BREAST CANCER PART 1 With Dr. Chin Akano

BREAST CANCER PART 1

In this series i shall be looking at the breast cancer, some facts about it, risk factors, signs and symptoms, prevention, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis

I will start by saying that breast cancer is the cancer originating from breast tissue and is the commonest cancer in women and commonest cause of cancer death in women as well.

WHO CAN SUFFER FROM BREAST CANCER??

Both men and women can suffer from breast cancer, though it is 100 times commoner in women.
However due to delay in diagnosis of breast cancer in men, the outcome is a lot poorer in men than in women.

Furthermore any body who has reached puberty can suffer from breast cancer but it is commoner in women over 50 years and also kills more women over that age.

WHAT CAUSES BREAST CANCER ?

No one knows what causes it but there are certain factors that put someone at a higher risk of developing it. These are known as the risk factors and among them are:

* If a close relative has suffered from cancer of the breast

* If you have cancer in one breast already

* if you are a woman

* If you have developed any other cancer in any other part of your body

* If you are a smoker

* If you are obese

* If you are over 50 years

* Those who refused to breast feed

* Commoner in white women

* Those taking Hormone replacement therapy (HRT)

* Over exposure to radiation eg during x-rays

* Excessive alcohol consumption

* Several others like taking of combined pills ( oral contraceptive, early menstruation, late menopause )

HOW CAN BREAST CANCER BE RECOGNISED?


Please note that you may have no symptom at all especially at the early stage of the cancer

If you do have symptoms yy far the commonest symptom is painless lump in the breast. This lump does not disappear after your period in women.

Other possible symptoms are as follows:

* Pain in the breast

* Discharge from the nipple : the discharge could be clear, bloody and coloured.

* swelling in the armpit

* dimpling of the nipple

* nipple retraction

* nipple redness

* Rash on or around the nipple

* Itching of the nipple

*Ulcer of the nipple

*Burning sensation to the nipple

* change in colour and size of breast [s]

Part 2 to follow: Watch out

Thanks for reading


Dr Chin Akano

WELCOME TO IGBERE

THE HISTORY OF IGBERE
Igbere history and its people traces from the lkweres who reside along the banks of Imo River in Nigeria. In lkwere Etche located in the River State of Nigeria, is a town known as “Okomoko”. It was here that our great ancestor “Ebiri Okomoko” was born. Ebiri Okomoko was the fifth of sixteen children of Prince Aguma Egbiri, a member of the Ruling House in Okomoko. His father had three (3) wives. His eldest wife had four daughters. Ebiri Okomoko’s mother, Ekemini, was the second wife. She was said to be so beautiful that she was thought to be a reincarnation for the “river goddess”, gbere stands at the threshold of history. And it is a two way brink, oscillating between the past and the future. That past ought to elicit pride from indigenes who owe their town to very brave forebears that brooked no injustice and evil deeds.
Stubbornly perched atop a tree on the way to Ibinaukwu, one of the thirteen communities amalgamating into Igbere, is a weather beaten flag, which evidently had survived strong wind and rain, yet wrestled free from the intimidating leaves to pronounce Biafra, the defunct republic which caved in 30 months after its proponents fought with bare hands to keep it alive. Perhaps that indestructible flag is unwittingly symbolic of Igbere, a town in today’s Bende local council of Abia State with a never-say –die spirit and history. We shall return to that proud past shortly.

New London
But there is yet a visible stride into a historic future, one that threatens to thrust the town as, perhaps, the fastest developing space within the state. The people are not resting on their oars, basking in past glory. They have strived to keep pace with time. From the window of Wisdom Orientation Guest House at the eastern end of Igbere, a visitor behoves lush green scenery, stretching into the undulating topography of a place dotted with architectural masterpieces plastered with sparkling paints that smile at you. Whether the elegant buildings are at the hilly streets of Okafia and Umusi or the relative flat lands of Amaukwu and Eziama villages, Igbere has rightly earned the sobriquet of ‘New London’. It has displaced Abiriba, immediate neighbour to the east which had, over the years, prided itself as ‘Small London”.

If you visit both towns today, you will be in no doubt about which holds the mantle. The seeming sad fact is that both have lost the virginity of typical African villages and have been consumed with rampaging modernity such as turn foot paths of yore into beautiful streets adorned with smooth asphalt surfacing, bushes into mansions, trees into electric poles and telecommunication masts. Igbere is no longer a village. It is evolving into a city. That is the irony of development. Something must give. New and good things always sprout from the ashes of old ones.
As a visitor enters Bende local Government Area from Umuahia end, makes a right turn at Uzuakoli, does a few kilometres, hits Isiegbu in Ozuitem, turns left, at the T junction, a final journey into the ancient town begins.

The beginning
A town founded ‘not later than 1267’ cannot but be ancient. No less a personality than 80-year-old Elder E.E. Ukaegbu, a legal practitioner and very prominent indigene of the town makes the assertion after his painstaking research gave birth to a booklet captioned The History of Igbere, published in 1974 and revised in 2008. Ukaegbu , an Aba based lawyer, and possibly the first parliamentarian to win election as an independent candidate in old Eastern Nigeria, also typifies the stoicism and strong spirit of the Igbere man. He spoke to Sunday Sun in his country home in Amaofufe generally pronounced ‘Ámaufufu’, another of the 13 villages.

“The average Igbere man knows that a man called Ebiri Okomoko was the founder of Igbere. He was a great warrior. Farmer and hunter whose place of origin has been traced to Andoni, very close to the Atlantic Ocean . He was said to have sojourned in several places including Okomoko now in Etche Local council of Rivers State,” said Elder Ukaegbu.

The story, as this newspaper found out, was that Ebiri did not head for Igbere at inception. He had moved from Etche to a few places before making a fairly long stop over at Ajata Ibeku, near Umuahia. There he met Uduma-Eze and Onyerubi, both of whom later founded Ohafia and Abam. He also sojourned at Oroni forest where he met Egbebu who later founded Edda.
They parted ways, for reasons researchers have not yet revealed ,and Okomoko, adventurous as ever, hit Eke forest and finally settled there. Even today, with its rampaging modernity and rapid development, no one has dared destroy Eke-Igbere which still inspires awe and reverence from the average Igbere man. If a disputing duo went to Eke forest and any swore falsely, the erring person is said to be inviting sudden and untimely death. If an Igbere man is wounded in a fight or even an accident, such as exposes his blood, it only takes liquid from leaves of any tree from the forest for the gushing blood to cease. Such is the real or perceived power of the Eke forest, named after the market day of Okomoko’s arrival. He arrived on an Eke market day, one of the four days that make a typical Igbo calendar week.

But the story of Igbere’s origin has just begun. Okomoko’s settlement was not the end of the matter. It is the end of the early phase. He passed away shortly after arrival. He did not live to see and take part in the battle royale that culminated into the naming of Igbere.
There is, therefore, a slight but negligible historical controversy over the true founder of the town. The question is this; was Igbere founded by Okomoko who led the first settlers or was it founded by his son Ebiri, who led the battle to crush a great wave of intrepid warriors who ravaged the land? Had they subdued the people there would have been no Igbere, at least by the name it is now known. Historians and later day researchers may find a mouthful to chew there.


But the name Igbere is rooted in a war of survival.
In those days there lived a certain man named Ota Obom. War was his life. And he had fought and conquered every community within the vicinity in pursuit of slaves. He had active support of Arochukwu(Aro Oke Igbo) known for pervasive slave trading. But Ota Obom met his waterloo in Igbere. The story of his beheading and the inability of the slave traders to enter the town make it one of the few in Igboland which effectively repelled slave traders and earned the name Igbo Eru or Igbo Ere.
“This is one of the few towns where you cannot find Aro settlements’’ says Elder Ukaegbu, smiling proudly. “Our forbears never allowed slave traders to get into Igbere’’

At the killing of Ota Obom by the gallant Igbere warriors who, going by what Eze Job Ukandu of Amaukwu told Sunday Sun, were aided by great seers at Eke forest, Ota Obom’s warriors dispersed in confusion and the Aro slave traders became frustrated. It must have been with clenched teeth of annoyance and the sight of an impregnable town that they pronounced it Igbo Eru meaning ‘the place which Aro Oke Igbos could not reach and capture’ or Igbo Ere [the place where Igbo could not sell]. Both expressions gave birth to Igbere. Somehow, the average Igbere man has retained the fierce quest for freedom and the independence carried from his forbears. It is believed that Ebiri never lost any battle. That hitherto invincible Ota Obom, leader of rampaging slave traders met his end in the town, marking the effective halt of slave trading in that area, remains a source of pride to every Igbere indigene. The victory did not come cheap. It came with a price, one which also endows indigenes with patience. The details may be cumbersome but the drowning of Ochi, a beautiful damsel whose father, Awalu, led one of the villages at the forefront of the battle, was a grievous price. In fact the Ebele river where she drowned was made to dry up. Today it is a market place.

How Igbere is governed
The internal government in the town, as in most others in old Bende division run on three planks, namely the traditional institution, the age grade system and the general town union. But the traditional stool is strong in the town and had also posed a challenge, now apparently contained with the reign of one of their sons as the immediate past civilian Governor of Abia State. Prior to the emergence of Chief Orji Uzo Kalu who hails from Umusi, as the helmsman in Abia State, Igbere had a challenge occasioned by tussle over the traditional head of the town. An old school headmaster named Ijioma Okocha from Okafia known to be a strong Christian sat on the throne as the first Ebiri (named after their forebear) of the entire Igbere. But Amaukwu people who claim to be the head and to whom Elder Ukaegbu conceded that headship in his chat with Sunday Sun, cried foul insisting that Okocha had used the privilege of education to usurp their position.
Autonomous Communities/Villages
Igbere evolved into autonomous communities through the ages. The starting point being Eke Igbere where Ebiri settled originally. According to oral tradition and other documented evidence, the landmarks of Igbere represent various activities. For instance Ogbonta at Ozara, Amankalu Igbere is where the 8 stones of Igbere is found. There are places like Ogo- ubi and Nkumimo and Mgbele Ibina
Agriculture
Igbere is endowed with many natural resources some of which remain unexplored and untapped. Some readily identified resources in area of agriculture include palm produce, rice etc.
• Agricultural Products: Rice (currently accomodaiing a world hank Agricultural project around the famous Igwu River).
EZUMEZU IGBERE – THE LEGACY
I n preparing to complete the legacy of Ezumezu lgbere, many
considerations were made pertaining to the people of lgbere and their patriotism to “Ala lgbere” and the entire Ebiri. Our contribution of articles to IGBO BASICS U.S.A among other things motivated us to use this medium to say a few things for a better Ebiri. On this great Ezumezu celebration, We provide for the record, a broader perspective of what Ezumezu should signify for the lovers of lgbere prosperity. It is our hope that all Ebiri will appreciate the candor of this article. However, we do not in any way claim perfection whatsoever to this essay contribution we herein make. Our wish as we write is to be able to appeal to all lovers of Igbere to unite in peace for we all are one.
For the history buffs, there is the need to remind people of Igbere of the Ezumezu legacy. It is a well known fact that when people move out to reside in urban areas, they tend to forget the stories by the village story tellers. Sometimes the folklores, the traditional customs as it is often forgotten and in todays world, many sons and daughters of Ebiri-Igbere people now live and reside all over the world. It is to these people that we dedicate this legacy. Our hope especially, is that lgbere children born in urban and in overseas particularly the U.S.A will learn a thing or two about this great occasion called Ezumezu Igbere. Many as we have come to conclude are devoid of any knowledge of the traditions of their homes of origin. It is such people that we intend to help in understanding the significance of Ezumezu.
The legacy of Ezumezu of Igbere as we know it today was first called the “Anniversary of Igbere”. According to a great author/lawyer who once wrote that “One of the hallmarks in the efforts of Igbere Welfare Union (I.W.U.) was to modernize Igbere with the celebration of a ceremony of 1.W.U anniversary which came off in 1960 as a result of a motion tabled in a crucial meeting of 1.W.U. in August, 1958 by Mr. David Udeogu. “The author continued” that the motion in question was that when the maternity home (Hospital) was opened in 1954 in lgbere, lgbere youths returned home in large numbers that December. The next December experienced almost unprecedented calm during Christmas period in Igbere” It was in response to this un-lively atmosphere that motivated Mr. David Udeogu to table his motion which was unanimously approved by the then 1.W.U. The first “Anniversary” was born with a decree that it be celebrated once every three years. To shapen the events of the celebration, an elderly statesman Chief G.E. Ukaegbu the “Ofufe 1” of Igbere was appointed the first organizer!!
As history will have it, the late Chief!. Okocha was the chairman of the first Anniversary Celebration. The great hallmark in todays Ezumezu Igbere is the introduction of age grade activities in the Ezumezu events. And as was and still is the tradition the climax of the Ezumezu is the retirement of the o1dest age grade system. Other activities like naming new age grade and launching community development projects also are celebrated as part of the festivities. For years, the Ezumezu was known by all as “Anniversary Igbere” until Chief E.E.Ukaegbu first suggested a change of name in his well authored book “The History of Igbere” by Awa Press. 1974.!n one of the chapters, he suggested that the word “Anniversary” could be replaced with Igbo name. At that time no one really took it serious until when he came to a position where he was a mover and shaker in the affairs of lgbere. It was during that period that he coined the word we use today “Ezumezu lgbere”. Thus the word anniversary even though can still be heard, but a true Ezumezu buff dare not call it “Anniversary lgbere” because it is “Un Ebiri” to say so to Ezumezu fanatics.
Eminent Igbere People

Igbere Cooperative Society (I.C.A.S) Founders Aba

Front row l-r 1 Jonah Anyaogu Kalu (Ndiokpa) 2. James Eme Akachukwu 3. James Amadi Uche
4 Elisha Uko Ogwo (Amaukwu) 5. Saul Kalu Ugbo 6. Obediah Imo Iboko

Middle Row l-r
7. Jacob Chukwu Awa (Umuobasi Amankalu 8. Elder Dick Oko Igbokwe 9. Jonah Onwuka Oji
10. Obediah Ikwechegh Oturu (Ama-akpo) 11. Jonah Anya Onuoha 12. Johnson Eme Ibeka

back row l-r
13. Ogbonnaya, Son of Elisha Ukonu Elekwachi 14. David Oyo Udogu 15. Sam Obasi Ochuba
16. Egwuonwu Eme 17. Stephen Ude Obike 18. Micah Oji Izuka
19. Joel Anyaegbu Igu 20. Mark Agu Okorie

Eminent Sons and Daughters: Chief Elekwachi Ukaonu, Retired Director of NTA A ha and pioneer comedian in Aligbo with the famous Mazi Ukonu ‘s Club on Nigerian Television; Captain Amadi Ikwechegh, Former Governor of then Imo State of Nigeria; Chief Orji Uzo Kalu, current holder of the title Aha eji aga mba I of Igbere and others too numerous to mention
Commodore Amadi Ikwechegh

Chief Orji Uzor Kalu. Former Executive Governor of Abia State and Presidential Cadidate PPA of Nigeria.
Justice Agbai Ikwechegh

Hon. Justice Christiana Ijeoma Uche
Judge of High Court Abia State

Mazi Anyaogu Elekwachi Ukonu

Chief Amadi Awa
Retired Civil Servernt and Chartered Tax Practitioner
Elder Chief Mrs Eunice Uzor Kalu Odiukonamba
Travels & Tourism
Igbere is so endowed in this area that it has scenic places of interest.
Tourist Attractions/Landmarks: The Steps of Nature; Igwu River: River Falls: Osuwowo Springs; lkeogwu Ikeogwu; Eke Igbere; Ngbele Ibina. Markets of Igbere: Nkwo Ebele.
Education System
Igbere is still developing in the area of education and health. However education is not new to Igbere as the following schools have been existing since the colonial times:
Amankalu Primary School formally LGA School a.k.a Amanku. Roman Catholic School known simply as Roman at Amaofufe. Seven Day Adventist at Amaukwu. Central School, Onu Ibina Igbere; Igbere Secondary School and now the Proposed Abia State University of Arts, Science and Technology plus other Schools not yet listed in this effort.

WELCOME TO IBEKU

Ibeku Umunna Nation has Culture, Education, Heritage, organization, History, tradition,with all values recognized in Igbo land and beyound. We are Igbo speaking, surrounding the city of Umuahia Ibeku in Abia State Nigeria.There are regional chapters as associations all over.

When you come to Ibeku, you will sense the excitement in the air about all things cultural. As you walk into the villages with clan members, all along our winding raods, streets you will hear the whistle sound from the birds on trees and people sitting talking to each other, independent activities in motion, you will be caught up in the energy. Turn a corner to find an AMA, a public place. Suddenly, you will find yourself listening to indigents with stories of the day, children playing. Depending on the time, might find people dancing, see a musician practicing his drumming or EKPETE while children play while elders go on with their activities .These are common sights to behold. Oh yes, the local bars with palm wine to serve is always open for some fun. Ibeku is unique.Do not forget that we make pottery unlike any other tribe. We are alive and well.

WHO ARE WE !!!
I beku is contained in the Umuahia North Local Govt. political division.of abia state in the eastern part of Nigeria.There are other communities that are around Ibeku such to our south are the clans of Olokoro, Old-Umuahia, Amakama, Ubakala. To the East is Oboro. Our West are the clans of Umuokpara and Ohuhu. Then North are Uzuakoli and Abiriba. These areas were one time a part of what was called the BENDE region in now Abia State.

Ibeku people are a good portion of the igbo [ibo] speaking people of Nigeria in IGBO LANGUAGE .The associated dialects and origins are explained with this link. Igbo is spoken through out West Africa in various forms.

We have custodians of these traditional values in each seven clans called EGWU ASAA that make up Ibeku Nation. These seven Clans are Osaa, Amaforo, Ndume, Afaraukwu, Emede, Isieke, Afarata. Each has an Eze that is titled accordingly with a name to reflect that clan. Ibeku clan has a Royal Highness with the title OGURUBE IBEKU.. The Present Ogurube is His Royal Highness.Eze Samuel Iheonu Onuaha.The Ogurube IV of Ibeku. His cabinet is made up of all the EZEs from the seven egwu asaas. These individual egwus are autonomous in terms of organization in localities headed by their own EZE.

The way and how Ibeku the man came to be at this very location is still being pieced together. Ibeku had sons that grew ,got married and had children that became Ibeku Egwu Asaa.The order of his children seniority, movements around the location are well known.We show in OUR IBEKU HISTORY section, the Clans and the organizational set up that covers the whole Ibeku Nation.
The anthropology and psychology to place the work of the expedition's anthropologists within the history of the Ibeku discipline has tended to obscure the intellectual contribution of our people in various ways, we will maintain anthropology and psychology as separate disciplines we wish to make sense of self and society in the post-national phase of human history. The lbeku Heritage serves the community of Culture, and the wider public, by treasuring the past, educating the present, and inspiring the future.

One of the Umunnas is Umuolulu ,ohobo na Umuizu in the Afaraukwu clan Ibeku has put together their ancestors adding up to 10 [ten] generations back. Some other clans go further .See the Alozie family tree in Umuizu Ancestors. Olulu was one of the sons of Izu thus UMUIZU [ children of izu]. All his children make up ohobo na umuizu. See and read the set up of AFARA UKWU CLAN as explained.
Each community supports the Ibeku organization and help enhance the life in it which includes art, culture and other awareness that is needed on issues . They come together to promote affair and positive dialogue, develop new and future audience in major projects in visual and performing arts, heritage preservation that are representative of ibeku local cultures, and its regional within the igbo [ibo] tribe.


THE SOCIAL STATUS as in IBEKU

Ibeku like every other Igbo group, as an organization with culture and heritage ,has well defined social structures. These structures were in places before the recent advent of christianity. These classifications are never over estimated in values and they apply to both men and women. They are different from recent accomodations given to people for mainly ceremonials shows.

The social category is highly differentiated. The Ibeku / Igbo recognize and respect social distinctions among members of each status category of kinship, residence, wealth,and association depending on their political, economic, and religious achievements.

FAMILY VALUES With The Nwaiwu's

FAMILY VALUES
Our feature family presentation on “family values” sounds more of a fairy tale than what obtains in the real world but I tell you what? It’s real, real and nothing but REAL.
In recent times, families have lost its essence and the once placed values on families are lost and replaced with incessant “Separations, Divorces, Adultery, Hate, Rivalry and other social vices”.
In the days of our forefathers, families (even the very polygamous ones) were bound in love, unity, respect for wife, husband, elders and siblings. The reverse seems to be the order of the day in today’s marriages and homes. Wives blame husbands while husbands blame wives for decadence in family values. Who really takes the blame?

WHAT ARE FAMILY VALUES?
Family Values are the primary tenets on which families are founded, raised and appreciated. They are those things that make families worthwhile. These include: Integrity, Trust, Love, Understanding, Respect for self & others, Faithfulness, Truthfulness, Humility and above all, the fear of God.
A perfect example of a family with its values intact is one in which the husband of the house lays perfect solid foundation by first loving his wife, provides for his family, raises his children in the fear of God, upholds the belief of “FAMILY FIRST”. He not only spends quality time with his family, but teaches them also, the importance of mutual respect, understanding, peace and love in the development and advancement of family.

WHERE DID TODAY’S FAMILIES GET IT WRONG?
Most today’s families got it all wrong by making wrong choice life partners. Many today’s marriages were built on lies, materialism, fame and selfish gains. With due respect to the ladies, most of them refused to look beyond the ordinary when it comes to marriage. They are easily attracted to material things and as such, turn blind eyes to the man behind the wealth. When reality sets in, only then will they realize the man they got married to lack in almost everything a marriage needs to work. Same thing applies to men who focus all their attention on ladies’ beauty and physical appearance more than the inner qualities required for sustainability in marriages.

It is horrifying to note that most young married couples engage in extra marital affairs owing to the reasons given above. Most embarrassing is the fact that most of our young married men see nothing wrong in this. With due respect to our men, they are the most guilty of committing adultery. What fun is there outside that can’t be created within your household? I need answers from the men please. The women are not exonerated as some have been caught in the act as well.

WHAT IS THE REMEDY?
All hope is not lost as there is good news to us. Abia Post found out that there are still exceptional men out there bent on upholding family values against all odds. This family’s story can only be compared to those found in Fairy Tales’ but right here in our midst is a PERFECT FAMILY WITH ITS FAMILY VALUES INTACT.
Dear Readers, we present to you, THE NWAIWUs:



AP (Abia Post): May we get to know you sir:
Emmanuel Ekene Nwaiwu: My name is Emmanuel Ekene Nwaiwu
AP : And your wife?
Emmanuel Ekene Nwaiwu: Mrs. Ifeyinwa Hadasha Nwaiwu
AP: How and When did you meet your wife?
Emmanuel Ekene Nwaiuwu: (Laughs and thinks), At a friend's wedding in Terminus Hotel, Aba on August 14th, 1994 to be precise. She was the bride's chief.
AP: What attracted her to you?
Emmanuel Ekene Nwaiwu: Her colour and calm nature. It was so real and original.
AP: How did you approach her?
Emmanuel Ekene Nwaiwu: I suggested to take a photograph with her and the brother who happens to be someone i know. They agreed and we took a photograph, a copy I kept and cherished. After the wedding, I never got to see or hear from her again till four years later when she came for her baptism in my church. It was then I got to know she was based in Awka, where she attended the wedding from. Her presence in my church for her baptism rekindled my interest in her.I didn't take any further chance in getting to know her properly and before we knew it, we became husband and wife.
AP: When did you get married?
Emmanuel Ekene Nwaiwu: 24th October, 1998.
AP: Is your marriage blessed with child/children?
Emmanuel Ekene Nwaiwu: (Laughs)Ofcourse, they are the ones you are seeing now. Four boys and one girl. The girl, Nancy, is the first and marked her birthday today, 17/6/2012. Duke is next to her, 11years. Justice is the third and 9years. Shallom follows after Justice and is seven years. The baby of the house, Eva is 5years old.
AP: What is responsible for your youthful look?
Emmanuel Ekene Nwaiwu: My wife, she is fitness crazy so i keep in shape for her. She also makes sure I eat rightly by cooking and providing the right meals.
AP: What is your normal day like?
Emmanuel Ekene Nwaiwu: I leave the house mondays-saturdays by 8:30am & return 6pm.
AP: What is your relationship with your children like?
Emmanuel Ekene Nwaiwu: Intimate. I am very close to each of them.
AP: Do you have any favorite child?
Emmanuel Ekene Nwaiwu: No. I will discourage parents from having a favorite child because it breeds and encourages envy from the lesser loved children towards the favorite one and this is not good for the unity and peace of the family.
AP: What has been your biggest marital challenge?
Emmanuel Ekene Nwaiwu: I don't really have marital challenges per se. The only initial challenge I had was infusing the two families together.
AP: What has kept your family united?
Emmanuel Ekene Nwaiwu: I must say it's the fear of God, Prayers, support and understanding from both families.
AP: Most women complain of infidelity from their husbands, what do you say to this?
Emmanuel Ekene Nwaiwu: I am of the view that marriage is sacred and should be kept so. I do not subscribe to extra marital affairs and advice men in such habit to desist and respect the tenets of marriage as the bible instructs.
AP: Are you saying you are not party to this allegation?
Emmanuel Ekene Nwaiwu: I am married to my wife and shares my bed with none other.
AP: What advice do you have for both young and old married couples?
Emmanuel Ekene Nwaiwu: I want couple to understand that there is no spefic formular for marriage and as such, should stop trying to be like the next door neighbour. Let them be themselves, understand each other's strengths and weaknesses, support each other, create fun within the house and above all, invite God to be the ultimate head of the family. Once there is mutual understanding and respect, everything naturally falls into place.
AP: It's been a pleasure being with your wonderful family. Thanks for your time.
Emmanuel Ekene Nwaiwu: You are welcomed anyday. Thank you and God bless.































Mr. Emmanuel Nwaiwu is an astute businessman with a humble beginning who through hardwork and committment has grown his business to International Standard. He deals on all types of High Class Laces.

WELCOME TO OHAFIA

WELCOME TO OHAFIA
Ohafia is a town and local government area in Abia State, Nigeria. It is an Igbo speaking region. The ancestral capital of Ohafia is the centrally located village of Elu. The Ohafia Local Government Area also includes the towns of Abiriba and Nkporo.
The ancestors of the Ohafia people were renowned as mighty warriors. This aspect of the Ohafia peoples history remains fundamental to the Ohafia people's sense of identity. The warrior's cap or "leopard cap" (Igbo: Okpu agu) is well known and is an associated product of Ohafia. The Ohafia warrior tradition is embodied in the performance of Iri agha.
Ohafia is home to the third largest military base in Nigeria, named Goodluck Jonathan Barracks. It houses the headquarters of the newly established 14 Brigade and 145 Battalion office Complex.

RITES OF PASSAGE IN OHAFIA

John C. McCall
Department of Anthropology
Southern Illinois University-Carbondale

Children begin to acquire knowledge of their ancestral ties to Ohafia when they accompany and assist their parents in work and social interaction. They travel to the farm, to market and to the compounds of friends and relatives. They are sent running on errands to deliver yams, to fetch water, to bid a neighbour visit, to perform countless tasks assisting in the progress of daily life and sociality. Through this participation in quotidian existence they gain an emerging sense of the cultural environment. They discover the names of places and in doing so learn that residential compounds are known by reference to the men who originally cleared the bush and established the site as cultural space. They learn that access to the constantly shifting mosaic of agricultural plots which demand their labor and yield their food is reckoned by reference to the names of ancestral mothers who farmed those plots ages ago.

This sense of inhabited and embodied history which informs the ancestral presence is not a formal abstraction transmitted by didactic procedures. It is a lived reality which develops over time through everyday experience. As the child navigates this terrain, tending to the small responsibilities assigned to him or her, this landscape of names begins to take shape: the names of the dead, of those people who cleared the land, built the compounds, farmed the land and conceived the people. It is impossible to identify a particular place in the village without making reference to these names. They are simultaneously its history and its topography.

Residence in Ohafia is patrilocal and compounds are composed of large houses, occupied by senior males surrounded by lines of smaller huts housing other family members. Typically, men's huts line one side of a path while women's huts line the other. The overall pattern is one of compact rows of contiguous structures traversed by a maze of paths. Amidst this labyrinth of domestic space are numerous shrines, some hidden, some out in the open. One type, marked by a thin oko tree (Pterocarpus soyauxic) surrounded by stones is found in a small clearing near the patriarch's house. The tree marks the shrine as ezi ra ali, the place where mothers of that compound bring their newborn children to be blessed. The rite is a simple one performed by the eldest daughter of the paternal group. Rubbing the baby with chalk she recites a brief blessing and places the child upon the ground. Until this rite has been performed mothers carefully avoid letting their infants touch the earth. The umbilical cord of each baby born to the compound is buried beneath the stones of the shrine.

Simple as it is, this rite embodies a fundamental relationship between individual, family and land which is the crux of personhood in Ohafia. To question whether someone was ever placed on ezi ra ali is among the gravest of insults. Such a remark suggests that the person has no home, no family -- that they are, in effect, not a person at all. Ezi ra ali means 'compound and land'. In this context 'compound' refers to much more than a cluster of buildings. It is the physical manifestation of the paternal group in space and time, a history of occupation in which a place comes to represent the people, past and present, who have occupied it. The rite of ezi ra ali is an enactment of this identification between person, paternal descent and place. It is a rite of placement, positioning each new child within a terrain, social, spatial and temporal. As children grow older and come to know this terrain they find that it is etched with its own history which is their history as well. In the paternal compound in Ohafia, where generations have resided in the same place for centuries, the successive lives of those inhabitants, whose collective existence anthropologists attempt to capture in the notion of 'patrilineage,' are not only inscribed upon, but are constitutive of, the habitat itself. Naming practices also reflect the sense in which each person is understood, at a fundamental level, to be a living manifestation of the cumulative force of his paternal descent. Men's and women's names consist of their given names followed by their father's name and then their grandfather's name. This is usually the extent to which a name is given for social or legal purposes. But a person's full name is understood to go on and on, from father to father ad infinitum.

In Ohafia, as boys grow up they learn to have a particular kind of relationship with their bodies, one which links their sense of their own masculinity with the ancestral traditions of Ohafia. When a baby boy cuts his first teeth the occasion is celebrated and he is said to have "cut his first head." This bodily transformation is the first in a series of events which are considered to be equivalent to head taking. Customarily, when a baby boy cuts his first tooth neither the mother or father will comment publicly on the matter. They will wait until the auspicious event is noted by a friend or relation. Sometimes this is even prompted by the mother who may complain that the baby has something wrong with his mouth and will ask the friend to examine him. Once it is announced that the baby has "cut his first head" the bearer of this news is responsible to sponsor the celebration of the event. The cutting of first teeth is also celebrated for baby girls. However it is not referred to as "cutting a head" and the celebration is not as elaborate as that for boys. Instead it is said that "she has asked us not to go to the farm," because the family must stay home from work in honor of the occasion.

The traditional rites for girls had largely fallen out of practice by the time Nigeria gained independence in 1960. A limited form of femal circumcision involving removal of the clitoral hood was performed shortly after birth as were male circumcisions. These operations were somewhat perfunctory, and were performed without the ritual elaborations often associated with circumcision in Africa. Because of the absence of symbolic significance attached to circumcision, when medical clinics became established in Ohafia, medical doctors rapidly assumed responsibility for male circumcisions and the practice of female circumcision was abandoned.

When a boy reaches the age of seven or eight his father will provide him with a bow and arrows. These he learns to use in contests with other boys, shooting at balls of rolled leaves or other targets. He develops his skill with the bow because he must eventually kill a small bird. When this is accomplished he is said to have "cut his second head." A celebration follows in which the boy ties the dead bird to the end of his bow and marches through the village proclaiming his victory and singing that his age mates who have not yet killed birds are cowards (ujoo) Those of his age mates who have also "cut their second heads" will join him.

His father will dress him in a fine wrapper and the procession will travel through the village visiting his kinspeople who give him yams and small amounts of money. In many cases it is through this process that the young boy first comes to know his maternal relations, many of whom, by virtue of the dispersed residence of the maternal family, he may never have met. Hence, at the age of seven or eight the young boy constitutes, through this first act of manhood, a new social role for himself. It is a role that allows him to ally himself with his accomplished age mates and to distinguish himself from the "cowards." He is allowed to dress in finery reserved for adults and he becomes a person of interest to his maternal family, the people who will ultimately grant him land and livelihood.

Young boys confided in me that some now use the rubber slingshots which are available at local markets to kill the birds. These simple weapons have a much greater range and accuracy than the traditional bow. But if they do acquire their birds in this manner they must keep it a secret. Elders insist that the boys must use the bows, not because of the greater test of skill, but, as one man explained: "because we must not forget how to use the weapons that our ancestors used." This remark should not be dismissed as mere nostalgia. It is an expression of the fact that, in marking this step in the transition from childhood to manhood, it is not the killing that is important but the production and reproduction of a particular bodily praxis, one rooted in ancestral knowledge. Sometimes, enthusiastic boys are encouraged to raise their own war dance, complete with a small oyaya. In Ohafia it is not enough to remember the stories of warriors of the past. Various rites and performances are specifically aimed at somatically transmitting the knowledge of the Ohafia warrior. Whether this knowledge is embodied in aesthetically structured performance, such as the war dance, or in ceremonial constraints such as the sanctions surrounding the nnu nnu mbu (bird killing rite), the performed aspects of ancestral practices are considered crucial to the preservation of Ohafia identity.

Find below, pictures of Okwanko masquerade, Akanu Ohafia, Carved figures in Obu, Asaga Ohafia, The Ohafia War Dance (iri agha), Obu House.

STROKE PART 1 by Dr. Chin Akano

STROKE Part 1

Today we shall be discussing a very serious medical condition known as stroke. Like we already know stroke is a major killer and one of the major causes of disability in the population.

What is stroke?

Stroke is that medical emergency used to be known as a Cerebro-Vascular accident (CVA) . The term CVA has now being dropped for STROKE. Stroke occurs when the blood supply to the brain or part of the brain is restricted or cut off . Like all organs, the brain needs oxygen and nutrients provided by blood to function properly and when the blood supply is compromised the brain cells begin to die eventually leading to brain damage and eventually brain death if the compromise is not arrested. The brain tissue ceases to function if deprived of oxygen for more than 60 to 90 seconds and after approximately three hours it will suffer irreversible injury possibly leading to death of the tissue. This death of the tissue is known as infarction.

If a blood vessel supplying blood and oxygen to the brain is blocked , for example by a blood clot preventing any blood reaching a part of the brain a stroke will occur. This type of stroke is known as ischaemic stroke and this constitutes more than 80% of all cases of stroke. There is also the other type of stoke which constitutes about 20% of all cases of stroke which occurs when a blood vessel is damaged and blood leaks out into the brain tissue. This is known as the haemorrhagic stroke

There are other important facts about stroke that i want us to be aware of as follows:

Prompt treatment is crucial and essential

The sooner a person receives treatment for a stroke, the less damage is likely to happen.

Stroke is currently the second leading cause of death in the western world ranking after heart disease

It causes 10% of deaths worldwide.

Evidence shows that stroke will soon become the commonest cause of death worldwide

It is the greatest single cause of severe disability in most countries of the world
Anybody can suffer a stroke irrespective of age, sex or race

The incidence of stroke increases rapidly from 30 years of age
95% of strokes occur in people age 45 and older
Two-thirds of strokes occur in those over the age of 65
A person's risk of dying if he or she does have a stroke also increases with age.
if you have a first-degree relative who had a stroke at an early age (under 50) you're at higher risk
Having had a stroke in the past greatly increases one's risk of future strokes.
Men are 25% more likely to suffer strokes than women
60% of deaths from stroke occur in women.
The risk of stroke is higher in Africans, Carribeans and Asians


Moving forward, let us look at who is at risk of developing stroke.

* Those suffering from blood pressure (hypertension) are more liable to developing stroke. Infact hypertension causes about 35-50% cases of strokes
* Smokers are also at increased risk of developing stroke
* Those suffering from Diabetes Mellitus (Diabetes) have 2-3 fold increased risk of stroke.
* Those whose cholesterol level is high has a two fold risk of developing stroke.
* Those who have problem with their heart rhythm problem known as Atrial Fibrillation (AF) have a very high risk of developing stroke
* Those suffering from Sickle cell disease also have are at risk of developing stroke. About 10-15% of children with this disease suffer stroke.
* childbirth also puts women at risk of developing stroke
*Menopause also puts women at risk of developing stroke, the risk is increased in those on hormonal replacement therapy (HRT)
* Those who have suffered a previous stroke or transient ischaemic attack (TIA) are also more liable to developing stroke
* Old Age-- The older one gets the more liable he/she is to developing stroke.

How can stroke be recognised? By this i mean the signs and symptoms of stroke.
The functions of the different parts of the body are controlled by different parts of the brain, so the symptoms vary depending on

* The part of the brain affected
* The size of the brain affected
* Duration in which the brain part is starved of oxygen and blood.

To be continued……

Thanks for reading

Dr Chin Akano

M.I, DJ JIMMY JATT LIVE IN UMUAHIA, ABIA STATE.

Today, June 8th witnesses another great feat in Abia Entertainment sector as M.I (Mr Incredible), African no 1 DJ, Jimmy Jatt, Don Lulu, Hon. Eric Nwadinobi( S.A Diaspora Affairs,Ben Tv video), Question Mark Entertainment, Lagos, Alozie Alonze of Silver Bird's most beautiful girl & several upcoming artistes like, Eagle Badge etc thrill Abians to a night of fun. In the media stables, we have Sound City, Ben TV London.
It can be recalled that the Nation was recently thrown into mourning and something of this nature is welcome at least to brighten our faces, even in the face of mourning.

Abia's social life has come back to life. Abia Post was live to capture the event which not only is well attended, but successfully executed. All thanks to 2FLAME Entertainment, De Latinos Event Centre & night club and those who made this a reality. Once more, WELCOME TO ABIA STATE - LAND OF HOSPITALITY.