Just recently, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo elected a new National President to continue to champion course of the Ndigbo around the world. In this chat with OKEY MADUFORO, immediate past Vice President-General, Damian Okeke Ogene, looks at the future of the body and fate of Ndigbo
How would access the various state and national elections of Ohanaeze Ndigbo held recently?
We remain thankful to God Almighty for a peaceful process of producing another set of leadership of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo both in the respective states and at the national level.
This indeed shows that the Ohanaeze Ndigbo is more focused than ever in the vanguard of galvanizing the wishes and aspirations of the Igbo race and with this new leadership we are good to go. I also wish to salute our people for their support as well as our South-East Governors’ Forum for their backing throughout the electoral process.
I must say also that our people gave us all the support while we were there as executive members of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo as well as the Ime-Obi and the Council of Elders. Our tenure as it where had a lot in our hands but to the glory of God we rose to the occasion and fought for the collective interests of the Igbo Nation.
There were protests in some parts of Rivers State over the election of the new President General that Ikwere is not Igbo and that the President General Chief Azuka Mbata?
This is laughable because the name Azuka Mbata is an Igbo name and not a Hausa nor Yoruba name. The question is where are those people protesting from? Which of the tribes do they belong and where did they come from? This issue of brothers and sisters profiling themselves is most regrettable and it needs to be discouraged. The states were created for administrative exigency and not to cut the things that bind us together.
I even learnt that the name of the person that sighed the protest letter is Eze so where did he get his name from. Elections have come and gone and what is paramount here is for us to move forward and pursue one goal of actualizing our collective interests and not to come down to the level of I am this or that. We need to chat a new course for the Igbo Nation and set fresh agenda for our people.
Before this new agenda, how would you access the agenda that you set while in office?
It is like setting an examination for myself and mark it and then score myself. I think our people have to make that judgement to know if we passed or failed. But all the same we did well and like the proverbial lizard that fell from the tree and did not break his legs and he said ‘if no one praises me I will praise myself’. We maintained that much needed relationship with the Governor’s Forum in the South-East and this had great multiplayer effects on our agenda.
We talked about the fact that the South-East Development Commission which has come on stream today with Mr. Mark Okoye, our son at the helm of affairs. We talked about energy that is power supply in the South-East and our brother Prof Bath Nnaji showcased the lighting the South-East and those are one of the benefits of our agitations.
We also shadowed the issue of insecurity in Igbo land and our drive towards ensuring that the South-East economy does not nose dive. There were spirited representation before the Federal Government for the fight against insecurity which our governors took up the challenge to the powers that be for our brother Mazi Nnamdi Kanu to be released, so that we can now identify those who are IPOB members and those who are not.
Though our brother has not been released, we have strong hopes that he would be free as the pressure is on-going and the new leadership of Ohanaeze Ndigbo will take it from there.
Our demand for the creation of more states in the South-East has also received the blessings of our people, and so far about five groups are making demands for states and it has awakened the drive by our people and even the members of the National Assembly are now deeply involved in this. It is just a question of time it would come on stream and we hope that we shall get at least two or more states for us to have parity with other geopolitical zones across the country.
While people have divided views about State Police, some states now have new brand of security outfits, just like what Governor Charles Soludo did called Udo Ga Chi?
Yes, a lot of suggestions have been made about the establishment of State Police and they agued that there may be a clash between the conventional police and the State Police. Some even challenge how to define their roles and how to manage the clash between Nigerian Police and the State Police.
All the same, we need a well-defined legal instrument to define their respective roles in the area of crime fighting in Nigeria. In the case of states or geopolitical zones setting up security outfits this is as old as creation. In the past we used to have local security outfits which in some places they used age grades or the youths in those towns.
But due to the challenges of insecurity the states are taking drastic steps towards fighting insecurity in their areas. We have Omotekun in the South-West and it is as a result of what they met on the ground.
In Anambra State we have an enabling law that established Anambra Vigilante Services (AVS), and now government went further to establish the Udo Ga Chi which the law is called Agunechemba Security Squad. So far, we are getting results from that arrangement because what we are facing in the South-East needs drastic and decisive actions. You need to hear what our people who have been victims of kidnapping passed through and families of those that lost their loved ones.
So, it would not be out of place for us to have a home-grown security operative to protect themselves. All that we are saying is that they should be within the ambits of the laws of the land There must be that sensitization of our youths over the craze for ill-gotten wealth. We no longer have young men and women that go into making decent money from their hard works and not sudden flight that has no known foundation or verifiable means of livelihood.
That also brings us to the case of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu which we have been talking about up till now. Should they release him at least we can take it from there and then know what steps to take after that.
How about Simon Ekpa who is in Finland?
He is not known to us in Ohanaeze Ndigbo and the Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB) have said it over and over again that he is not a member of IPOB and the only person known to us is Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and not Simon Ekpa. When he was apprehended, he said that he is a content creator and one wonders what content creation has to do with killings and kidnappings.
If he says that he is a content creator he should go to Nollywood and begin to entertain people and not using IPOB as a cover. One needs to understudy what has been happening because most people are linking him to those dastardly acts in Igboland.
All these emergency leaders claiming to be executing Igbo agenda or Biafran agenda are not known to the Ohaneze Ndigbo. Someone wakes up one morning to claim or assume one thing or the other in order to seek or gain relevance and people would start clapping for the person without knowing his agenda.
Some have converted this Biafra struggle to a money-making venture ripping off innocent and unsuspecting members of the public huge sums of money. They are not known to us at all and Ohanaeze Ndigbo as a body do not know them.
There is this issue of tax reform under President Ahmed Bola Tinubu that has been raising dust what are your views?
Well, I have not taken time to study the details of that Bill to actually respond to this question but what has attracted me is the issue of the Value Added Tax (VAT). I learnt that some people are complaining about that and my submission here is that some areas in this country do not like the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverage, yet they want to benefit from the revenue from VAT. That is more of playing the ostrich.
Since you condemn alcohol what is your business with VAT and again if I am correct the Bill is also talking about what each area producing something and what government can give back to them which is good. It is a kind of resources control that we are talking about but we must make sure that it is well managed so that there would not be issues arising from it.
Again, there are some natural resources that are in this country that are not been tapped and some people are exploiting them and making money out of it yet it is Nigeria’s natural resources. It is only Petroleum that they are after and everyone wants the oil money while we have gold, zinc and others in this country.
The Federal Government should factor them in and ensure that the revenue that comes from those sectors are shared and not only petroleum products. This era of robbing Peter to pay Paul has to stop and the Federal Government should look into the matter for the purposes of equity and good conscience.
South-East Development Commission, how comfortable are you with that?
It has just come on stream and it is our hope that it would impact positively on the area. It is my view that it should be all encompassing such as developing those economically viable sectors in Igbo land.
What is wrong in reviving the Sea Ports or River Ports in our area to save the industrial sector of our place? We need to work on the Blue Economy that now in vogue. We have River Basin Development Authority in Igbo land that has almost become moribund.
With the geometric power sector of our brother Prof Bath Nnaji must be looked into so that it would help drive the process of economic development of the South-East. There should be more investments in the agricultural sector because that is one of the mainstay of the economy of the area. We should revive the good old Late Micheal Okpara oil palm sector that was used to develop the old Eastern Nigeria’.
There is also the need for some joint economic investments owned by the five states in the South-East which the Development Commission had to partner with them to boost our economy.
That brings us to the scorecard of the five governors of the South-East. How would you rate their performances?
I must state here that the governors are doing well and that is in terms of infrastructural development. When go to Enugu State you would discover that the area is wearing a different look and more areas that needed attention are being addressed and also the cost of governance are being reduced and the gains are channeled into something better and worthwhile.
Same is the case with Imo State where Governor Hope Uzodinma is working and this is what is expected of our governors. Of course, Governor Otti is moving very fast when you consider that him and that of Enugu State just came into office barely two years ago but their pace is fast and thorough. Ebony State is not left out in this great economic transformation even though he has not stayed long and these are highly commendable.
Here in Anambra State, Prof Charles Soludo has converted Anambra State into a huge construction site and is opening up and linking the entire Anambra State with his massive road construction and that means moving from Anambra South to Anambra Central down to Anambra North can be done in one day and one can tour these areas and still come back at day light.
What appears to be taking the shine off their performance is the issue of insecurity and believe they would surely address it but also with the help of the Federal Government. We in Ohanaeze Ndigbo commend that burning desire by our governors to impact on our people positively and there is that unity and cohesion that they all display irrespective of their political parties.
They have come to see that first of all they are sons of Igbo land and they owe our people a lot by galvanizing the human and material resources of our Homeland to achieve optimal results. We Ohanaeze have been partnering with them and there is no issue concerning the socioeconomic development of Igbo land that they don’t carry us along. The issue of rail lines in the South-East is currently on the front burner of both Ohanaeze Ndigbo and the South-East Governor’s Forum and in due time we shall get heat worming results.
