, a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering(1974) from Case School of Engineering of Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland Ohio. I had worked for five years (1973-1978) as Electronic Design Engineer and Senior Engineer for Polaroid Corporation (developer and manufacturer of instant photography), and Digital Equipment Corporation( developer and manufacturer of minicomputers) respectively. Polaroid’s Equipment Instrumentation Division was in Waltham, Massachusetts. Digital Equipment Corporation’s Engineering Headquarters was in Maynard, Massachusetts.

I had attained a considerable amount of practical engineering experience in design, construction, and testing of electronic instrumentation as well as in the design, construction and testing of computers and computer peripherals( most notably, disk drives). I thought my overall experience in hands-on electronics design and construction would be extremely valuable in developing countries, such as Ghana or Nigeria. Besides, I had been in the U.S. for close to fifteen years, and it was time to go and make a difference in Africa. I was going to put practical engineering to work for nation-building in Africa!

I had initially arrived at Penn State, in mid-August, 1978 as a married Graduate Student. I arrived with my nuclear family---Spouse( Cecilia, a native of Ghana) and a two-months old son( Kojo, born in Boston). Subsequently, we were blessed in State College with a second child ( daughter, Effie). So, by early 1982, the planning was that, wherever I got the opportunity to move to for work after the Ph.D. we would all move at the same time.

By early 1982, my exploration for a job in West Africa, was proceeding in earnest. I received a lot of encouraging responses, written letters, from several Universities in Nigeria. Among them were University of Benin, Benin City, University of Ife, and Ahmadu Bello University, all in Nigeria. My explorations on Ghana had been yielding rather slow responses, perhaps because of the economic and socio-political upheavals that were taking place in Ghana during the early 1980s.

I received an informal but encouraging letter from the Head of Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Professor P.A. Kuale, from the University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria. That letter got me excited about the prospects of formally applying for a position as a Lecturer at The University of Benin.

Prof. Kuale’s letter was beckoning me to “come and let us build Technology on the West African Coast” ! I was ecstatic. I was euphoric. I was quite taken in by that statement, that I should “ come and let us build Technology on the West African Coast”. I was almost tempted to suspend my Ph.D. program, take a leave of absence to go and work in Nigeria for a couple of years, and then come back to complete the Ph.D. research. Meanwhile, I had no trouble convincing my wife and kids that it would be a wonderful opportunity to go to Africa, most likely Nigeria, to help “build Technology on the West African Coast”. I was ‘preaching to the Choir’.

Cecilia and the children were even more convinced about the value of our family going to Nigeria to give something back, and participate in technology for nation-building. There was a joyful hope in the family’s future in Africa. While I was dreaming “technology along the West African Coast”, Cecilia was hoping to put her formal higher education in Business Management to use in the entrepreneurial arena in an African country. This was an opportunity for her to disprove that colonial and post-colonial ‘African fallacy’ that said entrepreneurial activity was only for the ‘uneducated’. In fact, she believed that, the number one reason why African economies, including that of Nigeria, continued to be in their infancy, decades after Independence, was because ‘educated’ people shunned entrepreneurial activity.

And so September 1982 came. I had been offered a teaching appointment as a Lecturer at the University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria.

“Yeah! The Richardsons are going to build technology along the West African Coast! Yeah!”

I successfully defended my Ph.D Thesis. The Thesis approval signatures were provided by my Thesis Advisor, Professor Joe Stach, and the rest of the Thesis Committee Members. Since things were running a little late for my arrival in Nigeria, I was thankfully able to get a fellow Ph.D. student to follow up on the minor thesis editorial corrections and formatting that needed to be done. In those days “IBM Selectric” typewriters were the only ‘game in town’. “Word processor” had not become a household term.

The Journey Begins
My family thus left State College. A few days after that, a great Ghanaian friend, a fellow 1967 ASPAU( African Scholarship Program for American Universities) Scholar, Professor Doctor Kwadwo Osseo-Asare, from Achimota School, Ghana, faithfully hand-delivered the final typed version of my Ph.D Thesis to the Penn State Graduate School. Mission accomplished. Osseo-Asare, at the time, October 1982, was already Dr. Kwadwo Osseo-Asare, a Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Penn State. Osseo, as we all affectionately call him, was already establishing a professorial career at Penn State.

So, in early October, 1982, my family set out on our highly anticipated journey to Nigeria. Our two children were ages four and two. We drove to East Orange, New Jersey. There, we stayed with a friend, Kofi Boateng, a fellow Yale University Alumnus ( now Dr. Kofi Boateng, Chief Operating Officer of Harlem Redevelopment Corporation, New York City) and his family. The plan was that, the next day, he would drive us to JFK Airport in New York, to board a Pan American Airways Flight to Lagos, Nigeria. To say that we were filled with joy, euphoria, pride, would be an understatement. I don’t think anyone in my family slept that night. We were looking forward so much to the journey to Nigeria.

Next day came. Kofi Boateng drove us to JFK Airport. Cecilia, Kojo, Effie and I, proudly stepped forward to the Pan American Airways counter for check-in.

‘Hold it!’ ‘Not so fast!’ There was a snag. Kojo and Effie were American citizens ( they were born in the U.S.), therefore they needed Nigerian Visas before they could depart the U.S. for Nigeria! Cecilia and I were Ghanaian citizens, and as ECOWAS ( Economic Community of West African States) citizens, we did not need visas to enter Nigeria.

“What do we do now”? “Go back home with Kofi Boateng to East Orange, New Jersey, and go the next day to the Nigerian Consulate in New York City to obtain visas for Kojo and Effie. Wow.

Undeterred, the next day, the whole family went to the Nigerian Consulate in New York City. The Nigerian Visa Application blank was four pages (two sheets). Each sheet was an eight and a half inch by fourteen inch ‘long sheet’. That meant four long pages made up one visa application. Besides, one was required to complete, by hand, FOUR copies of each single visa application. So, between Kojo and Effie, there were THIRTY-TWO very long pages to be completed by hand. Cecilia took SIXTEEN pages, and I took SIXTEEN pages!. The two-hour long non-stop ordeal of writing down answers to the visa questions was a more grueling writing exercise than my Ph.D. qualifying examination!

We ‘passed’ the Nigerian Consulate’s rigorous written visa exam. We got Nigerian visas for Kojo and Effie. Later that evening, we were airborne, alas, on “Pan Am” en route to Lagos Nigeria. Hurray. We took the whole experience of going from State College to Nigeria in stride. It was all part of the excitement, and the fun of “going to Africa to live and work with our people”. Nothing was going to stand in our way. Delays in the preparation of a mere Ph.D. Thesis were not going to stand in the way. Neither were delays and frustrations of obtaining Nigerian visas going to deter us.

I was reminded of the 1979 American Disco song by McFadden and Whitehead:

“Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now, W’are On The Move”( https://m.youtube.com )

My wife and I sang it on the plane, on our way to Nigeria. “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now, We Got the Groove”.

By early evening the next day, we had arrived at the University of Benin Guest House, in Benin City, and had been checked in. The plan was that, University of Benin( UNIBEN), was putting a bunch of us newly arrived Lecturers in the Guest House for only a few days, while the University’s Estate Housing Office was arranging to move us into a stand-alone fully furnished house. That was part of a Lecturer’s employment benefit package. Our family of four were provided with three meals a day at the Guest House.

In Benin City, Nigeria: First Impressions.
Nigeria seemed to be perfect for a young, idealistic, engineer to work. I was looking forward to teaching “principles of electrical and electronic engineering”, as well as developing engineering laboratories to teach practical engineering. We were going to sew the seeds for industrialization of Nigeria, and UNIBEN was tailor-made for my dreams. From an African point of view, the ‘environment’ was very inviting and invigorating. At the Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department, I met Nigerian colleagues--- young, brimming with enthusiasm to develop technology for propelling Nigeria towards becoming an industrialized nation. There was Dr. Felix Edgal, a Nigerian native from Bendel State. Benin City was the Capital City for Bendel State. Dr. Edgal had just received his Ph.D., specializing in Microelectronics, from the University of Wisconsin, United States. There was Dr. Anyeigye, a native Nigerian from Eastern Nigeria, with a recent Ph.D. from United Kingdom. He had been an undergraduate at Nigeria’s Ahmadu Bello University, where Prof. Kuale, who recruited me from the U.S., had been one of his Teachers. There was Dr. Anderson, a Ghanaian, with a Ph.D. from Russia. He had taught during the mid-1970s in Ghana, at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). There were Dr. Anazia, and Engineer Eziashie, both of them Nigerians from Eastern Nigeria. And finally, at the Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department, the Head of Department was Dr. Albert- Osaghae, a native Nigerian from Bendel State. Prof. Kuale, who, as Head of Department, had recruited me to “come and let’s build technology along the West African Coast”, had been made the Dean of Engineering.

There was exuberance in the air. The Department, like other Engineering Departments at UNIBEN, had been able to attract a significant number of young, highly trained, dynamic Nigerians and other Africans with a mission to train future engineers of Africa. Such engineers would be creative, practical, entrepreneurial, and forward looking.

For a while, things were going well in Nigeria. Nigerian oil was flowing. Money was available to support the development of engineering laboratories for teaching. Students had access to, and could afford, educational materials. Economic peace of mind meant Teachers and Students alike could concentrate on the mission of developing needed workforce for the enterprise at hand, namely, nation-building. The satisfaction of working alongside my African peers to develop Africa’s workforce was immeasurable. I was exactly where I wanted to be. The students were very bright, enthusiastic, and eager to acquire the necessary engineering skills for their own future economic well-being, as well as the skills to lead the effort of developing design and manufacturing industries in Nigeria. You could see in the students’ faces, the admiration they had for the Teachers, and the motivation they derived from seeing many of ‘their own’ having succeeded, and were back home to’ give back’ to their motherland.

As a Ghanaian teaching at UNIBEN, there were other aspects of life at UNIBEN, in fact in Benin City and the whole of Nigeria that kept powering my enthusiasm, good feelings, and determination to give of my best to UNIBEN. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, economic hardships and political instabilities in Ghana, had caused many of Ghana’s seasoned and best academicians from Ghana’s Universities to flock to Nigeria to teach. UNIBEN had its share of such Lecturers and Professors. This meant that, for a Ghanaian like me, who had just returned from the U.S., working in Nigeria was as close as it gets to actually working in Ghana.

At UNIBEN, there was Professor Francis Agbodeka, Professor of History from Cape Coast University. Incidentally, back in 1960, when I started my Secondary School education at Adisadel College, Cape Coast, Ghana, Professor Agbodeka, then Mr. Agbodeka, was History Master and Quaque House (Dormitory) Housemaster. And I was in Quaque House! Small world! There was also Professor K.N. Eyeson, Zoology Professor from Cape Coast University. We became good friends. There were Mr. Sosu, French Lecturer from Cape Coast University, and Cape Coast University Geography Lecturer, Mr. Akyeampong. Two Ghanaian Lecturers that I became very good friends with at UNIBEN, also happened to have gone to the same Secondary School that I attended in Ghana…Adisadel College , Cape Coast. One was Civil Engineering Lecturer, Dr. Alfred Akoto, who after obtaining a Ph.D in Civil Engineering from the University of Leeds, England, had been recruited to teach at UNIBEN. The other one was Dr. Patrick Darko, also an alumnus of Adisadel College, Cape Coast, Ghana, who had obtained Ph.D. in Mathematics from Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, U.S. Other Ghanaian Lecturers at UNIBEN were Dr. Kofi Nuro, a Mathematician trained in Canada. There was Mr.Yaw Agyei, who taught Business management. He was a most valued source of advice, encouragement and motivation for me. Several University of Ghana Law School-trained Lawyers, who had done postgraduate work in U.K. and in America, were teaching Law at UNIBEN. These were Dr. Agbosu, Mr. Yeboah and Mr. Akuffo. And last but not least, there were many Ghanaian citizens who were working in various professional capacities at UNIBEN and in the town of Benin City.

Teaching at the University: The thrill of accomplishments.

Things were definitely on track towards “building technology on the West African Coast”. Students had embraced The Department’s expressed objectives. Lecturers and Technicians were there to produce practical-minded electrical and electronic engineering graduates. This of course was in addition to learning important theoretical principles and foundations of electrical engineering. Like the rest of the Department’s Lecturers, I taught courses in electrical and electronic engineering principles. In particular, we made important innovations in the electronics engineering curriculum. We developed teaching materials to teach digital design, that body of knowledge which forms the basis for the design of computers. Digital electronics and the design of computers was coming into its own in the developed worlds of America, Europe and Asia. We introduced courses in semi-conductors( silicon) physics, semiconductor(silicon) device design and fabrication technology. Thus we introduced students to the fundamental principles governing the design and fabrication of computer chips. Information technology, IT, was alive and well at the department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. Some of us were dreaming “Silicon Valley Nigeria”!

We taught students to design, construct, and test, fully functioning electronic instruments of all kinds. Students were taught to understand that electronic instruments were key pieces of equipment in a wide variety of places….Hospitals( instruments for measuring vital human body functions—blood pressure, pulse, blood gases, heart and brain monitors, weights); Industries(---temperature, humidity, viscosity, light transmission, fluid flow rates, strengths of materials, pressure, weights, etc). Students constructed prototypes of projects, and documented them. This formed their ‘Senior Project and Thesis’. Each undergraduate student undertook such an industry-type project as the culminating (capstone), course for the Bachelors Degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering. In practical laboratory projects, we stressed the design and construction of ‘Data Acquisition Equipment’.

‘Data acquisition’ is the science of electronic instrumentation. It incorporates sensors to pick up the parameter to be measured, amplifiers, conversion of analog data( continuous-time signals) to digital signals( discrete-time signals), and sends the information to a display for operator viewing. ‘Electronic Instruments’ are the foundation and work horse of a technology-driven modern society. Electronic Instruments, whose most basic function is to collect data and quantify it( that is to say, measure some parameter), are ubiquitous in Hospitals and Clinics, Factories, Supermarkets, modern homes, Airports, and Transportation Systems( Vehicles, Traffic Control ). Students learned the components of an ‘electronic instrument’. The component devices used for designing and assembling an electronic instrument were quite inexpensive and were readily available for purchase on the global market.

Family Life in Benin City and the Cosmopolitan identity of Benin.

Meanwhile, on the family front, we had settled into a furnished three-bedroom University-provided single family house. The house was about four miles from UNIBEN’s Teaching Campus in the section of Benin City called Ugbowo. I refer to the “Teaching Campus” because “The Administration Officers….Vice Chancellor, Deputy Vice Chancellor, Bursar, Registrar and their administrative subordinates and staff all had their offices at the University’s Administrative Campus. It was in the part of Benin City called “Ekenhua”. And “Ekenhua “ was about fifteen miles from the Teaching Campus at “Ubgowo”. Our house was situated within the larger Ugbowo community. Therefore, many of our neighbors in that community were not employees of the University. It had the advantage that we would get the opportunity to interact with the local ethnic groups(such as The Bini, the Edo, Urobo, Izon, and Ekiti), and appreciate their culture. We became friends with a Bini family next door. One of their sons, Michael Obgozuwa, who was ten years old at that time, in 1983, used to run some errands for us. He grew up to become a successful Nigerian Police Officer. Thanks to Facebook, we still keep in touch with him, in Lagos, Nigeria.

Finally, we felt settled in our house. Kojo and Effie had been enrolled in a private Pre-School program a short walking distance from our house. The School was owned by a Nigerian Medical Doctor and his Hungarian-born wife. The wife ran the School. The husband had a Medical Practice, and offered free medical advice, when needed, by the children who were enrolled in their pre-School. So, with the children settled in a pre-school program, Cecilia could start exploring the entrepreneurial scene in Benin City. She quickly got a bakery business going. Her commercial “home-made” bread, meat pies, and cakes, were talk of the Ugbowo area. She supplied small grocery outlets and a University concession. She took orders for “home-made” bread from individuals, including friends at the University. Soon, “Mama Kojo”( that’s how our Nigerian neighbors called Cecilia, because she was the mother of our son Kojo) was up and running with her ‘home-based’ bakery. Happiness and contentment were very palpable within the Richardson household. The UNIBEN Campus and other places of interest were not far from our residence.

We were not sure how many years we were going to stay in Nigeria. Public transportation(using taxis and mini-buses) was excellent and quite inexpensive. So we did not buy a car until the beginning of our second year, when we bought a used Volkswagen from one of my Lecturer colleagues at the University. That was Mr. Nizamani, a Pakistani native. Nigeria as a developing country was ‘going places’. They had invested heavily in Higher Education. Each State ( at the time there were ten states) had established a new University. These were in addition to the many Federal Universities. All the Nigerian Universities had recruited, from all over the world, a lot of highly qualified academicians, especially in Science and Technology. These included quite a few from India, Pakistan, Ghana, European Countries, America and Canada. University of Benin was thriving academically, professionally and culturally. It had become a global community. There was “work and happiness” all around. And a good time was being had by all, even as we all worked very hard to help the nation-building effort in Nigeria. Most excitingly, a thriving Ghanaian professional community, most of its members associated with the University of Benin, provided friendships and cultural enrichment, and a helping hand for one another, among the Ghanaian Lecturers and their families at UNIBEN.

As to the Nigerian citizens themselves, Benin City, being situated right in the geographic center of Nigeria, had become a veritable microcosm of Nigeria. Little Nigeria, as it were. Benin City had attracted Nigerians from all corners of the country. The were harmoniously living and working together. The ‘lingua franca’ was ‘Pidgin English’. A newly arrived person from anywhere in or outside Nigeria was able to communicate and ‘blend in’. Nowhere did cultural and geographic harmony exhibit itself more vividly than at the University of Benin. In the Faculty of Engineering, Lecturers, Professors, Administrators and Staff from all over Nigeria, and from all over the world, were seen working together to build a better Nigeria. It was beautiful to observe Civil Engineering Professors Ola, and Nwokoye, a Yoruba and an Ibo, respectively, collaborating so effectively and comfortably with Engineering Dean, Professor Kuale, a Bendel State native, a ‘Bini’ man.

Still on the family front, I offer some interesting observations. Based on Nigerian culture, traditions and beliefs, Nigeria had been a blessing for the Richardsons. We agreed. We accepted that thought with pride and gratitude. For, our third child, a male, was born in Benin City in 1983, one year after we arrived in Nigeria. Our two older children were happy to have a new sibling, named Elvert Beyin ( alias Ebo Jr.). Things were going well. I was enjoying my teaching assignments and student advising duties at the University. Cecilia was feeling good about progress on her Bakery enterprise. She had brought to bear on the enterprise, her U. S. Business Administration Degree, as well as her many years of business management experience. She had had professional and entrepreneurial experience in the United States. Her Bakery Customers as well as friends and neighbors had noticed the efficiency and scientific precision with which she did the business. Real sophistication showed in the quality of her delicious breads and other pastry products that she supplied to her commercial clients.

Meanwhile, the children, Kojo and Effie, were enjoying their experience at the pre-School. They had come to marvel at the hilarious Driver-Conductor antics that were associated with the commercial mini-buses used for public transportation within the City of Benin. In Nigeria, they called then “Tuke Tuke”. In Ghana, they were called “ Tro Tro”. Our children were also impressed and fascinated by the high level of creativity exhibited by the local children. These Nigerian children typically made their own toys, by hand, using local, natural materials. They employed a type of soft Nigerian wood, bamboo shoots, and whatever scrap materials they could find. It cost them practically nothing. A big part of their joy and satisfaction was derived from the very creative and stimulating process of making their own toys. Kojo and Effie were quite fascinated by the Nigerian kids’ demonstration of such creativity. They soon abandoned most of their U.S.-manufactured plastic toys. They enthusiastically joined the next door neighbors’ children so as to participate in making toys from scratch using local materials. What a lesson in creativity! “Africa ye wo adze a oye”( Africa, we are blessed).

Challenges, the agony of setbacks.
Based on all the great and wonderful experiences described above, it was beginning to look like Nigeria, at least Benin City and the University of Benin, was a veritable ‘heaven on earth’.

Not exactly. Life in Nigeria in the early 1980s was not all ‘milk and honey’, despite Nigeria’s abundant oil wealth. Overall, our work and life in Benin City had been very rewarding. But there had also been challenges, lots of them, enough to shake the confidence and determination of even the most optimistic and determined person. And Cecilia, myself, and our children, counted ourselves among the most optimistic bunch. A few anecdotes will quickly bring you up to speed on what it took to survive in Nigeria, and how long it took to get things, anything, done.

For starters, in relocating to Nigeria, our personal and household effects, which we shipped by sea to Nigeria, estimated at the time(1982) to be worth around $15,000 (fifteen thousand U.S. Dollars) were all badly looted, in transit, on the high seas! Two months after we arrived in Benin City, our Shipper’s Agent sent us an official message from Lagos that most of our household effects had been stolen and or damaged. Not much could be salvaged. Lots of the family’s irretrievable and priceless memorabilia had been lost! I had to make several ‘work and productivity’-disruptive trips to Lagos. Lagos was some 200 miles west of Benin City. After lots of paper work and bureaucratic ‘song and dance’, we were able to get our U.S.-based Shipper, based on the insured valued of our shipped goods, to reimburse us for about half the value of the goods. Half a loaf was better than none, I felt. Life had to go on.

Then, there was that night, at 2:00AM in the middle of the night, when we were all sleeping. Suddenly, water was rushing into all the bedrooms from the kitchen area. The whole house was flooding,…., at 2:00AM! Apparently, sometime during the day before, we had checked the Kitchen sink to see if pipe-borne water from the City was flowing through the pipes. Water was not flowing, but we had accidentally forgotten to turn the faucet back to the ‘off’ position. Pipe –borne water and its flow through Nigerian homes was a very erratic occurrence, to put it charitably. The water flowed at unpredictable hours of the day or night. In the house flooding episode being described above, the water had suddenly started flowing in the middle of the night. A faucet in the kitchen had accidentally been left on. Hence, the flooding in the whole house in the middle of the night!. The whole family (Cecilia, myself, the children, and my sister-in-law who was visiting from Ghana) had to spring into action. We shut the ‘guilty’ faucet off; scooped up lots of water from the floor; mopped the floors in several rooms in the house. Needless to say that we had no more sleep for the rest of the night and in early morning.

If you thought erratic water supply in Nigeria was a disconcerting phenomenon, “you ain’t seen noth’n’ yet”. Electricity from the Nation’s ‘Nigerian Electric Power Authority’, that fearsome “NEPA”( some humorously called it “Never Expect Power Always”), was, as they say in the United States, “someth’n’ else”. Unreliable electricity supply in Nigeria of the early 1980s, when we were there, was a source of much anguish for every Nigerian. It was a source of significant financial losses on the part of many individuals, businesses and establishments. Unreliable ‘NEPA’ took a heavy toll on productivity. On a given day, a University of Benin Lecturer or student would go to the University Library, hoping to accomplish a lot. When you got to the Library, you might very well discover that power was off, and the Library’s back-up power generator had broken down. On such a fateful occasion, five minutes after one entered the library, one would rush back out of the Library, soaking and dripping wet with the heat and the humidity. I experienced it myself a few times!

Joy and blessing of a new baby, and the continued saga of disappointments.

Our third child, Ebo Jr., was born in Benin City in 1983. There was much joy and happiness in our house. Cecilia’s Sister, Martha, and other relatives from Ghana had come to visit us. These relatives had done a great job in helping us navigate through life in Nigeria, and in Africa in general. In fact, Martha came for six months, three months before Ebo Jr. was born. One nice Saturday mid- afternoon, when Ebo Jr. was two months old, we had set up and decorated our house for an out-dooring and naming ceremony for the new baby. Many friends and well-wishers, mostly fellow Ghanaian Academicians and their families from University of Benin, were in attendance. Food and beverages had been laid out. Thankfully, and mercifully, electricity from NEPA was flowing flawlessly that afternoon, and the stereo was pumping out some classic Osode Highlife music, courtesy of Ghanaian Highlife music genius Charles Kofi Amankwa Mann’s albums.

And, then,….. wait a minute. Oh, no! Lights went off. Stereo went silent. Oh no, NEPA had done it, again. Electricity was off. And it stayed off until much later that night. Our family and our wonderful friends were not fazed. Our lanterns to the rescue, and we made the best of the party. We enjoyed the food, the beverages, and even more importantly, the warm and enthusiastic friendships of all attendees.

There was also that one time, when Cecilia went to a commercial corn mill to grind corn, in a corn milling machine. Electricity suddenly went off, while her large tray of corn was still in the machine. After about one hour, she abandoned the corn in the machine, and came home. She lost a whole tray of corn, meant to be used for making kenkey, a popular Ghanaian cooked corn dough meal.

Money surprises, and the shock of authoritarian academic administration.

And now, here comes the ‘mother of all productivity-killing’episode, which was experienced by all Nigerians. While we were in Nigeria, the Government decided to change the Nigerian currency, the Naira, and to replace it with a New Naira currency. They would withdraw all the Nairas in circulation, and put brand new Naira notes in circulation. For several days in a certain week, everyone in Nigeria had to turn in to their Bank, all the Naira currencies they had. Naturally, we did turn in all our money. Everybody did turn in their Nairas. With all the old Nairas turned in, and therefore not legal tender, insufficient ‘New Nairas’ were put in circulation. So, if you turned in all your old Nairas, say 2000 Nairas, you ended up, perhaps retrieving on the first day of the new circulation, 500 Naira. Or even zero Naira. And for weeks, there was insufficient new Naira available in the Banks for people to withdraw their deposits, or cash their payroll checks! What a mess. For weeks, even so-called middle class folks had to go around checking with friends to see who had some new Naira. If a friend had 200 Nairas on him, he would lend you, say 50 New Naira. If your friend later found himself in need of New Nairas, he would check with you. Perhaps you could lend him 100 Nairas. This went on for weeks, before the situation was resolved, presumably by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

And last but not least, I describe a very strange occurrence. The Deputy Vice Chancellor (DVC) of the University of Benin, went into a fit of anger with me. This was because I had expressed displeasure at some bureaucratic issue. He summarily told me, in his plush office, that I had been fired from my job as a Lecturer!

Here is how things unfolded. My family and I had arrived in Benin City some one month earlier. The University had assigned a new house to us, and as a result, we were expected to leave the Guest House. The problem was that, the University was arranging, as stipulated in my job contract, to fully furnish the house. Very little furnishing had been done. Cookers, Refrigerators and water tanks had not been provided. There were no beds for my family to sleep on. Yet, we were expected to move into the house, since that house had been assigned to me. I refused to leave the Guest house. I was not about to settle my wife and two children in a house that had no cooking facilities, lacked reliable water ( University-supplied water tank had not yet been installed), and had no beds set up in there.

Because I was refusing to leave the Guest house, the Food Service personnel in the Guest House had insultingly told my wife one morning: “Today, Madam, no food for you!”. Reason? They had been told we had been given a house, so we should leave the Guest House. But there were no cooking facilities, and water was very erratic because the University had not yet installed the Water Tank. I was so furious that I went straight to the Deputy Vice Chancellor’s Office, fifteen miles away on the Administration Campus. I told the DVC my story. He was not impressed by the self confidence and “arrogance” I was projecting, and my insinuation that someone was not doing their job. So he told me that I had been fired. I went back to the University’s Academic Campus at Ubgowo. The Dean of Engineering told me not to worry. Actually, I was really not worried. Hiring, firing, and promotions were done by a Committee, The University Council, not by even an angry Deputy Vice Chancellor. Wow, I love Universities. It’s called academic freedom, tenure!

“Nyimpa beyee bi, w’ambeye ni nyinara”(We had contributed our bit. It was others’ turn).

By mid 1984, real economic uncertainties were beginning to be felt all over Nigeria. Elected Nigerian President, Alhaji Shehu Aliyu Shagari had introduced in 1983, what was referred to as “austerity measures”. Oil prices had slumped, importation of consumer goods into Nigeria was being curtailed, and economic hardships were becoming the order of the day. General Buhari, the current elected Civilian President, had made a coup and removed Shagari. So, by mid 1984, the economy of Nigeria had slowed quite a bit. “Work and Happiness” was taking a little beating. Was it time for my family to plan our next career and family move? Was moving to Ghana the next logical move? Unfortunately, the economic conditions in Ghana in the mid 1980s were still very uncertain. Many Ghanaians were still leaving Ghana. After discussing with the whole family, and a lot of soul-searching, we decided to explore a return to the United States. By January 1985, I had taken up a position as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Northeastern University, in Boston, Massachusetts. And by then, the whole family was fully resettled back in the United States, at the height of the personal computer revolution.

Author’s note: The material in this paper is excerpted from a Chapter from the author’s unpublished memoirs currently under development titled:

“MY MEMOIRS: In Pursuit of Science, Technology and Education”:

April 8, 2018
Albert O. Ebo Richardson, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus,
California State University.

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