Eddie Albert Okechukwu Iroh (born 21 April 1945) is a Nigerian novelist, journalist and former director of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria.
He is best known internationally for his trilogy of war novels: Forty-eight Guns for the General (1976), Toads of War (1979) and The Siren in the Night (1982). All were published in Heinemann's African Writers Series.
I was born on banana leaves and partially orphaned at eight. I learnt to pull myself up by my boot-straps. I have been clerk, columnist, critic, correspondent, publisher, and producer–in that order. Trained in the militia I spent the civil war years ‘commanding’ the War Reports desk in the secessionist War Information Bureau from where I made occasional forays to the battle-fronts, covering the encirclement and recapture of Owerri by the secessionists in the summer of 1969. For a while I served on the research staff of the secessionist Briefs Committee which drafted all major speeches and policy positions. For the past year and a half, I have been writing and producing for Nigerian Television in Enugu.
Eddie Iroh was born on 21 April 1945 at Mgboma, Imo State in what was then the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria. He attended St. Theresa's Primary School in Mgboma between 1951 and 1957, followed by a correspondence course at the University of London between 1960 and 1965. [2]
In 1967 Iroh joined the Ministry of Information in Enugu where he remained for the duration of the Nigerian Civil War. After the war ended in 1970 he moved to the Reuters News Agency. By 1973 he had joined Evans Publishers as an editorial representative, and the following year he became an executive producer at the Nigerian Television Authority. In 1979, he was promoted to head the Documentary and Features Department. During the 1980s, Iroh acted as the managing editor and the regional editor of The Guardian newspaper. He then served as director general at the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria between 1999 and 2005. [2] [3]
In 2004 Eddie Iroh was awarded an honorary doctoral degree in public administration from Imo State University. He was also elected President of Union of National Radio and Television Organisations of Africa (URTNA). [4]
Christopher Ifekandu Okigbo was a Nigerian poet, teacher, and librarian, who died fighting for the independence of Biafra. He is today widely acknowledged as an outstanding postcolonial English-language African poet and one of the major modernist writers of the 20th century.
Owerri is the capital city of Imo State in Nigeria, set in the heart of Igboland. It is also the state's largest city, followed by Orlu, Okigwe and Ohaji/Egbema. Owerri consists of three Local Government Areas including Owerri Municipal, Owerri North and Owerri West, it has an estimated population of 1,401,873 as of 2016 and is approximately 100 square kilometres (40 sq mi) in area. Owerri is bordered by the Otamiri River to the east and the Nworie River to the south. The Owerri Slogan is Heartland. It is also called the Las Vegas of Africa, due to the night life of the city and the numerous hotels, casino and leisure parks all over the city.
Nigerian Breweries Plc, is the largest brewing company in Nigeria. It serves the Nigerian market and West Africa.
Chief Cyprian Odiatu Duaka Ekwensi was a Nigerian author of novels, short stories, and children's books.
Elechi Amadi was a Nigerian author and soldier. He was a former member of the Nigerian Armed Forces. He was an author of plays and novels that are generally about African village life, customs, beliefs, and religious practices prior to contact with the Western world. Amadi is best regarded for his 1966 debut novel, The Concubine, which has been called "an outstanding work of pure fiction".
Florence Nwanzuruahu Nkiru Nwapa, was a Nigerian author who has been called the mother of modern African Literature. She was the forerunner to a generation of African women writers, and the first African woman novelist to be published in the English language in Britain. She achieved international recognition with her first novel Efuru, published in 1966 by Heinemann Educational Books. While never considering herself a feminist, she was best known for recreating life and traditions from an Igbo woman's viewpoint.
Christopher Uchefuna Okeke, also known as Uche Okeke, was an illustrator, painter, sculptor, and teacher. He was an art and aesthetic theorist, seminal to Nigerian modernism.
Vincent Chukwuemeka Ike OFR, NNOM was a Nigerian monarch, academic and writer known for a mixture of lampoon, humour and satire. He owed a little bit of his style to his Igbo cultural upbringing. He studied history, English and Religious Studies at the University of Ibadan and earned a master's degree at Stanford University. Among many of the first generation of Nigerian writers, he was popular as the author of Expo '77, a critical look at academic examination abuses in West Africa. Ike was a former registrar of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC).
Tekena Nitonye Tamuno was a Nigerian historian and Vice-chancellor of the University of Ibadan. He was the President of the Board of Trustees of Bells University of Technology.
Oge Okoye is a Nigerian actress from Nnewi in Anambra State, southeastern region of Nigeria. Oge Okoye was born in London, and later moved to live in Lagos State, southwestern Nigeria with her family. She completed her primary school in London before moving to Nigeria. Upon returning to Nigeria,
Adiele Eberechukwu Afigbo was a Nigerian historian known for the history and historiography of Africa, more particularly Igbo history and the history of Southeastern Nigeria. Themes emphasised include pre-colonial and colonial history, inter-group relations, the Aro and the slave trade, the art and science of history in Africa, and nation-building.
Sonny Okosun was a Nigerian musician, who was known as the leader of the Ozzidi band. He named his band Ozzidi after a renowned Ijaw river god, but to Okosun the meaning was "there is a message". His surname is sometimes spelled Okosuns and his first name Sunny. He was one of the leading Nigerian musicians from the late 1970s to mid-1980s.
Samuel Ejikeme Okoye was a Nigerian astrophysicist from Amawbia in Anambra State, Nigeria. Okoye was the first black African to obtain a doctorate degree in Radio Astronomy.
Ralph Uwazuruike is a Nigerian activist. He is the leader of the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB); a group canvassing for the secession and sovereignty of Eastern Nigeria. He holds degrees in Political Science from Punjab University, India, and Law from Bombay University, India. Uwazuruike adopts the principle of nonviolence as propagated by Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., as the philosophy of the struggle. He has been detained several times and charged with treason in Nigerian courts. On 28 April 2010, he was visited in prison by Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu and his wife, Bianca.
John Cross Anyogu was a Nigerian clergyman who, on 9 June 1957, became the first member of his Igbo community to be consecrated a Roman Catholic priest and later a Roman Catholic bishop. He was also the first Igbo to be ordained a priest in 1930 and the first bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Enugu which was created in 1963, the year of his installation. Through his efforts Enugu became a very important Catholic mission centre overseeing several thousand Christians in and around the town. His parish has the largest concentration of Catholics in Nigeria, second only to Owerri parish.
Chukwuedu Nathaniel II Nwokolo was a Nigerian physician specialist in tropical diseases. He was recognised for discovering and mapping out the area of paragonimiasis lung disease in Eastern Nigeria, with a study of the disease in Africa and clinical research for its control. He founded SICREP: Sickle Cell Research Programme to effectively fight the disease in Nigeria and globally.
Innocent Azubike UmezulikeOFR was a Nigerian jurist who served as the chief judge of Enugu State for over 13 years. He remains the longest-serving chief judge in South-Eastern Nigeria, and second longest-serving chief judge in Nigeria.
Cyril Agodi Onwumechili was a Nigerian physicist, academic administrator, and professor of geophysics at the University of Ibadan and later University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He was the fourth Vice Chancellor of the University of Ife from January 1979 to December 1982 and the former President/Vice Chancellor of the Anambra State University of Technology, Enugu, Nigeria, from January 1983 to December 1986. He delivered the Ahiajoku lecture on 20 November 2000. He was the first Nigerian geophysicist and the second president of the Nigerian Academy of Science. He was elected as president of the Academy in 1979 to succeed Professor Victor Adenuga Oyenuga, the first emeritus professor of the University of Ibadan and the first African professor of Agricultural science.
Levi Chibuike Ajuonuma, known as Livi, was a Nigerian academic, journalist and public relations expert. He was a radio broadcaster and TV presenter in Nigeria, best known for hosting a Saturday night entertainment programme "Open House Party" in Raypower 100.5 FM. Ajuonuma also worked at the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) and other channels, where he was the host and executive producer of The Sunday Show, Showtime and Levi Ajuonuma Live.