Category: Life Principles

Christmas and African Nation-Building!

Merry Christmas to All!

Today we commemorate the birth of Jesus the Christ who came to Earth to bring the Light of eternal values through His Word that brings redemption and opens the Heavenly Gate, so that we might experience abiding joy and peace. We say thank you to God for this birth of Grace!

On this day I ask, “how can my life be an instrument of service that converts the Light He brought into a furthering activity on earth?” My answer:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His Son…”

Translation: God so loved, He gave the best of Himself and the strongest help to humanity in the birth of His Son. And this Help was the Light of Truth that brings the Light of spiritual development which enables our ascent to luminous heights. When there is love, there is the giving of the best of oneself and the strongest help of service.
For one: If we so love, we must give the best of ourselves and the strongest help to bring the light of development to our people!

In departing the Earth, Jesus was reported to say, “I go to prepare a Place for you!” This is Spiritual Kingdom-Building! Then we also recall the words of Scripture, “Thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven”, i.e., we will do below (Earth) what is done above (Heaven).

Conversion: Therefore, Spiritual Kingdom-Building (heaven) through the Light of development above is equivalent to African nation-building (earth), driven by eternal values, through the light of development below. So “I go to prepare a Place for you!” one converts into the service, “I will work to the honor of God to prepare a Place (Nation) for you [Nigerian/African people] in order to follow the example of the Light of God’s Love”.

Therefore, African nation-building driven by eternal values honors the Divine Mandate, as above so below. To me it is just following the Divine Example for the welfare and further development of the African people!

May we each find our Star of purpose and diligently work towards its realization, whose light will be the gift of gratitude we offer back to God for the Grace of the birth of His Son this Christmas Season.

I am wishing everyone light and joy of the Season, also success and goodwill this upcoming New Year.

Onward & Upward!

~Dr. Ikenna A. Ezealah

JD, PhD, MBA

Builder of the African Future

Law School Graduation

Introducing…
Dr. Ikenna A. Ezealah, JD, PhD, MBA
Builder of the African Future

Four years ago during the COVID quarantine I did soul searching. I reexamined my life and delved deeply into the culture, history, and rich traditions of my people, the African people. Recognizing the past and present successes, challenges, and current lack of genuine leadership, a question arose within:

“What are you doing to give back and support the development of your people?”

I had no answer and felt ashamed. But I fervently prayed, then firmly resolved to support the African people’s development by focusing my life to fostering economic growth, good governance, indigenous development, and institutional building across Africa.

I then decided to got to law school in order to obtain the skills necessary to be a helper to my people as an international nation-building diplomat. Since then, my professional experiences have been miraculous. Yet I have also faced great challenges I always faced quietly and diligently, unknown to most.

In my darkest hours it was always my faith in God and the commitment to my life’s purpose that gave me strength to keep boldly forging ahead. I only have Plan A and no Plan B; my Plan A is my plan A-Z. For in my heart I believe in only one outcome: unconditional victory!

I spent my first year at Case Western Reserve School of Law. Then, following an inner prompting, I transferred to American University Washington School of Law. My main professional experiences during law school are follows:

  • UN Immersion for Multilateral Diplomacy; Diplomatic Trainee
  • International Trade Centre; Int’l Trade Intern (designed model legal framework to establish NECs National Export Councils)
  • Washington International Diplomatic Academy; Int’l Diplomatic Trainee
  • Colin Powell Leadership Institute by Black Professionals in International Affairs – BPIA; Fellow
  • Garvey-Nkrumah Legal Fellowship Program (fostering African/Black leaders to apply Pan-African economic development models); Fellow
  • Public International Law & Policy Group; Senior Research Associate
  • Whiteford, Taylor & Preston; Extern (developing an International Investment Manual)

On December 14, 2025, exactly six years to the day I obtained my PhD, I walked across the stage at AUWCL to obtain my JD.

Now through the Grace of God I proudly declare: “It is finished!” To mark graduation, I prepared a short video entitled “A Long Walk to JD (Juris Doctorate)”

I work hard for the opportunity to work harder in service, and know that success is only a Divine loan to be repaid through the service to uplift the African people. I thank God for His Omnipresent Guidance. Also all family, friends, and colleagues who have helped me.

I did it! Now I am ready for the next chapter, focused heavenward and in fulfilling my life’s objective: to be a servant of God, and a helper and guardian of the welfare and further development of the African People!

May God the Father grant me holy power for this work!

💫Onward & Upward!💫

~Dr. Ikenna A. Ezealah, JD, PhD, MBA
Builder of the African Future

Just Build

Sometimes we need to stop pursuing time with industry leads, influential voices, even people in high places… and just build!

Build yourself inwardly!

Build your skills

Build your expertise

Build your mentality

Build your experience

Build your conviction in a cause

Build your content

Build your plans

Build your unique voice

Build your focus

As we build, people will be slowly drawn to you and doors will naturally start opening leading to connections and new possibilities. And when we sufficiently advance in our building and reach a higher level, even those people in high places we were pursuing will find us.

So just build!

~Dr. Ikenna Ezealah

Domestic order and diligence

Domestic orderliness and diligence is essential to domestic harmony and the long-term health of relationships.

In the material world, the psyche/mind is closely connected to the forms of the physical environment. 

Domestic slothfulness and sloppiness cause physical disturbances that also has an effect on the psyche. 

The physical disorder triggers psychic disorder that can lead to moodiness and even domestic disharmony. 

Arguments, irritability and many things arise which many do not trace to the disorder and slothfulness. 

Orderliness, liveliness, and diligence are able to dispel many unpleasant things in a home that seem unrelated. 

Pictures and online posts are not the real person. Only the day-to-day domestic living that outsiders cannot see bears witness. 

Love works in purity, and the fruits of purity in the earthly include strict orderliness, noble diligence, cleanliness.

When these are lacking due to indolence: purity will taint, disharmony will increase, and love will weaken.

Thus, domestic orderliness and diligence goes beyond domestic harmony and health of relationships 

But is a foundation for the sound development of individuals, and the building of strong societies and nations. 

~Dr. Ikenna Ezealah

The Relationship Between The Soul, Body, Mind, Thoughts, & Feelings  

Nation-building is not just a physical upbuilding, but a conceptual upbuilding marked by a deeper understanding of how the human being interacts with the world through the instruments of the body.

The essay here is only a cursory sketch of the topic and is not exhaustive. To briefly highlight the relationship between the soul, body, and mind, I will use a computer analogy.  

The Mind, Body, and Soul

Human brain = Hardware; Mind/Intellect = Software.  

Computers are comprised of hardware and software. Hardware is the wiring, physical components, and frame of the computer. But software is the finer program derived from the hardware. To see the software, you need energy. Electricity interacts with the hardware and specific codes to produce the software.  

The brain and mind are similar. The brain is the hardware, but the mind is the finer programming derived from the brain. The mind is the software we use to process and interact with the world through formed conceptual codes that becomes an interactive set of beliefs. But the energy that powers the computer is analogous to the energy from the soul that is needed to power the physical body and the brain, thus enabling the latter to flash the finer programming of the mind.  

If you observe two computers and see different applications being browsed, opened, and closed…you would conclude two different people are using the computers, for computers only process commands of the user. The body and brain are similar in that they serve in a forming and executive capacity, always as an expression of a preceding volition. Thus, for two brains to produce two different thoughts in the mind and interpretive feelings in response to the same event, there must be something else operating the mind, like in the case of the computer. And that “something else” is the human soul.  

Summary: There is the person, the computer, and the operating system. A person uses the computer to interact with the operating system. Through internet connection, the latter gives the person access to a world wide web of downloadable information. Similarly, the human soul uses the brain to interact with the material world through the mind. The mind, being the software of the brain, is able through the inner-net connection of the soul to access the world of thoughts and impressions from its wider environment. Therefore, the software in relation to the person is the mind in relation to the soul.  

Mindfulness, therefore, is not the effort of the mind to become aware of itself, but an effort of the soul to release itself from association with thoughts, in order again to perceive its unbounded nature as a soul whose inner stirrings produce the thoughts and feelings it is experiencing. Returning to this center, we are then able to “see” with new eyes and thereby react differently to the moment.  

Thoughts, Feelings, and Instincts in Relation to the Mind and Brain  

Then there are the natural instincts of the body, which are innate biological responses to the physical environment. Feelings are produced when the mind through thoughts assigns a definite meaning to instincts. Thus, feelings are always associated with a type of thought-belief. A feeling is never a primary response, but always secondary. Thought is primary and precedes feeling.  

Think of fear. An animal approaches, and adrenaline might rush in response to the stimulus of the approaching animal. You see and sense energy in the form of the animal coming close. The adrenaline only becomes fear when you assign the thought of impending danger, i.e., the assumption of inevitable harm that may result from the interaction between you and the animal. Thus, to feel fear, you must think and believe a misfortune will be the outcome. The thought-belief turns the adrenaline into the defined physiological state(feeling) of fear. However, someone else might have adrenaline but, in their love of animals, believe they will enjoy the animal. Here, their thought-belief turns the adrenaline into the feeling of excitement and joyful anticipation. In both instances, a definite thought interacts with an instinct to produce a defined feeling, i.e., anatomical experience.  

Next there is imagination. After a feeling is generated, the mind forms visual images that corresponds to the specific feeling, which gives birth to imagination. Imagination therefore is the result of the combined working of feeling and intellect.  

To organize this, we must consider the explanation above about the brain and intellect. Just like the physical brain produces the metaphysical counterpart of the intellect, so does the physiological feeling produce the metaphysical counterpart of “imagination” that is always characterized by that specific feeling. One of the many practical implications is that when we or society “feel strongly” about anything, it means we have become fixed to a specific thought-belief, outside of which we cannot see. Furthermore, when everything becomes “how we feel”, it usually means we are losing the capacity to perceive the thought-belief that is creating how we feel. Thus, it is only when we try to objectively examine, question, and transcend our fixed meanings and limited feelings that we can open ourselves to perceive the all-embracing nature of Truth.

The descriptions here, when elaborated and expanded, can form a necessary foundation for the transformation of some societal institutions and systems in the process of nation-building. Even a different form of education. But in times to come I intend to go deeper and demonstrate how this can be done.

~Dr. Ikenna Q. Ezealah