By Austin Okeke Esq

ON THE PSEUDO IME OBI OHANAEZE MEETING

We are not out of the woods yet, so brace yourselves.

Looks like we have now moved from the Iwuanyanwu Glass House charade to Pseudo-Ime Obi Ohanaeze Ndigbo meeting, which then established a hand picked Electoral Committee to oversee the forthcoming elections.

Little did we know that the magicians are not done pulling out their well rehearsed stunts, all in the bid to demonstrate that which they do best – projection of the defeated and contrite Igbo persona.

Is this how these so called elders have been running down the South East Region of Nigeria with reckless impunity? And always getting away with whatever junk they dump on the hapless people of Igboland?

Looks very much like they have run out of tricks! Seeing that they are at their wit’s end, they nevertheless want to proceed with their usual deceptive approach to betrayal of every Igbo interest.

From the imposition of a nonexistent consensus candidate to the illegal constitution of Ime Obi Ohaneze meeting to rubber stamp handpicked members of the Electoral Committee? The Committee whose sole choreographed assignment is to deliver a nonexistent consensus candidate.

They plan to concoct the delegates that shall be voting in the coming elections. Looks very much like people acting out a script for a paymaster!

How else does one describe the recent Ime Obi Ohaneze meeting which fell short of everything credible.

From the list of members of the Electoral Committee; many known partisan political agents, to the adoption of Alaigbo Stabilization Fund and the obvious indifference to premeditated murders in Alaigbo. Murders at Emene, Enugu State to Massacre at Obigbo, in River State! A massacre of which the leadership of Ohaneze Ndigbo openly approved of with songs and praises for the murderers, as was reported live on both the electronic and print media. What an abomination of unprecedented proportion? That a father would make merry; wine and dine with the murderers that had just murdered his own fresh and blood?

They even danced to the rhythm of the same drumbeat that played out whilst the murders were taken place.

LET US LOOK AT THE ALAIGBO STABILIZATION FUND

It wasn’t the Ime Obi that constituted the 50 man Committee, it was the South East Governors Forum and some Executive members of Ohaneze Ndigbo.

How come the Ime Obi was then made to adopt a resolution in the above regard?

Where is Corporate Governance in all of these?

Secondly, the Ime Obi Ohaneze had in 2007 passed a resolution to adopt the South East Nigeria Economic Commission; SENEC and the South East Nigeria Development Fund SENDEF as the vehicles for South East regional economic integration. Four South East State governments at the same period also endorsed SENEC and SENDEF at the time.

What happened to that resolution?

The proper procedure will be for the same Ime Obi to stand down its previous resolution on the same subject matter before taking and adopting a new resolution on same.

The simple legal implication is that both SENEC and SENDEF still stand, whilst the Alaigbo Stabilization Fund ASF is stillborn.

The ASF is stillborn and therefore has no legal capacity, because the Ime Obi that passed a resolution on it wasn’t properly constituted. In fact, Ime Obi Ohaneze meeting didn’t hold.

This then leaves us with only SENEC and SENDEF as the vehicles with which to unleash the wealth generation potentials of Alaigbo.

THINK ABOUT THESE POINTS

1. Let us assume that the Ime Obi was properly constituted; the correct procedure will be to stand down the old resolution taken in 2007 on South East Regional Economic Integration before a new resolution on same matter may be tabled for adoption.
2. Should there be a need for a new resolution at all, it is proper to interrogate how the old resolution interfaces with the new resolution on same subject matter.
3. Furthermore, it would have been better to at least understand how the new resolution relates with the old one on the subject matter, for example, Ime Obi should have constituted a Technical Committee to look at the reports of both resolutions and advise accordingly.

As it stands, the South East Nigeria Economic Commission SENEC and the South East Nigeria Development Fund SENDEF which were both adopted in a resolution by Ime Obi Ohaneze in 2007 still stand as the vehicles for the South East Regional Economic Integration. Remember that during the same period, four South East Governments, the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria South East Region and others also adopted SENEC and SENDEF for the same purpose.

Back to our topic.

LET US LOOK AT THE ELECTORAL COMMITTEE

Let us now deal with the Electoral Committee as quickly put together by the agents and proxies of the third forces that be.

The general view is that the recently held Ime Obi Ohaneze meeting was not properly constituted. Further that, it was both procedurally and substantively flawed.

Kindly note that the conduct in question must survive both the Procedural and Substantive musters before it may be declared valid.

ON PROCEDURE, the questions are, was it properly summoned, held and recorded. It might survive this muster on the face of it. But considering the many objections which were ignored, it therefore falls to be declared inadequate. The Honourable Minister Ngige challenged the constitution of Ime Obi Ohaneze on the day as being flawed. The outgoing PG Chief Nnia Nwodo admitted that it was indeed flawed, yet, proceeded to conduct the affairs of Ohaneze Ndigbo nevertheless.

It therefore means that the flawed Ime Obi Ohaneze meeting lacked the authority to take binding decisions on any matter on the day.

We shall return to this later on.

ON SUBSTANCE well, herein are a whole lot of unanswered questions.

1. Were the established stakeholders consulted on time, and for purpose?
2. Ime Obi Ohaneze has its constitutional membership, where are they?
3. Were the list of members present on the day compiled in accordance with lay down rules and/or precedence?
4. The members, are they qualified as to meeting the criteria for eligibility?
5. The criteria used for selection, were they the same as in the previous or were they quickly generated, if so, were they approved by the proper body or organ of Ohaneze Ndigbo whose duty it is to so approve the new body of rules?
6. If the immediate above is not in the affirmative, were the new body of rules subsequently ratified by the organ whose duty it is to approve these rules?
7. Was the agenda for the Ime Obi meeting shared amongst the constitutional members prior to the meeting? (Yes, this question belongs here as the contents of the agenda are “substance” in nature)

We can go on and on, but, for the sake of simplicity, let’s keep it simple.

Back to procedure….

Whose function is it to give notice of Ime Obi meeting?

Who actually called for the Ime Obi meeting?

Were all the Ime Obi members properly informed, and on time?

Was the agenda for the Ime Obi meeting shared with the constitutional members of Ime Obi prior to the meeting? (Yes, it appears again because it is a matter of formality to give notice)

STATUS OF THE ELECTORAL COMMITTEE

In the circumstances, and based on the above mentioned irregularities, every decision taken at the recent Ime Obi meeting is invalid and therefore null and void ab initio.

This includes the decisions taken to adopt the members of the Electoral Committee and indeed the Alaigbo Stabilization Fund.

It is a fact that some of the Stakeholders and constituent members of Ohaneze Ndigbo were not consulted when the list of the Electoral Committee members were drawn up (hand picked is the correct word); for instance, the President and Vice President of Delta State Ohaneze Ndigbo were not consulted, Abuja branch of Ohaneze Ndigbo was not properly consulted, HE, Okwadike himself was not consulted, and the list goes on.

The list as hand picked was replete with the names of family members of the State Governors, Speaker of a State House of Assembly, Chief of Staff of a State, Ex Deputy Governor, friends of the people that drew up with the list, PR Mercenaries, Brown Envelope journalists both young and old, and politicians of the major political parties in Nigeria, being the APC, PDP, and APGA.

Might I ask, isn’t Ohaneze Ndigbo a Nongovernmental Organization? What then do these politicians want with it?

Or, have these politicians failed in their respective political parties and now seek a new platform to remain relevant in the affairs of the Igbo nation?

Having failed to deliver on election promises and decent service delivery to their people, and having collaborated with third forces to exacerbate the infrastructure decay and the lack of infrastructure in Igboland, what else do they plan to do with Ohaneze Ndigbo, a Sociocultural entity that should bind together the citizens of the Igbo nation, and an NGO for that matter?

Kindly let them know that it is now business unusual

Gone are the days when they get away with murder because people don’t ask questions. The era of off the mic is gone for good.

This is the era of #EndSars and Soro Soke (speak up), the Oha (we the people) are in fact demanding that these politicians must now give account of their stewardship dating back to 1999.

EndSars and Soro Soke (speak out) have come to stay in this our present life.

Little wonder they are scheming to contaminate every entity and structure in Igboland, because they are looking for where to hide; they want their peers to continue to shield them.

Mba, never again shall the Oha continue to be fed with shit

As the saying goes, there is no peace for the wicked

CONCLUSION

1. There is still enough time to assemble the constitutional and proper members of Ime Obi Ohaneze; they exist, and their whereabouts known.
2. Even if it is by Zoom Conference, let the Ime Obi Ohaneze meeting hold.
3. We still have 4 weeks before 10 January 2021 when the term of the current Ohaneze Ndigbo Executives comes to an end.

Well…., let’s wait for reactions before we proceed to the second round of our analysis.

I thank you

11 December 2020
Austin Okeke