This is me pictured in December 2019, in the graduation regalia of my Ph.D. in Higher Education Leadership.
[Side note: I wish to thank SREB’s (Southern Regional Education Board) Doctoral Scholars Program for their fellowship award and institutional support that helped me attain my Ph.D.]
Then [December 2019], I thought I was done with school because I achieved a terminal degree. Then, I did not have the drive for African development as I do today. So what happened that prompted me to pursue a JD with a strong drive for African progress? The quarantine during Covid gave me the space to reexamine my life, study Africa past and present, and then ask myself:
What is your life contribution toward the development of your people? I had no answer.
As I observed Africa, I realized the institutional structures and social orders have mostly remained the same as during colonization. It had not been transformed and adapted to the indigenous nature and cultural heritage of the people. The precolonial legacy of Africa had been utterly abandoned, and the incongruence between the indigenous nature of the people and the adopted institutional forms breeds much of the retrogression experienced in the continent today. Also, the notable lack of genuine leadership in Africa that is truly committed to the welfare of the people oppressed me.
I wanted to partake in the work of institutional transformation to promote the indigenous progress of the African people, and to help support the emergence of genuine leadership in the continent. However, since modern societies and institutions are governed by law and legal frameworks, I needed to become a legal professional to authoritatively engage in institutional transformation. I realized the twin swords of a JD and PhD would powerfully equip me with all that was necessary to achieve the objective. Thus, I enrolled in law school in 2022 to pursue my Juris Doctorate.
I am a Nigerian-American, a son of two worlds. I have given and will continue giving back to the US, a country that has given me so much! But as a son of Africa, I could not give all my youth and vibrant adulthood to one country, only to leave Africa with the exhausted residues of my old age. I needed to give the African people the full strength of my adulthood and the climax of my powers for nation-building! I owe my people this.
The directive to “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God”, speaks to the law of balance, of the duty to return value where we receive it. Applied to my life, I needed to return value to both societies that comprise my identity and have given me much. However, in the process, the African people will not be left behind and empty handed! Hence, my life objective: to be a helper and guardian of the welfare and further development of the African people. I simply want to serve.
You see, I found my answer.
Onward & Upward!
~Dr. Ikenna Ezealah
Nation Upbuilding 