• Leadership crisis tears Anambra community apart
From Aloysius Attah, Onitsha
Umuona, a neighbouring community to Isuofia, Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s home town in Aguata Local Government, Anambra State, has been torn apart by protracted leadership crisis.
The squabble dates back to December 2020. It broke out as a result of an election of the town union executive. The election produced Chief Kenneth Okoli as the president-general (PG) after the tenure of Prof Silas Akaneme.
Okoli, Onitsha-based businessman was not the preferred choice of the traditional ruler of the community, Igwe Humphrey Ejesieme. Both of them have not hidden that there was no love lost between them. The ding-dong affair persisted for two years, eating into Okoli’s three-year tenure.
The traditional ruler performed the last new yam festival without the participation of the town union. The rift was so open that while the radio announcement about the scheduled new yam festival of the Igwe was on, Okoli placed a counter announcement in another radio station disassociating himself from the proposed ceremony. The altercation got to a head on December 28, 2022, a day set aside for the general meeting of Umuona community. The meeting was on going when the bell rang announcing the arrival of the traditional ruler. The president-general ignored the bell and continued the business of the day.
Commotion ensued as supporters of the traditional ruler protested the cold reception accorded the monarch. In the process, Okoli reportedly walked out of the meeting with his executives.
At this point, enraged members of the community loyal to the Igwe felt slighted. They stepped in immediately and invoked a section of the community’s constitution, which gives no room for vacuum in the town union.
They appointed some village representatives. They also elected a caretaker committee headed by Okey Akaneme, an Onitsha-based publisher and former president, Onitsha Chamber of Commerce, to oversee the affairs of the town. For them, Okoli and his group had abdicated.
Akaneme and his group were sworn–in in interim capacity. They made moves to take over the affairs of the town union. But Okoli had notified government through the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters, Tony-Collins Nwabunwanne.
The commissioner invited the Akaneme group to a meeting in Awka, which they attended alongside the Igwe Ejesieme. The commissioner warned them to steer clear of the town union affairs, saying that government was not keen on any caretaker arrangement. He said the Okoli-led leadership would continue to enjoy its full backing until they complete their tenure in the next one-year.
Attempt made by Akaneme and Igwe Ejesieme to convince the commissioner that they followed due process in selecting the new caretaker committee as enshrined in the town union’s constitution, led to a misunderstanding. Nwabunwanne allegedly asked Akaneme to leave his office in anger. The section states that there should be no vacuum in the leadership of the town union.
Akaneme in a chat with Daily Sun alleged that the commissioner assaulted him before dragging them to the B Division of the Nigeria Police in Awka where they were held for over four hours: “I have written a formal petition to the Secretary to the State Government over the physical assault on me.
“I did not force myself to be appointed as a town union leader. I simply obeyed the request of my people so that our community can move forward.”
The commissioner was also alleged to have threatened to suspend or dethrone the traditional ruler if he went ahead to support Akaneme’s Caretaker Committee.
However, Akaneme convened a general meeting recently. He informed Umuona people about the government position rejecting their caretaker committee. Some of the stakeholders vehemently rejected the commissioner’s directive.
Fidelis Okanume, Personal Assistant to Igwe Ejesieme; Ebuka Okafor, Youth Leader; Chinedu Maduka, Village Chairman; Marcelinus Akaneme and Jerome Umeh, the traditional Prime Minister of Umuona, insisted that it was either the state government allowed Akaneme and his executive to stay for one year and exhaust Okoli’s tenure or it conducted a fresh election of the town union executives:
“We do not want Okoli as our PG again. His walking out on the entire community during the general meeting was a divine arrangement. Okoli was not qualified to contest the election ab-initio. He did not belong to his village branch of the Umuona Progressive Union. He was indebted to the Umuona Progressive Union; another breach of the union constitution.”
Okoli reacted: “The traditional ruler wants to be the Igwe of the community and the head of the town union as well. But such cannot happen. There is clear delineation of powers between the traditional ruler and the town union.
“The Igwe did that with the former president-general, Prof Silas Akaneme (now late). Those of us who kicked against his actions then were seen as enemies. In fact, they treated us as outcasts. They even went as far as stripping us of our chieftaincy titles without any tangible reason.”
Okoli stated that he had funded many community development initiatives. He claimed his popularity led to the defeat suffered by his challengers whom he described as stooges of the traditional ruler.
He noted that since then, the traditional ruler could not stand his guts and that he has allegedly done everything humanly possible to frustrate his town union leadership.
He said he neither resigned his position nor walked away from the town general assembly as posited by the Akaneme group. Instead, he abruptly ended the meeting when he noticed that the Igwe came into the meeting:
“Our traditional ruler is dishing out arbitrary fines to people at will. He failed to realise that this is a democratic era. My leadership is intact. We are moving ahead with our projects and programmes not minding the antics of our traducers. My tenure subsists I’m even entitled to contest for a re-election when my tenure ends in the next one year.”
The commissioner insisted that the government was fully behind the Okoli-led town union of Umuona, indicating that it would not hesitate to wield the big stick against anybody or group instigating crisis in the community. He denied assaulting Akaneme.
He said that it was Akaneme and the traditional ruler that made some uncomplimentary remarks against his office and Governor Soludo. He said he only invited the police to take them up for their actions before they pleaded for mercy. They also wrote an undertaking to be of good behaviour and they were eventually released:
“I have formally invited all the traditional rulers in Aguata LG for a meeting so that they can be fully briefed on the development in Umuona. The Soludo administration is poised to ensure democratic governance at the grassroots and not caretaker and meddlesomeness by some traditional rulers.”
Igwe Ejesieme said he would not want to join issues with either Okoli or the government for now until the right time for him to speak.