THE ACADEMIC RIGMAROLE OF A RURAL GOVERNMENT FARMER'S" DAUGHTER!

THE ACADEMIC RIGMAROLE OF A RURAL "GOVERNMENT  FARMER'S" DAUGHTER!

*Ph.D~~UNN(2021)

*PDE~~ESCET(2017)

*B.Sc~~NOUN**(2010*Inconclusive)

*M.Sc~~UNN(2009)

*PGD~~~ESUT(2004)

*HND~~~IMT ENUGU(1987)

*OND~~~ACAST OKO(1984)

*WASC~~WMGS ONITSHA (1980)

*FSLC~~~UZO-STATE FARM SCHOOL

My academic story at a glance brings tears 😭 to my eyes 👀.

A journey without a vision or direction culminating into a huge feat came without my knowing and asking, yet God was busy doing great things in my life.

From a farm settlement primary school in the remote part of Adani, Nsukka area of East Central State at the time to a city of light; Onitsha's Washington Memorial Grammar School, my incredible quest for knowledge started! That was in 1975.

Finished secondary school as average student coming out with a Division 2 result in 1980.

I couldn't get JAMB admission for 2 years while teaching as an Auxiliary Teacher at Girls' Secondary School Umuchu which gave me the opportunity of spending time with my father and affording me the privilege of knowing the town and it's people while giving me the fun memories I cherish till today. 

I still believe that these 2 years out of my whole existence gave me the love❤️ I have for my Umuchu community till date. 

Not wanting to be left behind as my colleagues were leaving, I applied to the then Anambra State College of Arts, Science and Technology, Oko(now Federal Polytechnic) where I was admitted for the Ordinary National Diploma in Mass Communication in 1982.

 After my year 1, I was posted to Radio Nigeria Enugu for my 3months Industrial Attachment. It was there I got comfortable with news writing and reporting before going back to complete my Ordinary National Diploma programme. 

I finished at Oko in 1984 and got a teaching job while I was on my 1 year Industrial Attachment and there after opted for the Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu for my Higher National Diploma in 1985 where I finished in 1987 and proceeded to my National Youth Service Corps programme in August 1987.

I got married shortly after I finished service and forgot about going to school again till 1999 that I again picked a Post Graduate Diploma in Mass Communication form at Enugu State University of Science and Technology(ESUT) and never looked back.

In 2006, I went to University of Nigeria Nsukka for a Masters Degree where I made a preference for Public Relations.

Finishing my Masters and faced with the STIGMA of "HND" as I was still in service, I enrolled for a B.Sc in Mass Communication at National Open University and was in my year2 when God used the late Prof Ikechukwu Nwosu and dragged me out of the school for my Ph.D in Public Relations at University of Nigeria Nsukka in 2012. 

My admission letter read 3years, but since what is written is not always what is done, I spent 9YEARS after all as I took a bow on 1st December 2021 and received my flowers.💐💐💐

As University of Nigeria Nsukka was busy dealing with me, I went to Enugu State College of Education(Technical) ESCET and enrolled for the Professional Diploma in Education(PDE) in 2015 and finished it 2016 while still waiting for my "Ogas at the Top" at University of Nigeria Nsukka to release their hold on me.😭

I qualified for the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria(TRCN) and became a Registered Teacher in 2017.

What a journey!

What a rigmarole!

The irony of my academic rigmarole is that someone recently looked me in the eye and told me that I cannot teach in Mass Communication Department since Public Relations is  different from Mass Communication and what I did was inconsistent with research in Mass Communication! 

Of course I told the person that non of the people teaching Public Relations in the revered Mass Communication in that  school has a Ph.D in Public Relations and that's the truth!

An accomplished civil servant who worked with both Anambra state and Enugu state governments for 35years and retired as a Director of Information in 2020.

An accomplished academic who reached the greatest academic height without planning for it!

My name is Ngozi-Okey Margaret Amalu Ph.D.

I graduated from the Department of Marketing, University of Nigeria and my area of specialization is Public Relations.

I have now left everything about Public Relations and Mass Communication for MY NEW FOUND LOVE 💕 AND PROFESSION~~ NETWORK MARKETING which will enable me touch and change more people's lives than I would have done in either Public Relations or Mass Communication!

This is indeed my story!

On this my 2nd year of being pronounced a Doctor of Public Relations,I choose to celebrate my beloved father Mr Vincent Obi Mgbemena who believed in me and my academic adviser Prof Ikechukwu Nwosu who dragged me into Ph.D even at death!

These wonderful men though now dead saw in me what I never saw in myself and it won't be a bad idea if say that I owe everything to them!

TIME TO GO! 35 YEARS: A LONG TIME!

I STILL REMEMBER THAT LIKE YESTERDAY!
It was on 23rd January, 1985 that I was able to meet the Principal of Girls Technical School Abor Mr. Donatus Ofordu after missing him on the 22nd as my late Uncle Mr. Augustine Ekeneme Mgbemena who was working  with the then Anambra State Education Commission secured the appointment for me.

Armed with an OND from the Anambra State Polytechnic Oko and losing my father to the cold hands of death just after my OND exams, my mother’s eldest brother Mr. Ebenezer Iloka took me to his home in Umuahia and got me a job as a Communication Assistant at Chidiebere Transport Corporation for me to do my one year compulsory industrial attatchment. This arrangement did not go down well with my educationist Uncle Mr. Augustine Mgbemena hence he advised my relocation to his house in Enugu to take up a teaching job with the Anambra StateEducation Commission where he was already a Supervising Principal.

This new development was vehemently resisted by me giving him so many reasons why I did not want to be in this part of the world including that it was very far from our ancestral home of Umuchu in Aguata L.G.A. Anambra State. As a kind man that he was, he kept encouraging me that it was going to pay off in the long run showing me so many opportunities that abound if only I should change my mind. He eventually had his way because his arguments were convincing not withstanding the free accommodation available to me in his house. (May his kind soul continue to rest in peace).

I relocated from Umuahia to Enugu to become a teacher (Assistant Commercial Instructor) at Girls Technical School, Abor doing the shuttle from my kind Uncle’s house at New Haven Enugu while being fed by his beautiful wife, Mrs. Esther Ugochukwu Mgbemena (a daughter of Nduanya of Awha Imezi) until I got my first pay after 3months and then got an accommodation at Abor where I stayed for 8months before going back to school for my Higher National Diploma at IMT Enugu with a study leave without pay approval for two years.

Career:-
I was reinstated in September, 1988 after completing my Higher National Diploma in Mass Communication and undergoing the mandatory National Youth Service Corps programme in Oyo State, South West Nigeria.
My reinstatement saw me posted to College of the Immaculate Conception (CIC) Enugu to teach English Language courtesy of my Uncle Mr. Augustine Mgbemena who was also accommodating me for second time. May God bless his beautiful soul. My not wanting to be a teacher took me away from CIC in January, 1989 and got posted to the Headquarter of the Anambra State Education Commission Enugu as an Information Officer II. I was posted to the SEC Zonal Office, Awka as a Public Relations Officer and later to SEC Abakaliki Zonal Office after spending 6months at Awka and finally to the State Education Commission Headquarters Enugu in January, 1990 where I have remained till date. I spent total of 30years at the Headquarters having being inherited by the Enugu State Government after the creation of Enugu State because of marriage.

With the creation of Enugu State and my being inherited by the State my career progression in Public Relations started. I was converted to Information Officer Cadre and with each promotion I kept climbing the Information Officers ladder.

Information I:
Senior Information Officer
Assistant Chief Information Officer
Chief Information Officer
Deputy Director Information
Director Information, a rank I attained since 2011. I was appointed the Head of Public Relations in November, 2001 while on Salary Grade Level 12 to take over from the Director of the Unit who was appointed a Permanent Secretary. To the glory of God, I was able to hold the Unit together. This development and God’s favour gave me the record breaking feat of the “LONGEST SERVING” Head of any department in PPSMB having spent a total of 18years as Head of Department/Unit and 30years in the Board’s headquarters. God shielded me from all dangers by His Grace. (No queries, disengagement, withholding of salaries or leave allowance).

Marriage:-
My listening to and obeying my Uncle Mr. Augustine Mgbemena gave me the opportunity of meeting my husband. Unknown to me, my husband Barr. Paul Okey Amalu saw me on 22nd January, 1985 the first day I went to report for duty and missed the Principal Mr. Donatus Ofordu and made up his mind that he was going to marry me. Funny, but true he lived up to that dream and today I can say that God took me to that school to give me a husband who was an English language teacher in the school, but a lawyer of great standing today. This near 30year old marriage is blessed with two wonderful children Jachike, a Medical Doctor and Fuchi a Nurse.

EDUCATION:
Recall that I was employed in 1985 with Ordinary National Diploma and reinstated with Higher National Diploma in 1988. One of the abounding opportunities mentioned by my Uncle included education. Working in the education system instead of a transport corporation that was my first attraction gave me the opportunity of going back to school. As I am bowing out of service, I am armed with a Post-Graduate Diploma in Mass Communication from Enugu State University of Science and Technology, a Masters Degree in Public Relations from University of Nigeria Nsukka, a Professional Diploma in Education from Enugu State College of Education (Technical), and a licensed teacher of the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria and a Public Relations Doctor-in-view student Unviersity of Nigeria Nsukka.
I owe the progress made in this area of my life to both my Uncle and the Post-Primary Schools Management Board Enugu.

APPRECIATION
I will be doing myself a great disservice if I do not appreciate the roles of a number of individuals in my career journey during these incredible 35years of service-

BARR. RICKY AGU- MD/CEO ENSEPA -1996-1999
For encouraging me to take up a career in Public Relations.

BARR. M.F.O. Eze – CHAIRMAN PPSMB 2000-2003
For discovering my skills, fighting for me and giving me the opportunity to be the Head of Public Relations when I was on Grade Level 12. May your kind soul continue to rest in peace; sir.

CHIEF F.O.P. ODENIGWE-Chairman PPSMB 2003-2005
for elevating Public Relations in PPSMB and approving my attendance to National Conferences of Nigerian Institute of Public Relations, ANCOPSS and Sports competitions.

PRINCE M.A. AKPA-CHAIRMAN PPSMB 2005-2007.
A perfect gentleman with an amazing personality! Thank you for making my job easy and sending me for trainings, conferences. The provision of video, still cameras and expansion of the Unit started with you.

DR. MRS. KATE EGO EZE Permanent Secretary and Chief Executive PPSMB 2007-2009

It was an awesome experience working under you Ma. I cannot forget you in a hurry! The conferences and workshops at Ado-Ekiti, Bauchi among others are still fresh in my mind. Provision of modern computer with accessories, television etc, and full equipment and furnishing of the Public Relations Unit.

PRINCESS STELLA NGWU CHAIRMAN PPSMB 2009-2011
Thank you for introducing the ranking of principals in PPSMB.

DR. GAB OKAFOR (OCHIAGHA) CHAIRMAN PPSMB 2011-2014
Like your title implies, you fought so many wars for PPSMB and won all of them. I cannot forget your achievements in a hurry. The WTC incident is still fresh in our minds. May your soul continue to rest in perfect peace.

BARR. NESTOR EZEME CHAIRMAN PPSMB 2015-Date
Our Digital and God sent Chairman! Champion of all Champions! PPSMB will forever remember you for your excellent leadership qualities immersed in unprecedented humility. You are so full of the milk of human kindness. God bless you Sir.

I keep saying and make bold to say here that you were made the Chairman of PPSMB at the time you came for the hopeless like me!

Thank you for allowing God to use you to deliver me in particular and others in general. It shall forever be well with you and your household in Jesus name, Amen. God bless you mightily.

MR. AUGUSTINE EKENEME MGBEMENA-Thank you Uncle for being a beacon of light to the entire Mgbemena family of Umuchu, Aguata, Anambra State and me your beloved brother’s daughter. My father told me of how you came and carried us from Ibagwa-Nkwo at the outbreak of the Nigeria Civil War to make sure we were not killed during the war. May your sweet soul continue to rest in peace.

Thank you All

NGOZI-OKEY AMALU
RTD DIRECTOR OF INFORMATION
PPSMB, ENUGU.

Happy Birthday Fuchi

Happy Birthday🎂🎂🎂💕🕊

Happy Birthday💕🎂🍿🍷🍾🍦Fuchi. Her Mother's Daughter! The Best Daughter In The Universe! I Am So Proud Of The Woman The Lord Has Moulded You Into! Spending Your 1st 7Days Of Life Without Me While Fighting For My Life Is Something I Have To Make Up For You!🙏Keep Keeping On And Know That Jesus Loves You Madly! ❤💕💕💕

MY 2019 BIRTHDAY THANKSGIVING 🎂♥️🎁🍦🙏

My Birthday Thanksgiving! 🎂❤🍷🕊🍾🍿
Thank you Heavenly Father for making me Wonderfully and Fearfully!
Thank you Jesus for bringing me this far!
Thank you Ever-Present Holy Spirit for going  with me every step of the way!
Thank you Mary my Mother for your constant intercessions on my matters!
Thank you my beloved friends for your outpouring of love! ❤❤❤I appreciate you all and love you with a sincere heart! God bless you mightily.🙏🙏🙏
19th May 2019 is simply a day of Thanksgiving for me and not a day of Supplications because God has been so faithful to me!

Great God

MY 2019 BIRTHDAY THANKSGIVING 🎂♥️🎁🙏👏🍷

My Birthday Thanksgiving! 🎂❤🍷🕊🍾🍿
Thank you Heavenly Father for making me Wonderfully and Fearfully!
Thank you Jesus for bringing me this far!
Thank you Ever-Present Holy Spirit for going  with me every step of the way!
Thank you Mary my Mother for your constant intercessions on my matters!
Thank you my beloved friends for your outpouring of love! ❤❤❤I appreciate you all and love you with a sincere heart! God bless you mightily.🙏🙏🙏
19th May 2019 is simply a day of Thanksgiving for me and not a day of Supplications because God has been so faithful to me!

FINAL VERDICT ON BUHARI!

Hear This! ~~As Nigeria votes, Buhari moves from messiah to maligned~~

Chude Jideonwo  13 Feb 2019 

There was a time when Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari represented something deeply special – the democratic ideal that a failed government can be punished; and that an opposition party could possibly win in a country where this had never before happened. He represented a generation’s aspirations that our voices matter, our decisions count, and together we could direct the destiny of our country.

Today, those times are today a distant memory.

Instead, what we have is a sick man, one so ill he misremembers the year he was sworn in, does not recall his locations, gives incomprehensible to elementary questions, is verifiably unaware of what happens in his own government (“He doesn’t know,” his deputy was forced to interject to save the president from saying something reckless in a recently televised town hall), and stumbles in ways too ominous for a nation that just barely survived a medically brain-dead president kept in office by a cabal less than a decade ago.

What we also have is a leader who has lost significant moral authority, refusing to hold corrupt members of his own party to account, defending the murders of citizens by those he considers his kinsmen, choosing loyalty over competence in everything from management of our oil wealth to leadership of the central bank, maintaining waste in government that he specifically ran against, supervising a bloated patronage network headlined by members of his family living large at the nation’s expense and refusing to be accountable to the nation about what exactly ails him.

But perhaps all of those would be forgivable. Perhaps we could console ourselves with the facts that bombings in the nation’s capital have ceased.

Perhaps we could console ourselves with the lack of fuel queues across the country and petroleum product scarcity that became frequent under administrations before him. Or the fact that he manages to retain the respect, in spite of all that has happened, of peer heads of state around the world.

Perhaps.

Except that he has now done the one unforgivable thing — tamper with our hard-won democracy.

Nigeria’s last elections — those that brought this president into power — were famously free and fair. This wasn’t an easy achievement: it was the cumulation of steady actions from civil society, international partners, an emboldened media and expansive technology; but most importantly the conscious legacy of Goodluck Jonathan, who displayed absolutely no desire in interfering with free and fair elections.

The same cannot be said of his successor.

The man once hailed as a messiah, enabled by a process that was judged as highly credible, has now set about supervising the dismantling of that 16-years-coming legacy.

What began as troubling signs with executive intimidation of the legislature progressed into deeply flawed elections in many states around the country, including the one where his party chairman famously asked opponents, in a Freudian slip, to accept “rigging” in good faith. The tension has now metastasised into brazen interference in the presidential electoral process.

In a borderline unconstitutional move, he suspended the Chief Justice of the nation’s apex court — the one with the power to convene presidential election processes in the event of irregularities — and installed a new one, barely three weeks before elections are due to take place.

 

 

Cries from the Nigerian Bar Association, international election observers and foreign embassies, newspaper op-eds, and a broad spectrum of non-political civil society haven’t swayed him and his gang. The president who is widely suspected to be preparing security forces for election manipulation has insisted on tampering with the judicial process that would correct such an anomaly.

This is a grave assault.

This president might no longer be lucid and hasn’t been famous for emotional intelligence, but he must be reminded that history is a very harsh judge. He should recollect the many players in our recent and distant past who have tried to tamper with the collective will of the people, and how they have ended up both in consequence and the public imagination. He should learn from the mistakes — and disgrace — of those before him.

The real tragedy is that, despite his many failures, a confluence of his strong personal brand curated and calcified in the 2015 elections, unshakeable support from his ethnic base, a flawed opposition candidate, a lacklustre opposition campaign, and a beat-down electorate can conspire to deliver him a free and fair win. But in visibly panicking over the chance that he has lost, he refuses to learn from the example of his predecessor.

Where Goodluck Jonathan snatched victory from the jaws of defeat by gracefully conceding his election loss, Buhari wants to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by cobbling together a tainted, corrupt victory.

It will also be a terrible national tragedy.

It took a long while and excruciating hard work to get to this place of stability. Nigerians going to vote this weekend must stand ready to make a clear statement to the president that his ambition is not strong enough to rob us of what we have rightly earned. We will not take it.