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• Igbo youths pass confidence vote in Iwuanyanwu
From Magnus Eze, Enugu and Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri
The Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide has disclosed its plans to host a well-attended summit for Igbo Traders’ Associations in Nigeria and some parts of Africa.
Daily Sun gathered that part of the aims of the summit slated for January next year is to get their buy-in into the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation’s proposed construction of an international in the region.
President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, stated this in a progress report he presented at a meeting with selected leaders of Ohanaeze Ndigbo in the 19 northern states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in Abuja.
He explained that the project is in line with the current Akuruo-Ulo (think-home) mantra whereby the Igbo world over are encouraged to invest at home.
According to him, on completion of the project, all the Igbo traders will be expected to own a market store in Igboland.
“This will create job opportunities, enhance goods and services and ultimately increase Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the country,” he said.
Iwuanyanwu also informed the meeting about the global restructuring of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, explaining that the group has been restructured into three zones for Nigeria and six zones for the Diaspora chapters. With the new structure, the 19 states and Abuja will have their headquarters in Abuja; the South West, with the headquarters in Lagos; and the East with the headquarters at Enugu.
He added that the Ohanaeze Diaspora structure has the continent of Europe with the headquarters in London; others include North America and Canada with headquarters in Washington, DC; South America and the Caribbean with headquarters in Brazil; Asia with headquarters in China; continent of Africa with headquarters in South Africa; continent of Australia and New Zealand and all the surrounding Islands with headquarters in Australia.
Daily Sun learnt that members lauded the robust initiatives so far taken by the Iwuanyanwu, since his assumption of office as President General.
They noted his efforts in the areas of peace building, transportation, railway, seaport, international airport and other areas of Igbo strategic interests.
For them, with Iwuanyanwu’s vision, intellect and invaluable diverse contacts, the Igbo will recover a lot of lost grounds.
Meanwhile, the Coalition of South East Youth Leaders (COSEYL), the apex sociopolitical youth group in the zone has commended, Chief Iwuanyanwu for decentralising the office of the group.
The youth groups, in a statement by President General, Goodluck Ibem, extolled the sterling qualities of the elder statesman.
“Ndigbo has seen the light through the personal sacrifices and unprecedented leadership strides of Iwuanyanwu whose sterling straits and intellectual capacity in handling the holistic affairs of Ndigbo is matchless.
“The present decentralisation of offices and delegation of authority and responsibility of Ohanaeze leadership into zones, both locally and internationally, for easy administration and duty, is a welcome development.
“Chief Iwuanyanwu has just shown that he came prepared for the tasking responsibility of Ndigbo. The few months of Chief Iwuanyanwu’s unprecedented performance as President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide has been very inspiring, fulfilling and result oriented in all aspects.
“He has filled the political and socio-cultural lacuna that was created in the past which has placed Ndigbo in her rightful place in Nigeria.
“We now speak with one voice as a people because a master who understands and knows his onion is in charge of the affairs of his people. Truly Ndigbo are very grateful that a man of his standing accepted to lead them to the Promised Land.”
