Unknown to several people, especially those who admire and follow multi award-winning Nigerian writer, Chimamanda Adiche, her husband, the handsome Ivara Esege, is from Cross River State, we can reveal.
Ivara Esege, who is a medical doctor in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, hails from Itigidi, Abi Local Government Area, Cross River State. The duo met in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where their parents taught and later got married in 2009. Unfortunately, Ivara lost both parents in a ghastly auto crash one weekend as they were driving to Itigidi from Enugu. This sad incident happened long before they got married. It is however uncertain if Adiche has ever visited her husband’s village.
Itigidi is a not too large riverine community in Cross River Central, South-South Nigeria and is also the home of former Cross River State governor, Liyel Imoke. It is home to one of the earliest health care facility in CRS; the Eja Memorial Joint Hospital, incidentally built by Imoke’s father who was a parliamentarian in Nigeria’s first republic.