BOOKCLUB

Prof Bart Nnaji @ 70: A Reason To Believe

BOOKCLUB

/July 8, 2026
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By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu It takes more than nerdy audacity to undertake the tackling of a subject as complex as Professor Bart Nnaji as he turns 70 on Monday, July 13, in this year of Our Lord. One has to from the start get to grips with an impossible wunderkind who at barely three years of age or so deigned to buy the biggest lorry called “Gwongworo” with the currency of least value, a farthing! Barth paid for the lorry of his dream and was waiting eagerly for the delivery only to be denied. His doting mother had to apply all her wits to console the darling son. Coddling mother- care for young Bart would in time become a distraction such that the boy did not care for school and scored zero in arithmetic. The mother had to come to school with the charge that it’s the teacher that scored zero and not her beloved son! To end the bad matter, Bart had to be rescued from his mother and sent to live with his uncle who was a teacher. It worked magic. Bart started topping his class, and was duly promoted to skip a class because of his genius. His progress was delayed because of the crisis of the 1966 coups in Nigeria and the concomitant advent of the 1967-1970 Biafra war. Bart and the family bore the brunt of the tragic war as refugees before returning to their hometown which had come under the control of Nigeria’s federal forces. Bart’s schooling resumed in earnest in St Patrick’s College, Emene, and he passed out with distinction. A remarkable development in Bart’s final year in school was his taking to sports during the Inter-House Sports Competition and dusting established athletes....