As the management and students of the University of Port Harcourt (Unique Uniport) prepare to celebrate and honour their students who had fully completed their various chosen programmes and satisfactorily fulfilled the requirements clearly spelt out by the statute of the institution, it is necessity to felicitate with one of the distinguished celebrants, Dr UeBari Samuel N-ue, who, over the years, had greatly inspired me to do better and aspire to excellence.
He has evidently shown that hard work, diligence, consistency thoroughness and dedication to one’s avowed target and goals can make one to brilliantly succeed, no matter the high obstacles placed on their path to greatness.
Karl Marx, the most erudite philosopher, strengthens that “you may get delayed to reach your targets. But every step you take towards your target is equal to victory”. After all, as Richard Nixon aptly posits “greatness comes when all seem not to go well. Greatness comes when one is tested. It is then those in the deepest valley will know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain”.
The forthright gentleman of many parts, Dr N-ue (popularly known, called and addressed by his admirers as Uncle Sam) was born into the illustrious and God-fearing family of Late Samuel Ndegwe N-ue and Deaconess Lydia Ndewa N-ue (Nee Mbale) of blessed memory, both of the ancient Zor-Sogho community in Rivers State, some couple of years ago.
Young Uebari enrolled at State School, Sogho in 1975 for his primary school education and obtained the First School Leaving Certificate (FSLC) in 1981. He quickly received his secondary school education at the famous Government Secondary School, Sogho from 1981 to 1986, getting the West African School Certificate with flying colours.
N-ue suffered a setback due to his seeming lack of clear-cut scholastic penchants and interest. This delayed him for about four years before he gained admission into the then Rivers State College of Education, Rumuolumeni, Port Harcourt (affiliated to Nigeria’s prestigious premier university, the University of Ibadan). At the beginning, UeBari toyed with idea of studying English Language at the university, but being influenced by his beloved father’s precise keeping of record and increasing interest in world affairs made him to go for History with bias in Social Studies. He had complete success in 1992. As it was the academic tradition of the University of Ibadan to encourage highfliers and eggheads, which our celebrant truly is, he was meritoriously awarded two years’ waiver to pursue his bachelor’s degree. He subsequently enrolled for the Bachelor in Education programme in 1995 at his Alma mater (now Ignatius Ajuru University of Education), capping it in 1997 in Second Class Upper Division-a true reward for hard work and commitment to excellent.
His unquenchable thirst for higher degree took him to the University of Port Harcourt in 2001. As “no man can become a saint in his sleep” (Henry Drummond) he resorted to his long established tradition of extra-ordinary hard work, prodigious intellect and incredible appetite for industry. He successfully completed it within the stipulated time and clinched the Master of Arts degree in History and Diplomatic Studies (African History) with specialization in intergroup relations (Social and Political History). It has to be stated without fear of contradiction that due to his spectacular and brilliant performance, the Board of Examiners, headed by Prof. Eno Blankson Ikpe (External Examiner) of the University of Uyo, UeBari Samuel was strongly advised to proceed for his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D) degree without delay. Thus, against the custom of seeking admission outside their Alma mater, Uncle Sam settled for the University of Port Harcourt when in 2014 he registered for a doctoral programme in Social and Political History and completed it on 17th January, 2018.
He creditably acquired the Ph. D on the strength of a thesis entitled “Ogoni And Her Neighbours During The Colonial Period, 1900-1960”. The quality and relevance of this product of rigorous and robust intellectual enquiry is underscored by unremitting lamentable intra-and-inter ethnic conflicts and widespread ethno-religious upheavals partly caused by colonialism. The impact of colonialism on inter-group relations is central and critical in redressing the centrifugal and centripetal disintegrative forces threatening the corporate existence of Nigeria. Surely, the study would encourage Nigerians to appreciate those common linkages shared by Nigerian groups, the challenges faced by other groups and the potentials of each ethnic group which could be properly harnessed for the mutual benefits of others in the country. Fundamentally, UeBari has excellently paid his academic dues and has really gone a full circle.
Records are satiate with proven facts that the historian who makes history, Dr UeBari Samuel, is a thoroughbred academic and a history scholar of outstanding merits. He is one of the favoured historians to drink freely from the academic reservoirs and make good use of the intellectual property of eminent historians and consummate statesmen like Emeritus Professor E. J. Alagoa, the stallion of Niger Delta history and father of oral tradition and history, and late Professor N.C. Ejituwu.
N-ue, as popularly known in the Department of History and Diplomatic Studies, was also privileged to pass through the tulelage of well respected academic giants and celebrated historians in the department like Professor A. A Derefaka, A. M Okorobia, J. H. Enemugwuem, Otoabasi Akpan, A. Orugbani and Dr Pastor S. Kpone-Tonwe.
Arising from the foregoing, it is my singular honour and profound pleasure to invite you to join me to celebrate a friend of all, a consummate administrator, a social analyst, a forthright gentleman of many significant parts, a visionary leader, celebrated author and co-author, a historian par-excellence, prolific freelance writer, ace community leader and a plenipotentiary teacher, Dr. UeBari Samuel N-ue, who has been awarded the greatly desired degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History and Diplomatic Studies with option in Social and Political History of Africa. In line with the academic custom, the management of the University of Port Harcourt will during the forth comming convocation ceremony stated for 30th March, 2019, honour and celebrate him and many others for their rare feats. The special academic ritual will officially and ceremoniously confer on him the much coveted and prestigious degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History and Diplomatic Studies whose symbolic representation is the dark, multi-directional and shapeless cap. By his induction and admittance into the Doctoral Hall of Fame, it is hoped that this celebrant, Dr Uebari Samuel N-ue, NCE, B.ED, M.A., Ph.D, who looks no where, having set his hands firmly on the academic plough, will contribute more significantly to the advancement of the society if given larger role to play. We wish you many more smashing hoods and elegant amorphous caps. Bravo and congratulations, Sir!
Barrister Agbozi wrote in from Bori.
Bob Agbozi
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