The patriarchy is still in men; it’s like some men are afraid of allowing women to come up; they feel a woman should not be competing with a man, I f… - Uche Azikiwe

I met him through his scholarship scheme. I danced in my hometown – Afikpo – during the electioneering campaigns of the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons in the 60s; there were four of us. We were there to receive politicians coming to Afikpo for campaign, so we danced. In the end, he gave me a scholarship to go to secondary school and other things. My elder sister, who was the leader of the group, was given a job in Lagos. I don’t know what was done for the other two because there were four us. It was before the war, so the war disrupted my education as it did to everybody in the East.

From what I know or what I read or what I have been reading, even recently on some of the platforms, the killing of the Igbo people was not acceptable to anybody. It was unacceptable to Zik the way Igbo people were killed in the North. When Ojukwu declared Eastern Region as separate nation, we all know that Zik supported him because he felt that he could not live and see our people – Ndigbo – being slaughtered for no just cause but as time went on, it didn’t work out. I even read on one of the platforms that an extract from a book written by the late Gen. Philip Efiong, who was second in command to Ojukwu, stated everything and why it seemed that people like Zik decided to leave Ojukwu.

I think he knew my father in Lagos. The story I heard was that when my father was in Lagos, he had something to do in the Government House, Marina, where the President lived. I think my father also worked there, maybe to help secure Marina or whatever. I don’t think my father had any problem with who his children chose to marry; although, he was very strict. When we were young, we couldn’t just go out to play; it had to be done based on his rules.