In 1966, several waves of rioting in northern Nigeria culminated in the brutal massacre of thousands of easterners by their northern Nigerian counterparts. Sensing that their safety could no longer be guaranteed, the easterners fled to the eastern region and established an independent nation called Biafra.Refusing to accept her sovereignty, Nigeria waged a thirty-month war against Biafra, targeting air assaults at civilian locations, which resulted in the deaths of thousands of children, women, and the elderly. Nigeria used land and sea blockade to prevent relief food from reaching hungry masses in Biafra and thousands of children died from a form of malnutrition called kwashiorkor. At the end of it all in 1970, two million people had perished.
ABOUT ALFRED OBIORA UZOKWE
Surviving in Biafra-The Story of the Nigerian Civil war was published in 2003 and is Alfred Obiora Uzokwe's first book. The book received global interest after publication and has since been used in Colleges in the United States for courses that include Genocide and ethnic cleansing. It is now found in numerous libraries of Ivy League Universities in the United States. The book is an account of a civil war witnessed by Alfred as a little boy growing up in Nigeria from the time he was 7years until the age of 10. It talks about relatives and classmates lost to the war through air raids,war machines, hunger and privation. He is currently working on other books.
Alfred also writes periodic commentaries about the Socio-economic situation in Nigeria on the internet newsmagazine - Nigeriaworld.com. Since 2001, he has written diverse articles about Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa that total more than 1000 pages of material. His commentary stems from his strong desire to see Africa, especially Nigeria, join the league of advanced and industrialized nations by making necessary changes that would create the enabling environment for progress in all facets on life. He has staunch belief in democracy and the dividends that accrue from it and so shines the spotlight on issues that affect Nigeria hoping for more awareness which would culminate in true "participatory democracy" in Nigeria and Africa.
Alfred's professional sojourn includes serving his National Youth Service Corps program, in the architectural division, at the Federal Ministry of Works, Lagos Nigeria. He then worked as an Architectural Designer for many years designing, costing and supervising the construction of several buildings in the country. Those buildings still stand in various parts of Nigeria and their uniqueness attest to his design creativity. In 1987, he moved to Baltimore Maryland, United States where he became a Consultant Engineering Inspector, working on highway, bridge and culverts construction projects. He also provided quality assurance testing for construction materials including concrete, asphalt and soil.
He later joined a state Agency in Pennsylvania as a Civil Engineer where he worked in various Civil Engineering capacities including Traffic Engineering, Highway Construction, Contract Management, Value Engineering and construction project partnering. He later rose to the position of Chief of New Technology Implementation Section, in one of the Bureaus in the state agency sourcing and helping to deploy new technologies like Road Weather Information Systsms(RWIS, automated anti-icing bridge systems and all forms of freezepoint depressants for snow control.
Currently, he is the Chief of the Design Division in another State Agency, overseeing the design of buildings, roadways, dams, bridges, box culverts as well as implementation of renewable energy systems like wind, solar and geothermal systems. He has particular interest in sustainable building and infratsructure designs and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Designs(LEED)
Alfred has served as Editor of several newsletters including the Construction Training News, Partnering Newsletter and The New Technology Update Newsletter. He was honored in front of 1000 employees for his work as the Editor of the New Technology Update newsletter. He has also been a contributory writer to Engineering magazines and newsletters including the Associated Pennsylvania Constructors Magazine and the American Society of Highway Engineers newsletter.
He has also made numerous presentations on Engineering training, Construction Project Partnering and New Technology in Winter Maintenance and has chaired many Committees and Taskforces dealing with Engineering training, Partnering and New technology. Alfred was the Chairman of Aurora Consortium-an international consortium headquartered in Minneapolis with membership of state agencies in the snowbelt in the USA as well as Canada, Sweden and more. The consortium conducts research on Road Weather Information Systems and disseminates findings to member agencies in the United States, Canada and Sweden.
Alfred holds a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Nigeria, a Master of Architecture degree from Morgan State University Baltimore, Maryland and a Master of Science in Civil Engineering from University of Maryland College Park, Maryland, USA. Alfred is an Engineer registered to practice in the states of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Washington DC. He is also member of American Society of Civil Engineers and at his leisure designs residential buildings which are constructed in Africa. He loves to play guitar and write songs as a hobby and pump iron for fitness. He is married with children
