Birthday Tribute to Dr. Enewaridideke Ekanpou as the Creek-born Literary Luminary, By Ebikabowei Kedikumo

By: Ebikabowei Kedikumo

Today, we lift our hearts and voices in celebration of an extraordinary man whose life reads like a finely crafted novel and whose pen has become a blazing torch for his people. Happy birthday, Dr Ekanpou Enewaridideke – son of the creeks, conscience of the Niger Delta, and fearless custodian of Ijaw memory and dreams.

From the quiet riverine town of Ayakoromo in Burutu Local Government Area of Delta State, where the river Forcados whispers age-long stories to the mangroves, you emerged like a rare pearl from the deep. Though your roots are firmly planted in the village soil of Ayakoromo, Akparemogbene and Oyangbene, you have risen like a star that refuses to be dimmed by geography or circumstance. The creeks were your cradle, the river was your playground, and the humble settlements around you were your first university of life. While others saw a remote village, you saw a vast library of living stories, and you drank deeply from the wisdom of your people.

It was in that simple village setting that your greatest early teacher appeared – your mother, whose folktales lit up your young imagination like fireflies in the night. In your own unforgettable words, “My mother’s folktales and the events that characterise the lives of my people become my ready creative resources.” From her lips flowed the stories that later hardened into ink in your pen. The laughter of children under the moonlight, the pain of a marginalised people, the rhythm of paddles on water, the quiet heroism of ordinary Ijaw men and women – all these became the building blocks of your creativity. While many drifted away from their roots, you dug deeper, turning your early experiences into a treasury of inspiration.

Your hunger for knowledge carried you beyond the creeks and into the formal classrooms where destiny awaited you. From Ayakoromo Grammar School, you climbed steadily, proving that the village child can sit on the same intellectual table as anyone in the world. You pressed forward to Delta State University, Abraka, and then on to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (where you bagged your PhD), expanding both your mind and your vision. In a world that often underestimates those from riverine communities, you stood tall, showing that brilliance is not the monopoly of big cities. You did not merely pass through these institutions; you conquered them and walked out not just with certificates, but with a sharpened mind and a clarified mission.

Alongside your academic journey, your pen began to speak with a voice that refused to be ignored. Today, you stand as an award-winning Nigerian novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, critic, journalist and activist – an all-round man of letters whose name has become synonymous with intellectual courage and artistic excellence. From Ayakoromo to Lagos, from the creeks to global platforms, you have carved your name into the fabric of African literature and Niger Delta discourse.

Your novels bear witness to your deep engagement with society. In “A Sail in the Dark” (2012), you navigate the troubled waters of societal challenges and call for a shift in consciousness, guiding your readers like a lighthouse cutting through a storm. In “Spiked Beyond Spikes” (2018), you take us into the heart of the oil wars and the injustices that have plagued the Niger Delta, chronicling the pains, betrayals and burning desire for liberation of your people. That 19-chapter novel, published by Kraft Books Limited, is not just a story; it is a battle cry, a testimony and a mirror held up to Nigeria’s conscience.

Yet your creativity refuses to be confined to prose. On the stage, your plays echo with the voices of the oppressed and the resilient. “The Wanted Man in Camp Four” throbs with the pulse of the Niger Delta struggle and the Ijaw experience, turning political realities into compelling drama. “You Must Leave Ekameta Tomorrow” confronts social, cultural and political issues with fearless clarity, while “A Family of Imbeciles” exposes human folly and societal contradictions with biting insight. Your play “The Raffia Palm Tree” (2003), shortlisted for the BBC International Playwriting Competition, stands as proof that even from the creeks, your voice has travelled into global corridors of literary recognition.

Your poetry, too, flows with the grace and power of the Forcados. In “Sandbanks in the River Forcados” (2004), your poems rise like waves carrying both beauty and bitterness, earning you the first runner-up position for the ANA Delta State Tanure Ojaide Poetry Prize. Each line bears the cadence of the river, the ache of environmental degradation, and the quiet strength of those who refuse to surrender their dignity. Your verses are not mere words; they are carved declarations of identity and resistance.

In the realm of essays and short stories, your pen again proves restless and relentless. “The Road to Ken Saro-Wiwa” retraces paths of struggle and sacrifice, capturing the spirit of one of the Niger Delta’s most iconic martyrs, and winning the ANA Delta State Isidore Okpewho Prose Prize in 2004. In that collection you show that fiction can be a form of protest and remembrance at the same time. “Dewdrops from Nigeria’s Starved Tree” (2009) gathers essays that pierce through Nigeria’s socio-political fabric, revealing the deep cracks and calling for healing with bold sincerity. Then “Tapestry of a Dolphin” (2017/2018) comes as a collection of critical essays and literary interventions, where you operate as a surgeon of words, dissecting issues and authors with precision. In that work, you introduce what you call “Defensive interventions, Illumination interventions and Literary interventions,” proving that criticism, in your hands, is both shield and light, both scalpel and balm.

Across all these works, your philosophy stands firm and unshaken. You have openly declared, “My vision is to awaken society’s sensibility to barbarities in the Niger Delta,” and you have lived up to that creed. You are not a writer hiding in an ivory tower; you are a frontline soldier armed with ink. “The pen has become my arm deployed in my dramatic oeuvre,” you say, and truly, you wield it like a seasoned general, defending your people, exposing oppression and demanding justice. Your literature is activism, your activism is literature; the two are interwoven like raffia strands in the hands of a master craftsman.

You have been a vociferous voice, a committed apostle of the Niger Delta struggle for self-determination. In your works and public engagements, you confront environmental degradation, oil-related crises, and the long, painful neglect of the Southern region of Nigeria. You insist on cultural identity and political liberation for the Ijaw people, and you use your stories, poems and essays to push for generational paradigm shifts. You prove that a book can be a weapon, a poem can be a protest, and a play can be a revolution on stage.

Yet, as if your intellectual and literary attainments were not enough, you have also stepped into the arena of politics, not as a noisy opportunist, but as a quiet, strategic force. You play what has been fittingly described as submarine-like politics – not loud, not boastful, yet deeply impactful and accommodating. You currently serve as a board member of the Delta State Scholarship Board, shaping the educational destinies of young people who, like you once did, are coming out of villages and riverine communities with big dreams and bright minds. As a member of the ruling party in the state, you may not always stand on the rooftop shouting, but your influence moves like a powerful current beneath the surface, steady and unstoppable — a political submarine indeed.

In the political terrain, you are gradually floating to the top like a fish bopping out of the deep, announcing its presence in sparkling sunlight. You have built bridges, nurtured alliances, and established strong rapport with some of the political heavyweights in Delta Ijaw. Your rising profile is no accident; it is the result of consistent character, profound intellect, and a track record of commitment to your people. It will not be surprising, and in fact it seems almost inevitable, that one day you will be decorated with political medals and entrusted with even greater responsibilities. One does not need to be a prophet to see that you are one man to watch come the 2031 political dispensation and beyond. The corridors of power are already echoing faintly with your approaching footsteps.

Yet, for all your achievements, titles and honours, what perhaps shines the brightest is your character. You are a man full of integrity, standing like an iroko tree in a forest of bending reeds. You are intelligent, yes, but more than that, you are critical in the best sense – you examine, you question, you refuse to accept lazy thinking or unjust systems. You are generous with the truth, willing to speak it even when it is uncomfortable, and you do so not with arrogance, but with humility and clarity. Despite your towering intellectual and literary stature, you remain humble, down-to-earth and accessible, a man who can sit comfortably in the home of a villager and in the hall of a governor with equal grace. You wear your greatness lightly, like a cloak you could easily remove, and that makes it shine even more powerfully.

Your life reminds us that the village child can grow to shake cities; that the son of a riverine community can speak to the world; that a boy raised on folktales under the moon can grow into a global literary voice and a rising political figure. You have turned the supposed disadvantages of your background into stepping stones. Where some might have seen only water and mangroves, you saw metaphors; where others saw isolation, you saw identity; where others saw limitation, you created liberation.

Today, on your birthday, we do not merely say “CONGRATULATIONS” as a formality. We stand in awe of how far you have come and how high you have climbed. We salute the village boy who became Dr Ekanpou; the listener of folktales who became the teller of enduring stories; the creek child who became a continental voice; the quiet scholar who became a cultural warrior; the subtle politician who is fast becoming a force of destiny. Your life is a testament that greatness can sprout from sandbanks and rise above the tide.

May your pen never run dry, may your voice never be silenced, and may your vision for the Niger Delta and for Nigeria continue to gather momentum like a swelling tide. As the sun rises over Ayakoromo today, it does not just mark another day; it marks another chapter in the life of a man whose story continues to inspire countless others.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Dr Ekanpou Enewaridideke. Long may you live, long may you write, long may you lead, and long may your light shine over the creeks, the cities and the continent.

KEDIKUMO writes from Ayakoromo Town, Delta State