Ohaneze Has Achieved Much In Lagos

Chief Louis Sunny Okafor is the Publicity Secretary of Ohaneze Ndigbo in Lagos State. In this interview, the media consultant speaks on the achievements of Ohaneze Ndigbo Lagos in the past two years, the vision and relationship between the Ndigbo and Lagos State Government as well as other ethnic groups.

What does Ohaneze Ndigbo in Lagos State stand for?

It stands for the unity of Ndigbo in Lagos, it articulates the intention, the good will and anything that is good about the Ndigbo. It focuses on their total needs. Ohaneze Ndigbo Lagos is the mouth piece of Ndigbo as far as it concerns Ndigbo and other ethnic nationalities in Lagos State.

By November this year, the current leadership of Ohaneze in Lagos will be two years, what are your achievements so far?

The Ohaneze Ndigbo Lagos has done a lot of work. You can still remember that when the present leadership took over from the last regime, Ohaneze was in comatose, But under the current leadership of Sir Oliver Akubueze, Ohaneze has actually re-bounced. As I’m talking, if you come to where we hold our general meeting every month, you will see that the whole Ndigbo in Lagos attend. Meanwhile, we have succeeded in opening up Ohaneze in all the local government areas of the state. That did not exist before now. In virtually all the corners of the state today, we have Ohaneze. In fact, the present executive has succeeded in bringing together all other Igbo associations in Lagos under the umbrella of Ohaneze as the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation in Lagos.

It has never been like that before and I don’t think there is any other achievement that is better than that. As I am talking to you, we have organised two consecutive Igbo day in Lagos State.

We have also spoken to the Lagos State government. We said, in as much as you are performing, you should also look at those that are involved in making this government work and Ndigbo is part of them. We are talking with the government and they are listening to us.

From what you’ve said, you seem to have achieved so much in two years. How were you able to do the magic?

The magic was done by the EXCO. We have an executive that has the intellectuals, that has listening ears, and an executive that works together. We have never had any problem during our meetings. There is so much love among the executive members. I want to tell you that it’s been wonderful. The executive we have in Ohaneze Ndigbo Lagos today is a wonderful one; that is the magic.

Ndigbo in Lagos seems not to be comfortable with their political roles in the state, what is the problem?

One of the things we’ve been trying to let Lagos State government know and any other government that will come after this regime is that the Ndigbo has such a large percentage of population in Lagos, up to 45 percent and thus we have already more than three generations of Ndigbo in Lagos since after the civil war. We have children who no longer know where they came from; they will tell you that they are Lagosians, we have those who don’t know who their forefathers were. So we are saying that for the fact that this population and one man one vote count, Ndigbo should be given a good role. The role that we are talking about is not that somebody will just say you take councillorship, take this.

It should not be a case of robbing people in primaries and handpicking those you want. We foresee a situation where what is happening in Jos will happen in Lagos state, we don’t want a situation where our children will begin to say, where do you want me to go to if you don’t want me to stay in Lagos, that is what we are saying.

How would you rate the performance of Ohaneze national body under the leadership of Ambassador Ralph Uwaechue?

He is a wonderful Ohaneze leader. I want to tell you that I don’t think we’ve had such a wonderful man in that position before. I’m not trying to say that others that have been there were not good or didn’t do much, but this is a man who took the risk of taking Ndigbo to make a statement and you can now see what that statement has become. For the first time, he summoned courage and Igbo man had to take courage to say this is where I stand and I must tell you, he has not stopped at that, he has succeeded in making sure that we are no longer intimidated unnecessarily. That is Ralph Uwaechue for you. He has actually proved to Ndigbo that he is not a saboteur but a true brother in need and we are all comfortable. Ohaneze Lagos is comfortable with what he is doing.

Many ethnic nationalities in Lagos including Ndigbo are not happy with the way some law enforcement agencies carry out their functions, what is your position on that?

You’ve drawn my attention to this particular issue. In the past, we have this LASTMA issue and what have you. Some of the things they do are what I will call negative application of legal principles. A situation where you have made a law and that law is selective on who to punish or penalise is not right.

What is the way out?

The way out is that LASTMA should be disbanded. They should go back to what it used to be. They are just out there to cause confusion but we are saying no to their functions. They could be restrained, to be useful to Lagosians. They are terrible people on the road, people don’t drive gain because of LASTMA. I know of a situation where a pregnant woman was pressed and she parked her car in order to urinate, the LASTMA people were in front of her and she was begging them, saying can’t you see my position, a girl of not up to 25 years with her first pregnancy, they towed the lady’s car with their vehicle; that’s not the way Lagos used to be.

Apart from LASTMA, do you have any grudge with other security agencies, like the police?

The only problem we have is LASTMA. The issue of police is national.

What about the road safety corps?

At times, if you are going to the east, for example if you get to Onitsha, you will discover that they may stop you and ask some questions. I can tell you that their performance is still above average.

How would you compare Ohaneze Lagos today with that under Sir Nzewi.?

I have said that Sir Ezewi’s regime was riddled by infractions. While he was in charge, there were factions that were claiming to be the original Ohaneze Ndigbo Lagos. But Nzewi succeeded in transforming Ohaneze to a new dispensation by actually conducting a free and fair election that handed over to this executive.

The only thing we can say that they really did was conducting a good election that brought in this particular executive.

Would you now attribute this transformation to the making of Sir Nzewi the grand patron of Ohaneze Lagos?

That issue of grand patron given to him actually came up during our general assembly meeting. It was while people were giving their opinions on what should be the position of this executive’s president or chairman that people opined that he should be called grand patron. Eventually, it was through majority decision or general consensus that he was given grand patron. So that was the reason why the grand patron position was given to him.

What would you say is the relationship between Ndigbo in Lagos and other ethnic nationalities?

The fact that we’ve not heard that Ndigbo Lagos is fighting with Yoruba or Hausa people has been wonderful. I want to attribute it to the accommodating attitude of the Yoruba people in accepting everybody. I want to tell you that the average Yoruba man on the street is a wonderful person; he does not discriminate. The problem we have with the Yoruba is the elite. Yoruba people are accommodating and very good. But the elite, because of their selfish and political interest, will shy away from being accommodating. But other Yoruba people are okay, they want everybody to develop this place.

Many Ndigbo in Lagos are traders, but the current government of Lagos State, seem not to be favourably disposed to Igbo traders?

There are people who were born with a silver spoon in their mouth, I think this governor is one of them, I don’t think this governor sees anything good in our traders, I think he is one of those that once they look at our trader, they say he is a bush man, he should be thrown away. I don’t see the reason why he should not encourage those who are not into crime. Part of what is happening in Lagos today is that most of the traders have been driven away from their places of business where you say you are making a mega city. How can a mega city be made without people and you are not building satellite towns and centres where these people will move to and if you look at the way they are demolishing shops, it’s like somebody does not even know that this is still one Nigeria, where all of us are the same, you should care about what happens to the next person.

What advice do you have for Ndigbo in Lagos in terms of obeying the law of the state?

I want to tell you that part of what Ohaneze is doing currently, is trying to actually let the people know what is their fundamental human rights and what is the right of the government. So we’ve been able to tell our people that the first thing you’ll have to do as a good citizen of this state is to pay your tax.

Ndigbo in Lagos just celebrated this year’s Igbo Day?

It was wonderful. I want to tell you that like as I said from the beginning that part of the achievement this particular Ohaneze Ndigbo has made in Lagos State was a wonderful Igbo Day in Lagos State. Ordinarily, because in the past, it is Ohaneze that was actually bankrolling and organising it. Ohaneze Ndigbo Lagos should have taken over all activities in that place but we said no, we are enough to allow other Igbo associations like Aka Ikenga to join in the organising committee. Eventually, if you were at that event, you would have seen that it was a success for Ndigbo.

What is your advice to both Ndigbo at home and in the diaspora?

My general advice to Ndigbo at home is that we should stop shouting for nothing, we should stop shouting that we are doing this or that in the political events in Nigeria. I am one of those who advocates that if you want to take part in a system, you should be part of that system. I am advising our people to get involved in political formations. Once we get involved in political formation we will also be involved in transforming that particular system so that at the end of the day we will eventually emerge as those who are making that position or that party work.

What is your take on Ore-Benin Road as the major road linking the South East and South West, particularly as we approach the Yuletide?

I would be very frank with you, that particular road is a shame to the government of former President Obasanjo. It is still part of the albatross that Obasanjo is hanging on his neck because we knew he actually voted for the road to be fixed. Is it not a shame that the only link road between the west and the east is in such a deplorable condition? I want to tell you that if you go there right now. Work is going on day and night. I am telling you that this road will not be like that come December. The government is on ground. You should know that Ohaneze has a say in the Presidency today. So I believe that before December this particular road will be good.