Below is the concluding part of “Vision for Ohanaeze and Igbo” as enunciated in the “The Ohanaeze Road Map” authored by the Ohanaeze Transition and Caretaker Committee on April 29, 2006 could not be overemphasized. The excerpts:
Igbo Politics Igbo Politics must change. It has become well known nation-wide for factionalization and extra-zonal sponsorship. Everybody, no matter how eminent is in the game for private gain. Even the electorate expects to be paid for its votes. It is time for our elders and civil society leaders to realize that while they rest on the sidelines afraid of taking the risks involved in leadership, some irresponsible ruffians jumped in to fill the gap. Recent events have, however, shown that it is only when politics is based upon community programmes and values, when the electorate gives its mandate freely to trusted leaders to carry out agreed development programmes that democratic processes become transparent and governance itself becomes responsible.
The presiding role of Afenifere in the South West and the ACF in the North is instructive. We need once again to take communal control of our politics, to empower our cultural institutions, to re-invent Ohanaeze as a council of trusted elders. From now on, we must trust in our own internal strength to keep our politics and politicians in line.
The true leaders of the people have a duty to make sure that those whom we choose to contest for political offices are men and women of tested character, persons who are worthy of our trust because they had been leaders in lower ranks of civil society and were not corrupted by the power they exercised. Probity in the new politics will depend upon the right things being done by both the electorate and by the elected. The two things go hand in hand. Moreover, Ndigbo must learn to stand together in politics. We have served Nigeria for 45 years as supporters, deputies, cheer leaders and the henchmen of Presidents chosen by other zones. In the 1st and 2nd Republics, we seconded the North in its exercise of exclusive power. During the military era, we were lieutenants of supreme commanders from other zones. Since 1999, we have been bag carriers for a president from South West in a party which we did so much as to create. We cannot go like this indefinitely.
The restructuring of the politics will create firm ground upon which improvements in the community, in educational standards, public security, health services, public sanitation etc will be based.
The Economy of Igboland Ohanaeze calls upon Ndigbo leaders in Nigeria and the diaspora to note that the re-building of the economy of Igboland is the major challenge facing us. Every Igbo entrepreneur is of course free to go wherever he finds economic opportunities. But the massive emigration of people out of Igboland creates problems. Gradually there is a depletion of men, resources and purchasing power. Investments begin to fail and new jobs are not created. The state governments of the South East, the chambers of commerce and industries and private entrepreneurs have a duty to begin a planned re-capitalization of the economy of the South East. The effort cannot be made easily by single investors acting on their own initiative. To revive the coal industry, for example investment has to be made in railway construction to link the mines to the Port-Harcourt port, in port facilities in Port Harcourt and in secondary chemical industries in Enugu. Even the states lack resources to be able to act one by one. It is for this reason that all the States in the region should cooperate to create an Economic Commission of the South East to pull resources to exploit opportunities in coal, petroleum and gas, palm produce, ICT, eco-tourism, manufacturing, infrastructure, Education, health and the film industry, these are local matters in which an over-centralized Nigerian government does not have the capacity to give attention. The reversal of the population flow can only begin after the change in economic conditions.
Education for the Future Ndigbo want a modern education for all our children. In the 1940s and 1950s, we created for ourselves, through self-help efforts, the best community educational system in black Africa. The schools and colleges which we built in those days enabled us to catch up with other people who started the process of modernization a century before us. Those institutions were also the base of the prosperity we enjoyed at the time of independence. But things have changed rapidly in the last 30 years. While our schools have deteriorated, education worldwide has moved forward in standards and conception. Today only a handful of fee-paying schools can provide the mathematics, science and technology instruction, ICT education needed in the 21st century. We must start afresh in conceptualization, in funding, in staff training, in the equipment of libraries, laboratories and recreational facilities. We need to re-energize the inspectorate and the competitive spirit in our educational system, and create a new road map for the future. Our governments must recognize the obvious difference between funding of education and management of it. We must therefore begin the process of creating a new institutional framework for the management of education in Igbo land. The proposal to set up a South East Economic commission would be relevant in the mobilization and sustenance of this initiative.
Igbo Language and Culture: Article 2 (ii) of the Ohanaeze Constitution asks us to do a duty which should also be a pleasure. It asks us, that is, to promote our language and culture. This objective is in accordance with the Nigerian Constitution. It is not sufficient in this regard to use the Igbo Language at all times and to accord respect to our customs and values. There is need to promote the language through scholarly study of its linguistic history, structure, resources and dialectal varieties. The reports of various technical committees set up to study these and other matters have been ready for many years. Action is now overdue to endow institutes of Igbo studies in the Universities of the South East to host regular international conferences on Igbo Studies, and to sponsor prestigious prizes for the promotion of Igbo literature, language studies, films, history and ethnology.
Within the coming years, we will re-make Ohanaeze Ndigbo as the coordinating council of our civil society organizations and the conscience of the people. In that position, Ohanaeze will be the foundation upon which a disciplined modern industrial democracy will rise in Igboland. It is now realized world-wide that governments do not perform optimally until civil society is conscious, vigilant and mobilized to take them to task. In Europe and the United States, new structures are being set up to make civil society the partners of governments. This concept of partnership has always been a part of Igbo political traditions. The prosperous and peaceful homeland we want can be built, not only in Igboland but throughout Nigeria, if only our communities would stand shoulder to shoulder with our governments to lay the foundations and raise the structure.
Town Development Unions: It should be clear that in accordance with Article 5 of the Ohanaeze Constitution, Igbo Community Development Unions will henceforth be the grassroots organs of Ohanaeze Ndigbo. State Governments and Local Government Councils should therefore enact legislation to empower them appropriately and to give them the resources to carry out their enhanced duties. The need to recreate our town unions as veritable instruments for sustainable growth and development is long overdue.