User:UchennaOkoro

Fidelis Uchenna Okoro
Fidelis Uchenna Okoro is a novelist, a poet and a playwright. He is a university lecturer and the author of the plays: Wisdom of the Ostrich,Joys of War, Prof Zemzi's Last Rehearsal and Quagmire. His poetry collections are When the Bleeding Heart Breaks and Pimples and Dimples. His novels are The Rape of Regina and Cracking the Shell. He co-edited Apples of Gold: a Pageant of Modern Nigerian Poems and is an editor of Africa and World Literature:Journal of Literary Studies. Recently, he co-edited University of Nigeria Class of 63: Celebrating Our Worthy Pioneers. Fidelis Uchenna Okoro has distinguished himself in many aspects of arts and culture, achieving in so short a time a distinction that has left its mark on the sands of literary and artistic times. He is a novelist, a poet, a musician, a movie producer and director, proving himself a combination of talent and hardwork, passion and discipline, dedication and candour. If there is anything that is easy to notice in the life and works of this literary figure, it is the fact that he is a very passionate person, passionate about life, passionate about social justice, passionate about making the world a better place. Evidently, he understood very early in life that good things do not come to those who sit and wait. He understood that with vision and hardwork, driven by passion, he would be able to break some of the many barriers to human advancement and progress and thus becoming, as he put it, “an arrow in the quiver of the Almighty.” He knew that becoming useful to one’s own people is one of the best things a man could do. Recognizing his creative potentials, he chose to study English and Literary Studies at the University of Nigeria, graduating from that Department in 1995 as the Best Graduating Student of the Year. In recognition of his excellent performance, the University of Nigeria employed him in 1997 as a Graduate Assistant straight from National Youth Service. Not willing to rest on his oars, he went ahead to obtain a Master’s Degree in English, specializing in English grammar and phonetics in 1998. The same year he was employed, he formed Fidoko Theatre Company, a travelling theatre that has to date presented up to ten dramatic performances to audiences across Nigeria. From inception, Fidoko Theatre Company was constituted to confront and lampoon the many foibles of the human race, believing that silence, which is cowardice, makes things worse rather than better. In 1998, his first play Wisdom of the Ostrich, was published, a play that satirizes greed and megalomania. A year earlier he had written and directed the play Honey on the Blade, a play on HIV/AIDS. To bring the right information about the scourge to the young, and to warn them from contracting it, he took the play around to secondary schools in the Nsukka metropolis, a move that was well received by parents and schools authorities. It was one thing to talk about the danger of HIV; but doing so while entertaining the students was definitely make the message sink deeper. The students enjoyed the performances while seeing for themselves the consequences of loose living. Spreading the right information on HIV and appropriately warning against it happens to be one vocation Fidelis Okoro has devoted much of his writing life to. His first novel, The Rape of Regina, thematizes HIV/AIDS, connecting it on the nexus of university cultism and the crass moral decadence that characterize institutions of higher learning. Determined to reach a wider audience with the message, he launched Fidoko Films International in 2007 with the debut movie “Saved By Sin,” a movie studied in some universities in Nigeria as an intellectual and directorial masterpiece. That movie which featured Pete Edochie, Patience Ozokwor, Gentle Jack and Emeka Nwabueze was the toast of cable TV more than two years after it was launched. His latest movie “Uzumagada” Parts I and II, featuring Sam Loco Efe, Vitalis Ndubuisi, Pete Edochie, Camela Mberekpe, Chinwe Owo and Ngozi Udengwu also problematizes the discrimination and stigmatization that are concomitant with HIV/AIDS. His second published play, Joys of War, which was premiered in 1999, is a play on the futility of warfare. It was also the Convention Play of the Enugu State Chapter of the Association of Nigerian Authors for that year. In 2009, his play Quagmire was premiered, a play on the socio-political quagmire of many an African state. That play was awarded the first Runner-up, ANA/JP Clark Drama prize for 2010. In 2009, he staged Ozioma Izuora’s Blood for Palmwine for Federal Legislators at Nicon Luxury Hotel, Abuja. That play lampoons the rape scourge, a malady suffered by women in high and low places, an evil practice that has unleashed untold emotional trauma on women, and contributing to the spread of the HIV pandemic. In 2006, his first poetry collection When the Bleeding Heart Breaks was awarded the Runner-up position for the prestigious ANA/Cadbury Poetry Prize. In 2009, his second novel Cracking the Shell was shortlisted for the ANA/Jacaranda Prize for Prose fiction. His latest poetry collection, Pimples and Dimples, thematizes the constant interreligious crises prevalent in Northern Nigeria, a situation that is the bane of the country’s socio-economic well being. That anthology was on the shortlist for the ANA/Gabriel Okara Poetry Prize, 2012. Thus, between 2006 and 2012, four literary works of Fidelis Okoro in the three genres of literature were on the national award list. His passion for culture is seen also in his music. He has three music albums to his credit. “One More Mile” was released in 2004. “Call on Me” was released in 2008. “Financial Barber” was released in 2012. He sings in English, Igbo and Pidgin. Nearly all his Igbo songs are in the Nsukka dialect of the Igbo language, believing as he does that the best ways to preserve a language or a dialect are to use it and to sing in it. If there is anyone who believes in art for art’s sake, Fidelis Okoro is not one of them. He believes that art should be useful or it would be nothing at all. From the very start, he knew that art is a potent agent of change, a veritable tool for concrete social engineering. Without a doubt, Fidelis Okoro has put his art and intellect to the service of God and humanity. According to him, “the ivory tower must connect the gown and the town; otherwise, it would be a clown.” He is a firm believer that our endowments should be God’s blessings to our community, our country, our world. It is for the impact he has made on society, for the joy he has brought us through his art, and the light he has shed on human existence through his writing that he stands tall among his peers.