Welcome to Épa.com.ng, the blog with a difference!
Épa in Bini language means ‘Elder’. In African tradition, real elders are usually full of wisdom and they are respected because of this. In their action and words, they are expected to show how wise they are and help use such wisdom to advise or solve people’s problems when necessary. The high pedestal we put them is reflected in the saying: ‘The words of our elders are words of wisdom’. An Ibo proverb also says that ‘What an elder sees while sitting down, the young man cannot see even while standing up’.
Épa.com.ng is unique – it will serve you with all the inspirational, political, foreign, entertainment, business, technology, sports, culture, events and people news, tinged, coloured, salt and peppered with the wisdom garnered in over 40 years of public communication and business experience by Épa. We will not let any segment dominate the other – a bit of this and that to satisfy every interest.
For every news, action, event and plan by any individual or organization, Épa.com.ng will look for the wisdom behind, below, above and ahead of it and serve it to you or ask the promoters the wisdom in it. We will also ask you, the audience/readers, to let us know the wisdom behind some of these activities – or whether you think there is no wisdom and reason for them at all.
Épa.com.ng is a blog, not an online newspaper, but we will provide you with snippets and links to breaking or current news and events in credible news outlets – no sensationalism or showboating to satisfy anyone’s selfish interest.
Every once in a while, we will serve up the wise view of a guest blogger or writer on a topical issue, to enable you have some variety and make comments on such issues.
Once again, we welcome you to Épa.com.ng ……. the well of wisdom!
Who is Épa?
Greetings!
My name is Ogie Eboigbe.
They call me Épa – I mean my younger friends. Fondly, of course. I don’t think it’s because of my grey hair and beard; they are grey though. But as the saying goes – the hood does not make the monk. So I don’t think it’s the age, the grey or the fondness they have for me. I guess it is because of what they have seen and felt in my experience and in the advice I give on different matters and in various areas of human endeavour. Advice given with the wisdom of Épa, the Elder!
I am a pensioner!
I like to write. Online and mainstream media. I have written for several Nigerian and international media – newspapers, radio and social media. And I enjoy doing it. I also teach it sometimes to special groups.
I left UBA Plc in December 2005 as Assistant General Manager where I was Group Head, Brand Management and Corporate Affairs and also served the bank as Relationship Manager, (Oil Marketing/Energy Group); Principal Manager, (Consumer Marketing); and as Business Manager, Lekki as well as Secretary/Head of UBA Foundation. Post UBA, I have also been CEO of INow ISP and CEO of Audio Auditing Nigeria., a S.A. franchise media monitoring agency.
I joined UBA in April 1995 as Principal Manager and Head of Corporate Affairs and brought to the Bank twenty-one years experience in Journalism, Broadcasting, Public Affairs and Marketing Communications.
I came to UBA from the Canadian High Commission, Lagos where I started out as Information/Public Affairs Officer in November 1987. Six years later, I joined the Canadian Trade Commissioners Service and worked out of the Canadian High Commission in Lagos as Trade Commissioner, providing advisory service to Nigerian and Canadian businessmen. This job I also combined with the position of Public Affairs Officer.
Earlier, I had spent nine years with Radio Nigeria Network News Service from 1978, leaving there in 1987 as Senior Editor, having served as State House Correspondent during the tenure of Alhaji Shehu Shagari as President and Dr. Alex Ekwueme as Vice-President from 1979 to 1983 as well as during the regime of military President Ibrahim Babangida and Chief of General Staff Ebitu Ukiwe as number 2, and covered State visits and summits including the Non-Aligned Summit in New Delhi, India; Anti-Apartheid Conference in London; OAU meetings in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Arusha, Tanzania; Nigeria-US Bilaterals in Washington DC, and State visits to Guinea, Tanzania, Kenya, Togo, Ethiopia, Cote D’Ivoire, Ghana, Soviet Union, Hong Kong and China. I later became FRCN’s Diplomatic Correspondent and worked out of the Offices of two Foreign Ministers – Professors Ibrahim Gambari and Bolaji Akinyemi.
I was VOA Sports Reporter in Nigeria, where I reported from Lagos with the Pseudonym “Barclay Taiwo”, for Daybreak Africa and Nightline Africa and I am well traveled in the USA and in fact was made a Distinguished Visitor of the US State Department, Washington DC in 1987 – the same year that I bagged the US Information Agency Coast–to–Coast Traveling Fellowship from New York through to Florida, Utah, Washington, Virginia and Maryland States as well as the KLM/Dutch Embassy Visiting Fellowship to The Netherlands in 1986. I have also visited several other countries including Canada, Italy, Benin, Turkey, Israel and United Arab Emirates.
Still in retirement, I have run an Integrated Communications agency called Raimundo & Barclay Limited – a company that specializes in Brand Development and Management, Web Advertising, Public & Media Relations, including Media Monitoring, as well as Training in Customer Relations and Social Media. I have also been Chairman, from 2007 to March 2018, of Anglo-Nigerian Welfare Association for the Blind, ANWAB, a non-profit UK and Nigeria registered NGO; I am as well Chairman of Contemporary Architecture Ltd.
With qualifications in Journalism, Management, French and Information Systems Management from different institutions including the Nigerian Institute of Journalism (Best All-Round Student 1978); University of Lagos; Alliance Française, Lagos; Voice of America Training School, Washington DC and APTECH Worldwide, it has been a busy life. I have attended several national and international courses in Public Affairs, Marketing, Banking and Computer Systems Management, including the Canadian Trade Commissioners/Commercial Officers Course in Ottawa, Budgeting/Finance at Lagos Business School, the Advanced Public Affairs Course at the London School of Economics and Political Science, as well as the Financial Public Relations and Marketing Course at the University of London. I was also at the Public Relations World Congresses in 2000 in Chicago and Istanbul, Turkey in June 2005.
Born on February 12, 1954, I am a Fellow of Nigerian Institute of Public Relations, hold senior membership of the International Public Relations Association, IPRA, of London and I am married to Helen and we have two children – Esohe and Eghosa.
With the experience I have garnered from the positions I have held in the different organizations where I have worked, it is not too difficult to marshal ones’ thoughts on current world, national and local issues and write to advise, educate, entertain and inform others with the wisdom of Épa, the Elder.
Welcome.
(AVAILABLE ONLINE ON SEVERAL SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS as ogieeboigbe or Ogie Eboigbe: Facebook, Instagram, Google+, Twitter, Telegram, WhatsApp, Skype, LinkedIn etc)