I was born on November 19, 1939. I started school too late in 1948 because Kaka, my father, didn’t want me to go to school; he had a better thing for me than sending me to school. But Mamma D’Obidi...view moreI was born on November 19, 1939. I started school too late in 1948 because Kaka, my father, didn’t want me to go to school; he had a better thing for me than sending me to school. But Mamma D’Obidi, my mother, was relentless in her endeavor to see me in school. When I did go, she didn’t stop there. She and the headmaster, Donatus Nwoga contrived for me to teach the kindergarten class in 1955, immediately after my Elementary school in 1954. And because of her vision, instead of going to the regular secondary school like my siblings and friends, I attended a teacher training high school, the Premier Holy Ghost College, Umuahia, Nigeria for my Higher Elementary Certificate. I graduated in 1962, and taught school for five years before the Civil War broke out. I joined the Biafran Army as Second Lieutenant officer on March 11, 1968, fought at the notorious Calabar Sector, where I dueled with Benjamin Adekunle’s Third Marine Commando but was captured and detained in Kirikiri Maximum Security Prisons. I returned home on March 11, 1970 and was dubbed a ghost. Ghost or no ghost, I went back to teaching; ever since, I have gone into the classroom with a feeling of doing my mother’s job, and I do it with my whole heart in celebration of her vision.view less