“The imaginations we inhabit are the imagination of truths and lights. Many paths are curated in the journey of rediscovering one’s personhood. These imaginations are part of our beingness; they are not separate from us because we are interconnected. Be intentional in all you do; someone is somewhere keeping records.”
About me
The psychology of humans starting from the period of hunter-gatherers till this moment has been about judgments — judgments about economics, lifestyle, and sustenance. Permit me to say that “We judge others for us to be judged.” A nexus between fact and fiction can be promulgated through critical thinking. This imagination was distant from me. My childhood was kept away from this imagery (imagination) until I discovered it resting on the “Other” side, fashionably gazing and whispering to me like a newborn baby asking to be breastfed. I inhabited it, used it as my compass.
As time crystallizes, I realized the ‘wonderment’ inherent in my life through the gathering of experience as I relate with the world. I navigate through the parliament of wonderment. I can fervently assert that our world is closing in on us on the right, expanding on the left, and unifying in the middle in ways difficult to understand. Now, the whole expedition is the landing space, and the defiance algorithm is the connecting dot. The intention I created in conjunction with the people I met has become my paradise of hope, bewildering lucidity, and wise accumulation of liturgical empathy.
All through history, great innovative ideas were first imagined — they existed somewhere as immaterial substance before transforming into material substance. I don’t know whether this is true or false, some seers believed that dreams are the untouched realities. My world of imagination is asking to be nursed to function in light and truth. Sometimes, life throws you into a situation that is going to test your desperation despite not earning it. Right now, I am repositioning the ‘mistaken journeys’ ever embarked on — to form a new agency. I have rolled them all out, for us – to be part of the new imaginations and wonderments. My existence is my niche. Empty stomach, harsher judgment.
Chidozie Compassion Samuel Ogbanu was born in Aba, popularly known as the “Japan of Africa,” into a Christian home, and to Igbo parents in eastern Nigeria who worked painstakingly to train him and his siblings in school. His childhood upbringing is deep-rooted in the two Igbo mantras, which say “ebe onye dara ka chi ya kwaturu ya,” meaning that where one falls is where his God pushed him down, and “Ora na azu nwa,” which literally means it takes a whole village to raise a child. He is a trans-public writer.
He earned his postgraduate degree at the Institute of African Studies (IAS) at the University of Leipzig, Germany. He is interested in “Interrogating the Dot that Connects Poverty and Prosperity in West Africa, Climate Justice, Migration, Human Rights, Inclusivity and Diversity. He is a graduate of Education Political Science (BSc.), Imo State University, Owerri, Nigeria. He is the curator; The Africa Gatekeeper, and Teaching African Students Using Technology (TASUT).
It is said that “experience is the best teacher,” but learning from other people’s failures and successes could serve as a good reference for creating a purposeful life. In this light, he advised that rather than choosing conflict to settle disputes, negotiations and roundtable dialogue would be the better option. A philosopher told us that “You cannot resolve a problem using the same idea that created the problem.”
Compassion Chidozie is contributing his quota to make our world livable through his project called TASUT (Teaching African Students Using Technology) which was launched in Africa in 2015. He is the curator of the African Gatekeepers — a platform where academics from different backgrounds are housed to proffer solutions to the global crisis, principally from a global standpoint. He started TASUT because of disenfranchisement to experience the use of technology during his primary and secondary education; therefore, he would not allow future generations in rural communities to experience the same. He aimed to embark on massive ICT training projects in many African schools to aid teachers and learners.
He taught at Ubomiri Girls Secondary School (Owerri, Nigeria), Girls Secondary School Akwakuma (Owerri, Nigeria) as a student-teacher, and conducted preparatory classes for students interested in bachelor’s programs at a tertiary institution. He is a manager of resources who gave a good account of himself as a team player, thinker, and goal-getter at Jazzy Transformation Gymnasium (Imo State, Nigeria), where he taught about fitness and well-being.
Chidozie’s articles have been published in national tabloids in Nigeria and on different blog sites where he captured the lacklustre youth’s participation in politics. His article titled “Youths Participation in Politics” was aimed at educating the youthful population of Nigeria on the need to play a role in decision-making by taking an active part in the means of allocating values and resources. His second article, titled “Operation Search and Flush: A New Paradigm,” explored the insecurities in Southeast Nigeria. In the article, he proffered solutions to stop what may have appeared to be an ‘unending social façade’ in the region. And many more.
Chidozie is living for the present after understanding the benefits of recalibrating through the past. The past defines the present, which trails the happenstances of the future. He believed that for equity to be in the center of human relations, we must create a world based on the principle of Igbo aphorisms such as “nnokota bu ndu” (translated into English as togetherness is life) for people to find their purpose(s) without being subjected to rigorous bureaucratic paradigms. While giving to people who made his life possible, he finds joy in telling his stories and teaching his experiences around the world from an African lens. He is the learner who met the world at its earliest formation.