Since 2008, a memorial lecture in Ughelli has used the life of a school founder and former deputy governor to ask what education, leadership and public office owe the people they serve.
By Monday Osasah
Abraham Ogbodo arrived at Orogun Grammar School in 1975, after its founder, Chief Demas Akpore, had moved on to lead Government College, Ughelli. Ogbodo never met Akpore in person. Yet when he delivered the 16th memorial lecture in 2023, he recalled how strongly the founder’s influence was still felt at the school and in the wider community.
One way to measure a life of public service is to ask what people can do because of it, long after the person has left. Ogbodo had gone to a school that Akpore had made possible.
That measure helps explain why the Ejiro & Otive Igbuzor Foundation has brought people together in Akpore’s name since 2008. Dr. Otive Igbuzor has traced the series to Akpore’s ideas and principles, including the integrity and selflessness he brought to public life.
Each edition takes an aspect of that example and asks what it demands of people facing a problem today. How should a community widen access to education? What should citizens expect from those who seek office? What do leaders owe people whose needs they already understand and have the means to address?
A different question each year
Akpore’s work as an educationist and Deputy Governor of the old Bendel State gave the series a wide field to draw on. The inaugural lecture, delivered by the late Chief P. O. Wanogho, examined Akpore as a dynamic and visionary leader. Later speakers took up entrepreneurship, political succession, women’s contributions to national development, leadership in the Niger Delta, and Nigeria’s security challenges.
At the ninth edition in 2016, Dr. Ogaga Ifowodo brought the subject of youth development down to two questions young people could answer for themselves: what did they dream of becoming, and when had they last read a book? Five years later, Bartholomew Ovie Etaghene spoke about education, school sports and politics, recalling Akpore’s insistence on discipline and his attention to students’ development beyond the classroom.
The Foundation chose elections as the theme of its 15th lecture in December 2022, as Nigerians prepared to vote in the 2023 general elections. In his welcome address at Ughelli Kingdom Hall, Monday Osasah asked citizens to consider the consequences of their votes and called on parties, election managers, the media and civil society to fulfil their responsibilities.
The following year, Abraham Ogbodo returned to a decision Akpore had made decades earlier: he established a school in Orogun when educational opportunities were limited. His lecture examined what it takes to act on a problem that others may have learned to live with.
When students put leadership under examination
Clement Angel earned 30 marks for her written essay and 31 for defending it orally. Foster Akpore oversaw the written round, and Chief Do-Good O. Efe-Nogo contributed ₦200,000 to support the competition.
The student from Aragba Secondary School finished first in a competition that asked young people to examine gerontocracy, a system in which older people hold most of the power. Her school received ₦40,000. Ovie Winners of Orogun Grammar School came second, and Ederie Victory of Ebor Secondary School placed third.
The subject choice put the lecture’s philosophy into practice. If education equips people to exercise judgement, a gathering that honours an educationist can give students a real question to answer. Here, they were invited to examine how much weight age should carry in decisions about who leads, and what a community loses when younger people have little say.
They wrote their essays at Orogun Grammar School, which Chief Demas Akpore founded, and defended them at Government College, Ughelli, where he had served as principal. The two venues gave the exercise its own history. An educationist had helped create a place for young people to learn. Decades later, students used that education to examine how authority is exercised in their communities.
From family memory to a public record
Chief Jomo Akpore brought a family perspective to the 17th edition in 2024 with a lecture on his father’s ideas and philosophy. A year later, the Foundation launched the eleven-chapter book The Life, Ideas and Contributions of Chief Demas Akpore, edited by Otive Igbuzor and Monday Osasah. The book gave the Foundation a way to take Akpore’s story beyond those who could attend the annual gathering. It announced plans to distribute copies to schools, universities, libraries and policy institutions.
Prof. Princewill Okereka delivered the 18th lecture at Government College, Ughelli. Jimmy Omo-Agege led the book launch and announced a ₦5 million contribution, while Stella Omu announced ₦1 million on behalf of the Akpore family. Governor Sheriff Oborevwori was represented by Chief (Senator) Emmanuel Agwariovwodo. Orogun Kingdom honoured Akpore posthumously and also recognised the Foundation for sustaining the lecture.
For the family, publication also meant sharing memories that could otherwise remain known mainly to those who lived them. At the launch, Stella Omu spoke of the connection between family memory and public history. Jomo Akpore recalled how his father’s early experiences shaped his commitment to education. Their accounts put a person behind the titles of principal and deputy governor, and gave readers a way to ask how those commitments were formed.
What should culture ask of those who hold power?
The 19th edition, themed “Chief Demas Akpore and Culture,” is scheduled for Friday, 11 December 2026, at 10:00 a.m. prompt, at Government College, Ughelli. Chief Do-Good O. Efe-Nogo JP, the Traditional Prime Minister (Onotu-Uku) of Orogun Kingdom and sponsor of the inaugural essay competition, will chair. Dr. Sunday Oboro of Delta State University, Abraka, is the keynote speaker. Dr. Precious Emuoghenerue Omoruwou, Evang. Godspower Odenema and Chief (Dr.) Edeki Akporugo are listed as discussants, with Delta State Governor Sheriff Oborevwori named as Special Guest of Honour.
Culture brings the lecture back to the question of what a community hands on. The habits Akpore’s former students remember, the decisions his children describe, and the arguments Orogun’s students brought to the essay competition all show different ways an inheritance can be carried forward. Some of it is taught through example. Some of it comes alive when a younger person asks whether an established practice still serves the people who live with it.
In 2024, Clement Angel had to defend her ideas about leadership before judges. At the 19th lecture, her example leaves the adults with a question of their own. What opportunities are they creating today that someone, decades from now, will be able to say changed the course of their life?