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Ekpe is Coming!” The Propaganda Masquerade My People Have Awaited Since The Beginning of Time

Published

6 years ago

September 21, 2020

By Wordshot Amaechi Ugwele

In my town Ohodo there are many myths. One of such is about the masquerade, “Ekpe d’Obleg,” (Ekpe from Obleg’). The masquerade was taunted by its promoters then as not just a beautiful masterpiece, they told our people it was the most beautiful thing anyone would ever behold in life when it eventually came out to perform.

When pressed further to describe it, they simply told people they could not since there was nothing yet in existence to be compared with the masquerade.

All my people could do was wait for Ekpe d’Obleg’. And to make matters worse, the people of Obleg’ went into an apparent frenzy, raising a lot of din and dust, in their hype preparatory for the day this unique masquerade would make it’s much-awaited grand public showing.

And the most curious thing about it all was that before then, Obleg’ people never had any masquerade worth a second look. Although they were good in having musical and dance groups for casual merrymaking, all their attempts at having any grand masquerade of note always ended in awful failures.

Whenever Ohodo celebrated Iri Ji, Onwa Asaa or any of such, Obleg’ came with the most miserably costumed and poorly crafted masks that neither looked arresting nor danced artfully. People taunted them to know the end, which they tried to mitigate with their noisy and chaotic processions. They were naturally witty and wisecracking tricksters that had a reposte for any taunt or fun poked at them on account of the notorious shabbiness of their masquerades that could not stand anywhere near the majesty of Agalaba (Ijele) others parts of the town had and proudly displayed. The Otielechi, that is, Otimkpu of these masquerades dusted the best of anything Obleg’ had in every occasion.

Then, Obleg’ suddenly announced they were bringing out Ekpe. The name was foreign and full of mystique. And so, the noise they made about it was unprecedented. They promoted and marketed it in campaigns that would shame modern propagandists.

The other parts of Ohodo didn’t know when they began to cower in fear, that Ekpe was coming to dethrone their own masquerades, even when they never saw any evidence of preparations, as they neither retreated to any forest nor fenced off any compound in Obleg’, for secret rehearsals.

However, whenever anyone asked Obleg’ people when their masquerade was coming out, they would launch into distracting and evasive diatribes, saying people should just wait for them, that Ekpe was coming. When people’s interest began to wane, Obleg’ would just raise a sudden loud uproar in a remote outpost of their part of town. When people asked, the would say “Ekpe was coming!”.

As people raced towards that particular direction, the noise would erupt from another part altogether! And “Ekpe was coming!” rented the air everywhere.

You know as every trick would always expire one day, the people got wary of these duplicity and thereafter dubbed Ekpe the phantom masquerade of Obleg’ that got further away as the noise of its presence got closer! “Ekpe d’Obleg’. A s,’ ‘naa ha!’ ‘Naa ha!’ Ó kpùz gde!”, meaning, “Ekpe d’Obleg’. If they say ‘here it comes!’ ‘Here it comes!’ It gets further away!” People also came to use it to mock narcissists’ who had a high opinion of their appearance, hence such were often told they sure looked better than Ekpe d’Obleg’, the phantom beauty of a masquerade no one ever saw.

Till this day, no one, in living memory, either from Obleg’ or the rest of Ohodo, ever saw the masquerade. In fact, it eventually came to be that people were surer of its non-existence than otherwise, and have come to therefore associate the whole venture as the very height of the well-known Obleg’s duplicitous trickery.

In projecting and mongering the presence of a masquerade they knew they neither had the capacity to bring out to face the rest of Ohodo in a showdown, nor actually had, Ekpe came to become the first known case of, and indeed the birth of propaganda in Ohodo. Our people were so taken in by the hoopla that it worked for a while in compelling the whole town to go into a prolonged expectation for its appearance. However, time finally demystified and rendered it a sham it was. So, Ndi Enugu should not allow themselves to be distracted from this Ekpe they are now telling us “is coming” from somewhere in Enugu. They are usually what they are, trickery of some desperate people.

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Business

Turning Africa’s Raw Materials Into Wealth: The ARMS 2026 Industrial Agenda

Published

3 days ago

September 29, 2026

The Gleamer

By Joel Ajayi

For decades, Africa’s vast natural resources have powered industries and economies far beyond the continent, while many African countries have remained largely exporters of unprocessed commodities and importers of finished products.

That familiar pattern is now coming under renewed scrutiny as policymakers, researchers, investors and industrialists seek to change the direction of Africa’s resource economy.

At the centre of that conversation is the second edition of the Africa Raw Materials Summit (ARMS 2026), scheduled for October 19 and 20 at the Abuja Continental Hotel, Abuja, under the theme: “From African Feedstock to African Factories.”

Organised by the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC), the summit is being positioned as more than another gathering of policymakers and industry stakeholders. It is intended to provide a platform for confronting the structural challenges that have kept African raw materials largely disconnected from local manufacturing.

Africa has for years operated largely within a “pit-to-port” economic model, exporting raw materials while importing expensive finished products.

Speaking at a press conference ahead of the summit on Tuesday in Abuja, the Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of RMRDC, Prof. Nnanyelugo Martin Ike-Muonso, said the event would bring together policymakers, investors, researchers, technology providers and industrialists to develop practical strategies for transforming Africa’s abundant natural resources into industrial wealth.

The challenge, therefore, is not simply the abundance of resources, but the continent’s ability to transform those resources into industrial value, employment, technology and wealth within Africa.

Nigeria alone, according to the RMRDC, has more than $582.4 billion in documented non-renewable natural resources, while the wider continent possesses substantial deposits of critical minerals, agricultural raw materials and industrial feedstock.

Yet, the benefits of this resource endowment have often been constrained by inadequate processing capacity, weak infrastructure, limited technology, financing gaps and fragmented regional value chains.

From Dialogue to Industrial Action

ARMS 2026 builds on the maiden edition held in May 2025, which attracted more than 1,000 delegates from across the world.

The inaugural summit also witnessed the unveiling of the Ten-Year Raw Materials Transformation Roadmap (2025–2034) by the Minister of State for Industry, Senator John Owen Enoh.

The roadmap was designed around areas including technological capability, climate-resilient processing and backward integration, establishing a policy framework for greater domestic utilisation of Africa’s raw materials.

The second edition is expected to move the conversation further by bringing policy, capital, technology and industrial stakeholders around practical mechanisms for turning raw materials into locally manufactured products.

One of the major proposals highlighted by the RMRDC is the 30 per cent Mandatory Value Addition Bill, which seeks to establish a statutory minimum level of value addition to Nigerian raw materials before export.

The Council says the proposed framework could support job creation, import substitution, foreign-exchange conservation and increased manufacturing contribution to the economy.

Building the Infrastructure for Value Addition

The industrial transformation envisaged by ARMS 2026 goes beyond legislation.

A major concern is the “missing middle” between where raw materials are produced and where factories are located.

Poor transportation networks, inadequate cold-chain facilities, weak rural roads, limited testing and certification infrastructure and border-related delays can make locally sourced materials more expensive and less competitive.

Consequently, logistics and infrastructure constitute one of the five principal pillars of the summit.

The objective is to develop more reliable corridors connecting farms and mines with processing centres and manufacturing facilities, thereby reducing losses and improving the movement of industrial inputs.

The Digital Dimension

Technology is also becoming an important part of the Council’s strategy.

The RMRDC says it has developed the Nigeria Integrated Information Statistical System for Raw Materials and Products (NISSRAMP), described as a digital repository containing information on feedstock deposits, specifications, production outputs and industrial absorption rates.

The Council has also highlighted its transition towards paperless operations and its certification as a Data Controller/Processor of Major Importance by the Nigeria Data Protection Commission.

Such digital infrastructure could provide investors and manufacturers with better information about the availability and characteristics of raw materials while supporting more informed industrial planning.

Turning Waste Into Industrial Inputs

Another major component of ARMS 2026 is the proposed expansion of the circular economy.

The summit will examine how agricultural by-products, mine tailings, scrap metals and biomass can be recovered and reused as inputs for new production processes rather than being treated simply as waste.

The RMRDC argues that such an approach could lower raw-material costs while supporting more sustainable and climate-resilient manufacturing systems.

For Africa, where industrial expansion must increasingly balance economic development with environmental considerations, waste industrialisation could become an important part of the continent’s manufacturing conversation.

From National Production to African Value Chains

The African Continental Free Trade Area is another important element of the summit’s agenda.

The RMRDC sees AfCFTA as an opportunity to create regional value chains in which raw materials sourced in one African country can be processed and supplied to manufacturers in another.

Under such a model, Africa would move beyond simply exporting commodities to external markets and develop stronger internal networks for supplying chemicals, refined minerals, agricultural inputs and other industrial materials across national borders.

This approach places regional integration at the heart of Africa’s industrialisation strategy.

Bridging Research and Capital

A recurring weakness in many developing economies is the gap between research and commercialisation.

Innovations may emerge from universities, research institutions and laboratories without receiving the financing, equipment or market connections required to become commercially viable.

ARMS 2026 intends to address that gap through technology commercialisation and capital linkages, connecting research outputs with investors, development finance institutions and industrial off-takers.

The RMRDC has also cited partnerships with the Bank of Industry for commercial-scale post-harvest processing and a South-South technology-transfer partnership with the National Innovation Centre par Excellence in Shanghai, China.

A Larger Industrial Conversation

The scale of ARMS 2026 is expected to be significantly larger than the maiden edition.

The organisers project more than 1,800 delegates from all 54 African countries and global industrial partners.

The programme will feature high-level policy dialogues, technical panels, an advanced raw materials and technology exhibition, industrial site visits and the African Raw Materials Industry Awards.

The exhibition, in particular, is expected to showcase locally fabricated processing machinery, advanced domestic materials, green chemicals and engineered commercial inputs.

Beyond the speeches and exhibitions, however, the real significance of ARMS 2026 will ultimately depend on what happens after the summit.

Africa’s challenge has never been a shortage of raw materials. The more difficult question has been how to transform those resources into factories, products, skilled employment, technology and sustainable economic opportunities.

For Nigeria and the rest of the continent, the proposed shift from “pit-to-port” to “feedstock-to-factory” therefore represents a broader debate about the future structure of African economies.

ARMS 2026 seeks to place that debate firmly on the industrial agenda — with value addition, technology, finance, infrastructure, circular production and regional trade at the centre.

If the commitments and partnerships generated by the summit translate into measurable industrial activity, the event could provide another platform for Africa to examine how its enormous resource base can support stronger domestic manufacturing.

The message from the organisers is clear: the continent’s raw materials should not only leave African soil as commodities; they should increasingly become the foundation for African industrial production

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