Bio (Kudo Eresia-Eke, Ph.

D)
Kudo was born in Burutu in todays Delta State of Nigeria. His home village is Akabta of the Ogba ethnic nationality in the north of Rivers State. Rivers is the countrys southernmost state and the richest in oil and gas reserves. He attended various primary schools in the state. These include St. Michaels Primary School, Omoku and State School, Obite. He was, however to finish his primary education at St. Thomas Aquinas Primary School, Suru-lere, in Lagos, the countrys then capital city. For his secondary education, Kudo moved back to a rural setting in Rivers State to attend Birabi Memorial Grammar School, Bori. Some of the notable roles he played at Birabi were House Prefect, Labour Prefect, President of the Drama Club and Chief Speaker of the Literary and Debating Society. After his School Certificate he started his professional career as a broadcaster with Nigerian Television Authority, Port Harcourt. At 17 he was the youngest television newsreader nation wide. He also presented entertainment shows and acted in numerous television and stage drama series, including Comish Ekiyes Inside Out, Adiela Onyedibias Sosei, and J. P. Clarks The Boat, to name a few. In 1979, he was admitted into the Faculty of Engineering, University of Lagos as a Prelim Chemical Engineering Student. After two successful years in the faculty, he qualified for voluntary transfer to Mass Communication Department having then discovered his calling. Kudo had sought the change consistently having crystalised his vision of himself as a mass communicator. The faculty stridently questioned the sanity of his decision, but eventually, Dr Susu (now Prof Susu) the then Head of Department, let him go. A year later he emerged the President of the Union of Mass Communication Students. He also wrote throughout his course for Daily Times of Nigeria, the main national newspaper then. At the same time he served as freelance presenter on Radio Nigeria 2 FM Stereo and short story writer for Radio Nigeria 1. These were in addition to his activities with the University of Lagos theatre troupe as an actor.

He graduated in 1983 with a Second Class Upper Division Degree and was posted to Nigerian Customs, Enugu for the mandatory one year National Youth Service programme. But no sooner had he reported than he was recalled to Lagos at the request of the Guardian, then a new newspaper which was to become the nations press flagship. The management of the paper was at the time combing the country for young talented writers/jorunalists and Kudo was highly recommended. He served in the Guardian as a writer, on the staff of the elite literary Guardian Supplement on Sunday. Amongst his many contributions were short stories, news, features, arts, entertainment, music, literary stories etc. Many cite him as one of the most remarkable of the pioneer staff of the newspaper. In 1985 Kudo moved back to Rivers State for a Masters Degree in Political Science at the University of Port Harcourt. He finished a year later and subsequently enroled for a Ph.D. in Political Theory in 1987- a program he concluded in 1991. Throughout his graduate programme, he taught Political Theory, and Nigerian Government and Politics as a Faculty Graduate Assistant. After obtaining his doctorate degree, Kudo worked briefly with Banner Magazine, All States Trust Bank, Centre for Advanced Social Science (CASS) in various capacities. He later moved on to join the SUNRAY Newspapers as one of the founding editors. He was later to edit POINT, the Sunray Groups Newsmagazine for Diaspora Africa. Few weeks after getting married in April 1993, Kudo resigned his job at SUNRAY in defence of journalistic principles. His publisher had shredded all the copies of an edition just before circulation, because it carried a story perceived antithetical to the interest of the publisher and his local political friends.

His magazine had conducted a detailed survey to forecast the winner of the presidential election in 1993. The contest was between MKO Abiola of the Progressives and Bahir Tofa of the Republicans. The work predicted overwhelming victory for Abiola and the Progressives even in the Republican strongholds, which included Rivers State, the home- state of SUNRAY Newspapers. The election was eventually held on June 12 and Kudo was vindicated. The Nigeria Union of Journalist thus lists Kudo as one of the journalists who fell victim of Violations of Press Freedom during the Nigeria political crisis of 1993. In November of the same year, he was appointed the State Director of the National Orientation Agency over-seeing operations in the 24 local government areas of the Rivers State. He was later appointed a Member of the State Executive Council and Commissioner for Information and Culture in 1995. As Commissioner he was still entrusted with over-seeing the State Directorate of the Agency. He did this until 1998 when he resigned to join Nigeria LNG Limited as Community Relations Manager. In 2002 he moved up as Public Relations Manager, and a few years appointed Government Relations Manager, a post he still holds. This is in addition to serving as the companys representative in the the Oil and Gas Industry Foundation, where he is the Chief Executive Officer. Kudo, poet, short story and inspirational writer is married to Joanna, his school days sweetheart, and they have four lovely children. Some of his published works include: Songs of Life, collection of poems Bee Buzz and Baby Babble, collection of poems Things Men Do, collection of short stories How To Make It, inspirational essays for students Secrets of Outstanding Persons, inspirational essays When Spirit Sings, selected poems and songs How To Be an A Student Timeless, a musical collection of dub poetry Timeless 2, Tribute to Nelson Mandela, a musical collection of dub poetry.

His religion is Eckankar.