Alaigbo Development Foundation, ADF, raises issues on aborted attempt to set up Electoral Committee for the 2021 Ohanaeze Elections.

Thu, Dec 10, 2020

By editor

3 MIN READ

ON the 6th of December, a meeting was convened at the Nike Lake Resort by the outgoing Ohanaeze Executive. As it turned out, the main item on the Agenda of the meeting was the forthcoming January 2021 Election of a new Ohanaeze Executive.

Although I came a bit late to the meeting, however, I asked and throughout the duration of the meeting, there was no reference to the genocide going on in Oyigbo (Obigbo) in Rivers State where hundreds of our kits-and-kin are being gruesomely slaughtered with reckless abandon.

There was not even ‘a minute silence’ in memory of the dead as has become our custom and as observed throughout all civilized communities in the world. What echoed from the leadership was the justification for the murder of those innocent victims.

With particular reference to the alleged meeting of Ime Obi Ohanaeze, it turned out that

1. What was summoned and what met was not IME OBI Ohanaeze Ndigbo. At best, it could be called a quasi assemblage of some members of the General Assembly of Ohanaeze.
2. Senator Chris Ngige eloquently made this observation, and although his observation was widely supported, his views were ignored. Another former Governor made a related observation, but all were ignored and suppressed by the Chairman.

iii.        The implication of this is that NO MEETING OF IME OBI OHANAEZE has taken place with respect to setting up the machinery for the election of a new Ohanaeze Executive.

1. On the list read out by Chief Nwodo as members of his Electoral Committee, no consultations were made with the respective States and Bodies/Organizations whose so-called representatives were announced by him.
2. Most of us are familiar with the tradition of getting representatives of various States/0rganisations into any Committee of Ime Obi Ohanaeze. And what is that tradition?

“In a properly constituted Ime Obi Ohanaeze, once we get to the point of appointing, for example, the Electoral Committee, States/Organizations are requested to stand aside to nominate their representatives and return the list to the Secretary of Ime Obi Ohanaeze. After which the names of nominees are collated and announced”.

Our experience is that such a process has always ended amicably and the various States/Organizations have always returned their nominees without any internal rancor.

1. Indeed those who try to introduce controversy into the election of the next Ohanaeze Executive are not fair to Ndigbo, especially at this time when our people are facing the worst threat to their existence as a nation.

vii.       We, in the Alaigbo Development Foundation, ADF, urge Chief Nnia Nwodo and his team not to plung Ndigbo into unnecessary internal rancor at this time. Any attempt to impose any person on Ndigbo in the name of Ohanaeze leadership at this period shall be stoutly resisted by our people and our Gods, including our Supreme Chukwu Okike.

We, therefore, urge Chief Nwodo and his team to urgently convene a properly constituted Ime Obi Ohanaeze so that a legitimate Electoral Committee shall be set up to organize the Ohanaeze Election in January according to the Ohanaeze Constitution.

It is important to advise that the mood of Ndigbo at the present moment will not accept any attempt to impose any candidate on them. Anyone involved in such an attempt should think again as such a gamble and act of desperation and treachery shall be resisted vehemently by the people.

Prof. Uzodinma Nwala

ADF President

– Dec. 10, 2020 @ 8:50GMT |