Prof. Eka Braide
Professor Ekanem Ikpi Braide is a phenomenon. That’s the best way to simply describe her. She has a legendary legacy including a trail of many firsts: She is the first female president of the Nigerian Academy of Science in its 44 years of existence, first woman in Cross River State, and perhaps Nigeria, to serve as Vice Chancellor in two different universities respectively: Vice Chancellor, Cross River University of Technology (CRUTECH), Calabar, (2004 to 2009) and as Pioneer Vice Chancellor, Federal University, Lafia, (2011 to 2016); and the first female Pro-Chancellor of Arthur Jarvis University, Akpabuyo, Nigeria.
A renown professor of Parasitology/Epidemiology, Professor Ekanem Ikpi Braide, has served the country in different capacities including serving as a member of the national committee that achieved the laudable feat of guinea worm eradication in Nigeria.
She was nominated by the Minister of Health to serve in the Ministerial Expert Advisory Committee on COVID-19 Health Sector Response (MEACoC-HSR).
In July 2010, Professor Braide was honoured by the President of Nigeria with the award of Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR) for her contribution to guinea worm control in Nigeria.
In all of these accomplishments, she has remained simply “Eka”. Unknown to her, her life is a study in simplicity. As she turns 80, what lessons can the world learn from her life? It is some of these lessons that we have tried to sum up in this article titled, “The Simple lessons “Eka” has taught the world at 80”. The lessons as stated here are not exhaustive.
Proud of her Roots: Eka is a woman proudly rooted in her ancestry. She never forgot her roots. She’s proven that she is a proud Omormor, as people from Ugep are ethnically referred to.
She’s brought her decades of social development practices to the different ecosystems she finds herself in, whether in the academic community or the Presbyterian church community or in different community associations she belongs to .
In Ugep, she has led a lot of social interventions that have helped to improve the lives and wellbeing of the community. Following the footsteps of her illustrious father, the late Chief Onun Eteng Ikpi OON, who led the initiative to establish the Community Secondary School, Ugep, and several other community development projects, Eka has also initiated many other community-wide self-help projects
Courage and Boldness: In 1979, during the general elections in Ugep, Eka, a young PhD holder, challenged a certain top politician from her local government who was trying to manipulate the process of the elections in the polling unit of popular candidate, Mr. Okoi Omini Edet, in who was the candidate of an opposition party in Ugep where Eka’s father was a leading figure. This was to the surprise of the people, both men and women, at the pooling booth where the confrontation took place. It was a rarity. A young 11 year old girl at that time, Tammie Edet, who witnessed that scene never forgot it. It made a deep impression on her and shaped her consciousness of the need to speak up as a woman and she is today, one of Nigeria’s leading voices in gender advocacy, leading an organisation called, Gender Perspective. That incident underpins her closeness to her father and her political consciousness early in life.
Lifelong learning: Eka exemplifies a life of learning. Although a teacher of international repute, she is also a very willing “student”, demonstrating to the world that learning is one of the ways to the top. She is a voracious reader. It didn’t start when she became a teacher. Right from when she was a child, she had the habit of reading virtually every book in her father’s rich library. Around the early 60s in Enugu, Okoi Omini Edet, a senior police officer in Enugu had gone as it was then the practice among Ugep Elise in Enugu to confer with Eka’s father, Chief Onun Eteng Ikpi, in his residence in GRA, Enugu, over the community projects in Ugep that Chief Ikpi was leading other prominent Ugep leaders to execute. Mr. Edet haas gone with his children and his wife’s niece who was a teenager at that time, now well in her 70s, to Chief Ikpi’s house. She recalled with nostalgia the image of Eka reading a book throughout the period of their visit. She said while other Eka’s younger siblings were all playing around, she was quietly seated a little away where they were, clutching a book that she was reading as if her life depended on it. Lifelong learning has become one of Eka’s creeds. Little wonder, she took to scholarship and she is still learning and teaching the world. Eka has contributed to literary scholarship in Nigeria with her authorship of “Abu’s Choice and the King’s Daughter”, which was a compulsory literature text in Cross River State in the 80s. The book was turned into drama play in most schools at that time. I remember vividly how a certain Henry Akwa became a “celebrity” in Community Secondary School, Ugep, in 1984, when he acted as the protagonist in one of the drama pieces in the school.
Simple Lifestyle: Eka’s elegance is rooted in her simplicity. Her entire being is marked with simplicity. From her appearance to her way of life, she literally defines simplicity and has shaped the lives of many others who had been under her tutelage and influence
Investment in young people. Another distinct characteristic of Eka is her deep interest in youths. She’s shaped the future of several generations of people all around the world. She consistently has invested in human capital development of people in the last 50 years. In all the work places where she had influence in, she employed tons of young people who have turned out as top professionals in their different fields. A lot of indigent people around the state who would ordinarily not have gone to school are today proud graduates courtesy of her personal scholarship scheme. Today, she has “children” in literally every corner of the world that are doing well and in turn, impacting their worlds. She also initiated an NGO, YouthCare, to facilitate youth-centred social interventions.