PeeCeeJay

Against All Odds: Celebrating Aki’s Wedding

By

Jideofor Adibe

pcjadibe@yahoo.com

The ‘white wedding’ between Chinedu Ikedieze, (a.k.a Aki), and his heartthrob Nneoma Nwajah on December 9, 2011 was front page news for a number of newspapers, including the Sun and the Vanguard. True, some newspapers  made it front page news for the wrong reason: to show the comic contrast in height between  the pint-sized ace Nollywood actor and his much taller wife, who is a graduate of Enugu State University of Science and Technology. From the wedding photograph, Aki, a graduate of Mass communication from the Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu, who suffers from dwarfism, was barely up to his wife’s waist. If providing a laugh was the main reason why the wedding became front page news by any newspaper, then such a paper, honestly, ought to hide its face in shame.

I have never met Aki, nor am I particularly a fan of Nollywood ‘movies’. But there is something about Chinedu Ikedieze and his screen twin Osita Iheme (a.k.a. Pawpaw) that greatly appeals to me: their ability to overcome the challenge of dwarfism and all it entails. At barely three feet or so tall, it is easy to imagine the sort of discriminations, if not dehumanisations, Aki and Pawpaw must have suffered in life before getting to where they are today. There is often a knee-jerk tendency among many of us to ‘lock out’ those who ‘do not look like us’. That Aki  ‘who does not look like us’ was able to study and graduate from a tertiary institution can only be a tribute to a can-do spirit that consciously rejects that which others have tried to make of  him.  Many faced with similar challenges as him and Pawpaw faced while growing up, could decide to take the easy option and hide from the curious stares, if not mockery, that inevitably followed them wherever they went.  This would have meant accepting that which others have tried to make of you – namely that you cannot possibly be good enough because you do not ‘look like them’. This is the whole notion of self-fulfilling prophecy. Had Aki and Pawpaw accepted such a societal notion of people suffering from the medical condition of dwarfism, they would today probably have ended up as beggars, court jesters or at best sidekicks in a few Nollywood ‘films’.  Aki’s marriage to Nneoma, a University graduate ‘who is normal like us’, could therefore be seen as a consummation of his resilient quest to prove to a prejudiced world that his physical challenges do not make him any less capable or different from us. In any case, some of us also have our own medical conditions to deal with – hypertension, diabetes, asthma or whatever.

Aki and Nneoma’s wedding, which was variously described by the PM News of December 12 2011 as a ‘celebration of true and undying love’ and ‘one of the best celebrity weddings of the out-going year’ was attended by the crème-de-la-crème in the society including Richard Mofe-Damijo, Segun Arinze, Monalisa Chinda, Uche Jombo, Rita Dominic Kate Henshaw and Ifeanyi Uba who was the Chairman of the occasion.  The wedding celebrates not just a triumph over the sort of adversity we have no control over but also reminds us of numerous others who have similarly overcome what would seem to be insurmountable natural hurdles to leave lasting legacies to mankind. The list is indeed very long, as most books on motivation will readily confirm. Consider the following examples:

Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890), an epileptic, was one of the most famous painters of all time. In fact his epilepsy once drove him into running after his friends with an open razor but ended up cutting off his own ear lobe.

Alfred Bernhard Nobel (October 21, 1833-December 10, 1896) was a Swedish chemist, engineer, innovator, armaments manufacturer and the inventor of dynamite. By the time he died he held more than 350 patents and controlled factories and laboratories in 20 countries. But from infancy Nobel suffered from severe migraine and convulsions.  In 1895 he laid the foundations of what is today called the Nobel Prize when he wrote his last will leaving much of his wealth for its establishment. Since 1901 the Nobel Prize has been used to honour men and women for outstanding achievements in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and for work in peace.   

Charles Proteus Steinmetz (April 9, 1865- October 26, 1923) was a distinguished German-American mathematician and electrical engineer. Though like Aki and Pawpaw he suffered from dwarfism, this did not stop him from fostering the development of alternating current that made possible the expansion of the electric power industry in the United States. He also made ground-breaking discoveries in the understanding of hysteresis, which enables engineers to design better electric motors for use in industry.  Steinmetz was President of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) from 1901 to 1902 as well as the first vice-president of the International Association of Municipal Electricians (IAME)—which later became the International Municipal Signal Association (IMSA)—from 1913 until his death. He wrote 13 books and 60 articles.

There are several blind people who have risen above their adversity to excel. The list includes:

Louis Braille (January 4, 1809-January 6, 1852), who accidentally stabbed himself in the eye and became blind from the injury. He later invented and designed the Braille writing which enables blind people to read from a series of organised stumps.

Stevie Wonder (May 13, 1950), an American singer, songwriter, record producer and multi-instrumentalist. His hits include ‘Ebony and Ivory’ that aided the civil rights cause in a non-violent way.

Marla Runyan (January 4, 1969), an American runner who is legally blind. Runyan is a three-time national champion in the women's 5000 meter run in the USA. She was also the first legally blind athlete to compete in the Olympics Games, where she placed eighth in the 1,500-meters race in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, making it the highest finish by an American woman in that event.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882 -April 12, 1945), one of the most popular American presidents in history, had several disabilities including vision impairment.

One of the important lessons from the above is that  the human spirit has the capacity to rise above challenges – whether from nature or  the environment  such as unemployment-  if there is sufficient determination, persistence, hard work, focus,  diligence and of course  prayers and God’s grace. Aki’s path to becoming a superstar in Nollywood from his days as an undergraduate was not strewn with gold. As he explained:  ‘Most often, when I was on campus, I usually buried my head in the library and also read ahead of my mates, knowing that there may be times that I would not have the time to come for my lectures. Despite all these sacrifices on my part, there were still many times that I will go out for auditions and come back empty handed. But despite the above, I did not give up, I persisted, I insisted on being part of Nollywood, I insisted on living above the frustrations. So I kept going from one audition to the other.’

Related to this is the importance of tolerance. Being able to accept people ‘who do not look like us’ is virtue. Aki and Pawpaw, just as the examples above, worked hard to get to where they are today. However without people being willing to give them a chance, they would not have been able to prove themselves. This is why I am particularly impressed by the broad-mindedness of Aki’s father in-law, Lawrence Nwajah. When asked how he felt when he discovered that Aki was to be his son in law, Mr Nwajah, a retired civil servant, was quoted by the Vanguard of December 11 2011 as saying:  ‘I only said to her, “You have come of age, and I cannot choose a husband for you. Since you have found the man you want to marry, go ahead and marry the person. You will have my blessing.”