THE GOOD CURVES IN LOVING FORTUNES
Speech by Chief (Mrs.) Bola Obasanjo
At the Presentation of Curved Fortunes by Mark Nwagwu
Pan-Atlantic University, Lagos, June 14, 2025
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Mr. Chairman, Chief Mustapha Chike-Obi, the Chief Unveiler, Obong Anwan Barbara Etim James, Distinguished Guest of Honour, His Excellency Ambassador Chris Okeke, the Reviewer, Mr. Eriata Oribhabor, the author and poet, Prof. Mark Nwagwu, whom I shall call Mark throughout my speech, distinguished presenters, ladies and gentlemen.
It is a great pleasure to be here to host this occasion. My husband and I hosted Mark’s literary contributions to life, beginning with his first publication, “Forever Chimes”, in 2007, when Mark turned 70. Perhaps the highlight of our hosting duties was brought to the public glare when he presented his Memoirs, “Dreams Dance” on 30 June 2022, in celebration of his 85th Birthday. My dear husband and Mark were dancing and rollicking all over the place, chasing after each other like two teenage Boys. Mark and Baba are good friends, and we have shared so much together: we would like the world to pay great attention to Mark’s works.
Mark and Mummy Helen of Blessed memory (standing ovation in a minute silence for the reposed soul of our dear late Mother Matriarch Helen Nwagwu) were regular visitors to the Obasanjo Leadership Lecture Series at Ota, a friendship developed and grew immensely. When my dear husband was held under house arrest
during the Abacha regime, Mark and Mummy Helen came to Ota and, unmindful of the danger of ignoring the soldiers orders, Mark tried to press his luck to see Baba to no avail. In deference to his faithful persistence, the soldiers asked him to write to Baba and leave the letter with his late wife, Her Excellency Stella Obasanjo of Blessed memory to present on the visitors’ side of the farm, that Baba would get it together with his mails on delivery at the prison. Mark and Helen kept in touch with Baba while he was in prison in Yola. All I have said is just a fragment of the beginning of the close friendship that developed between our two families.
I have read, “Curved Fortunes” and cannot believe Mark’s new and refreshing immersion in objects of art as his newfound interest! His past poems had been inspired by his love for Helen, his wife of blessed memory the object of his dreams.
Now, in her absence, other natural objects and works of art seem to have caught his fancy. Without Helen, Mark was virtually empty! without anything of appeal, attracting his attention. As he says it, the question became, what do I do now? Even with our encouragement, with his poet, life is becoming more meaningful, by the grace of God and Helen’s intercessions before God, he was able to complete his memoirs, “DREAMS DANCE”, published in 2022, to mark my husband OBJ 85th Birthday Anniversary. Those who were with Baba and Mark will not forget this remarkable event.
After Dreams Dance, what next, what does Mark do now? Enter Curved Fortunes.
His past poems had been inspired by his love for Helen. Now in her absence, other natural objects and works of art seem to have caught his fancy. To the greater glory of God our poet has been, as it were, irretrievably drawn to nature, expressions of nature in the media and transcendental inspirations in nature – we go from the tree ebony, to art, to fortunes, to love.
Remi Raji in the epilogue summarizes it thus: “Broadly speaking, Mark Nwagwu’s CURVED FORTUNES can be read as a metaverse of multimedia imagination, in which the elemental images of painting, carving and sculpting collide or commune, committed to the warm complicity of the written word.”
And there is more: according to Sola Olorunyomi in the Foreword, “…. the entire collection appears to cohere into a story, and that story contrasts between the wishes and judgement of the poet, and the fate of the child as an artist. Yet the poet and the child appear to be one and the same, and at day’s end, each finding the other in the self. In practical terms, the themes are quite independent, yet the essence reveals magic in that thin, connecting thread.”
This is to me as intriguing as it is captivating and says much about Mark the poet and Mark the child, the two interacting and living together. You will have to discover this magic yourself; this thin, connecting thread, as you read CURVED FORTUNES and carefully interpret the lines and their meanings.
Here, we have a poet whose works for his soulmate, Helen, a tetralogy, which, according to literary authorities, is unmatched in
the annals of literature, at least in contemporary times. Mark appears to have entered a new life in which the entire universe is his poetic laboratory for his explorations of nature and its nuances.
As I see it, how lucky would she be who could capture this poet’s attention in this new metaphysical life where all is one and one is all.
I strongly urge you to get a copy of Curved Fortunes, where all that is good curves into your life in living fortunes.
Thank you.
