• Says there’s total erosion of leadership in Southeast
From Magnus Eze, Enugu
Chief Omenazu Jackson is a proud Igbo man from Rivers State. He has participated actively in Ohanaeze Ndigbo activities for over 15 years and presently chairs its Elders Council for Rivers/Bayelsa states.
The vocal community leader has expressed interest to become the President General of the apex Igbo organisation at the upcoming January 10, 2025, elections.
Regardless, he has his fears following developments in the ethnic socio-cultural organisation, which he clearly stated in this interview. Excerpts:
All organs of Ohanaeze Ndigbo have settled that the next President General of the organisation should come from Rivers State in line with its constitution. Having expressed interest, why do you want to be the President General?
Yes, I want to be President General having been in Ohanaeze for the past 15-20 years and I have been able to observe where there are lapses. I have been able to know that many Igbo no longer have confidence in Ohanaeze due to the gap between the elite and the downtrodden who are the main owners of Ohanaeze. So, I feel that there is urgent need to close that gap to restore the confidence of the people in the Ohanaeze. Ohanaeze is an umbrella body that’s supposed to shield the entire Igbo nation from socio-economic wise. So, I put myself forward to close that gap. We want to see the real ‘onyeagala nwanneya’ mantra in Ohanaeze. We want to go back to the concept of the original founding fathers of Ohanaeze, that is, ‘be your brother’s keeper’ at all times. We want to take back Ohanaeze to the people who own Ohanaeze, not we who are members of Ime-Obi or General Assembly that own Ohanaeze because when you look at it critically, members of Ime-Obi and the members of the General Assembly are less than 600. But we are talking about the lives or fate of over 80 million souls who our actions and inactions will affect tomorrow and now. So, there is need to bring everyone on board, there is need for us to run a holistic Ohanaeze, not a segregating Ohanaeze which has been on for the past 15 years.
How do you intend to go about this reintegration or re-involvement?
First is to ensure that every community in Igbo land has a coordinator of Ohanaeze Ndigbo for on-the-spot information and assessment of activities going on in that community. Secondly, is the economic well-being of Ndigbo. There is need for an Ohanaeze industrial estate where you can go out there, talk to the elite, talk to the industrialists, talk to the billionaires, talk to the millionaires, let there be investment in Igbo land so that we can take these our young energies into productive activities. Once they are meaningfully engaged, their loyalty to Ohanaeze is guaranteed. We need to rejig economic activities in Igboland to incorporate these idle hands. Surprisingly, you can see that today, we have young men who can be described as ‘unknown gunmen;’ very shameful as that. I believe that if these young men are gainfully employed, they will drop criminality and be useful to the society. So, we need to engage them in meaningful activities. In addition, I have on my agenda plans for us to have a database in order for us to plan, we need to know how many of our children that are out of school and make plans to get them back to school. We need to have data of births and deaths of entire Igbo nation. We need to have the data of children leaving primary school to secondary school, those leaving secondary school to university, those who are graduating. If you don’t have this data, you cannot plan. So, we need to gather all those data and the data too will help us in planning for their future because it is only when you are properly informed that you can plan. So, that is why I said we must have Ohanaeze register in every community with a coordinator that will be supported financially. We need to go back to the basis of ‘onyeagala nwanneya.’
You mentioned issues of economic development in Igboland and unknown gunmen. What do you think should be done to arrest insecurity in the Southeast?
The political class in the Southeast should provide leadership. There is complete erosion of leadership in Southeast; I say this without sounding immodest, we need people that can have the touch of progress. We need men and women who are humane in their actions, we need men and women who are highly emotionally intelligent. A society where deviants are role models, that society is doomed, we need to re-channel our behaviour; we the elite, to show these young men and women who are into crime that it does not help, look at the roadmap because what most of the young people are doing today, they did not learn it from the forest. They saw some of the elders participating in it, they saw some of those who are role models, participating in it. They saw people and read history who has betrayed Igboland by their actions in the past and they feel that it is a good way of life. So, we must begin to show complete moral beginning, we need to redirect these young men to know that crime doesn’t pay and you don’t do it by mere say, you must do it by action, by our conduct and our behaviour. We must make sure that these young men and women turn away from their evil.
In what seemed like an orchestrated campaign; some people from Rivers State recently declared publicly that they were not Igbo, though people like you have maintained their Igboness. What’s actually is the situation now?
Well, I can say that such message is neither here nor there. The question of some Igbo in Rivers State is not misplaced. For sure, you have Ndigbo in Oyigbo, in Ikwere, Etche, Omuma, Ahoada and so on. Our names, our conduct, the way we live, the way our women tie wrapper, the way we stake our yams, our farming season, our food type and so on are not different from our brothers from the Southeast Igbo. These are just political balkanisation of an ethnic group and some of us will not buy into it. I am an adult, 58 years old. In the next two years, I will be 60. So, I am in a position to define my identity. Most of us from Ikwere, Oyigbo, Ndoki and Omuma, Etche, our names are Igbo names. We did not manufacture it. It was our parents that gave them to us. You don’t teach an Ikwere child Igbo language. He hears it naturally. So, that thing that is part of your inheritance is part of your history.
Are there still issues regarding the constitutional provision that Rivers State will produce the next President General of Ohanaeze?
One will say it is good; it shows brotherhood that from the constitutional provision of Ohanaeze Ndigbo that says President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo will rotate alphabetically among the seven states. And now it is the turn of Rivers and our brothers have said Rivers State should produce the President General. That’s fine and good, but the processes should be diligently followed. We in Rivers State know the ordinances of Ohanaeze and we wouldn’t want anyone to give us a poisoned horse to embark on a journey knowing that we will not arrive. So, we would want the processes to be transparent and in accordance with the Ohanaeze ordinances. I just attended a meeting yesterday; several issues came up there and they are not in conformity with the Ohanaeze constitution. So, if eventually we arrive at the presidency and our presidency cannot pass diligent legal scrutiny and midway we are knocked out, then you did not give us anything. You did not cede anything to us. Let me give you a typical example. It was decided in the Ime-Obi/General Assembly meeting yesterday that the NEC will constitute the electoral committee. And that is at variance with the Ohanaeze constitution. The power to constitute electoral committee resides squarely on Ime-Obi which is like the Senate of Ohanaeze. So, if we allow NEC to constitute electoral committee which is not in accordance with the constitution of Ohanaeze and someone who is against us from anywhere picks it up and tests it in law court because Ohanaeze is a legal entity, and knocks us off, who do we blame. Our silence in that angle is to our own disadvantage. That’s why some of us who know have raised red flags and said no. This is not right. Let the people, the organ of Ohanaeze that has the statutory responsibility to carry out that duty play its role. There should be no manipulation. There should not be cutting of corners because we are dealing with ourselves. This is like a family meeting. It is a brotherly relationship; we should be honest and transparent among ourselves. That has been our bane in Igboland. We are of the same blood, so when you are gambling, your brother knows you are gambling. So, he should be able to call you to order. The Ime-Obi meeting and the General Assembly meeting are not even supposed to be held together. I have not heard about it since I came into Ohanaeze. These are separate organs of Ohanaeze that control the activities of NEC. If you follow Ohanaeze organogram, NEC is just an implementing organ. Decision-making of Ohanaeze flows from the General Assembly to Ime-Obi and they have the final say. And whatever they decide, NEC implements. Of recent, we are seeing that decision making now flows from NEC to General Assembly, to Ime-Obi. That is at variance to Ohanaeze constitution and ordinances. So, we must do this right.
If you become the President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo from Rivers State or any other person from Rivers State, will this nonchalance from the Igbo-speaking part of the state stop? What will you do to get Igbo in Rivers to participate actively in Ohanaeze because we’ve not really been seeing them active?
This is an erroneous impression about the participation of the Rivers people in Ohanaeze. Our forefathers were there; the Obi Walis, Agumas, Senator Ellahs, Amadi Isiokpo, were there. They were participating actively. We followed their footsteps. There is no low participation of Igbo people in Rivers in Ohanaeze. Part of the problem is that Ohanaeze has operated for over two years without deputy president-general from Rivers State and nobody cared to raise the issue and when you raise the issue, some people take it as if it doesn’t matter. So, people at home get these fillers and they will feel how will our brothers treat us like this? If they can treat us like this, even those of us who have decided to be part of them, then why should we be interested. Let me equally remind you. How can you say that anybody said that participation from Rivers State is low, as at today our brother, an Igbo man from this part of the country, Abia State, is a member of the state executive council in Rivers State. Is it not an encouragement? Is it not participation? Did Rotimi Amaechi not make an Igbo man a commissioner in his tenure? Did Nyesom Wike not give an Igbo man a commissioner in his tenure? Is that not participation? How many core Southeast governors have ever given any Rivers person Special Adviser in their states? We should be honest to ourselves and juxtapose it among ourselves and know where the truth is coming from. These are part of participation. I know today in Rivers State, the current Commissioner for Special Duties is an Igbo man, I know his activities. He has been mobilising Igbo and putting things together. This is participation. The Igbo had Iri ji Ndigbo in Rivers State and I can tell you, I was there, there were more than 4,000 persons including Rivers indigenes, there. We are participating in full. We went to Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu’s burial. We took Coaster buses. The thing is that there is this agenda of some few people to bring down the participatory level of Rivers State Ohanaeze in order to shove us aside or put us in the backbench and some of us say no. We have been providing the necessary support. Like I said, for you to bring in an Igbo son from another state into a state executive council of a state, what level of confidence do you repose in such people? It is an act of love and brotherhood which I would recommend that state governments from the Southeast should emulate. We want to begin to see Special Advisers, Commissioners from Rivers State in other states where they are resident. That is part of the integration that we are talking about. Even if they are not resident there, we should begin to integrate ourselves. Tell me the joy that an Ikwere man is a Commissioner in Anambra State or in Enugu State or in Abia State. While going there to work, his people will ask him how did you become a commissioner and he will say it is because he is an Igbo man. That is integration process; the ‘onye aghala nwanne ya’ mantra in action.