Born in Nigeria, Onyekachi Wambu bears the pain of the Nigerian Civil war which sadly claimed the lives of his uncle and father. However, that has not deterred him in moving to Britain at age 7 and excelling in all that he is involved in. Presently amongst other activists he fights the cause of the stolen African artefacts’ returns. He refers to them as the icons…
By Tunji Offeyi
Donning a simple shirt and sitting in front of a larger-than-life portrait as background, Onyekachi took time to answer questions on the Tunji Offeyi show. In answering the questions on Africa poor leadership from the prism of his edited book Under the Tree of Talking: Leadership for Change in Africa. The intelligent historian revealed that ‘it is not just about the leadership but the followership’ taking us through a personal experience whenever he goes to Nigeria and how he gets fleeced of little money as small as two-hundred naira by the same people complaining about corruption in the country. He opined that the cleansing of Nigeria from corruption needs a holistic approach encompassing the leader and the led.
Sharing his experience as a Journalist in the black newspaper Voice Onyekachi narrated the long walk to change in a closed British society towards the immigrants and the black community up to 1984 before things gradually started to transform. Although he felt short of mentioning the word racism. It was obvious of his concern about systemic racism in the British society.
The suave gentleman who leads AFFORD (an NGO) has recently turned his energy to campaigning for the return of the stolen African artifacts such as the Egyptian mummies and the Benin bronzes all which has brought about the return of the Icons project. ‘I was talking with Chinua Achebe and he was wondering why as Africans we cannot do great things when we created the Nok culture, the Terracotta, the Benin bronzes…’He believes these artifacts are the emblems of Africa’s greatness on what we can achieve as a people, seizing the opportunity to call for a single market in Africa with a liberal trading regime in place for the common good of the people.
Using a 10-R approach he calls for restitution to bring about a new renaissance and the return of human remains to the motherland as part of the return of the icons campaign and the dismantling of the 1963 act of parliament that prevented museums in Britain from repatriating the collection of arts in its custody. He is also confident the Trust put in place to manage the proposed ultra-modern Edo museum of West Africa in Benin city in present day Edo state of Nigeria will function well and the precious ‘icons’ will finally be home to roost.
Tunjiwrites 
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