If my little history of Ngor Okpala will not fail me, I think the colloquium perspective is the first of its kind in Ngor Okpala, even though we may have held the iri ji festival one or two times in the past. This is not by accident. I strongly believe that God has designed it to set the ball rolling to invigorate change and stimulate dynamism in our socio-economic and political lives. Therefore, it must not terminate at being an exciting academic or intellectual harvest bereft of practical fruits and development impetus. We consider this opportunity a significant one for introspection.
From my humble understanding of events at Ngor Okpala, and considering our political and socio-economic antecedents, there is practically nothing to celebrate. It is not an opportunity for merriment. The serenity of the environment should challenge us to take our destiny in our hands with a sense of humility but with a desperation for change. We have not come to dine and wine, neither are we here for political brickbat. We are not here to trade blames and to pass the bulk. We have gathered to chart a course for the future of Ngor Okpala.
On the 10th day of September, 2012, NGOR OKPALA RENAISANCE LEAGUE provided a forum at the Concorde Hotel Owerri to brainstorm on critical issues concerning the land and our people. It was an exciting and meaningful engagement. In the first place, it is important to inform you that the League is a neutral non political body concerned with providing a non partisan platform for change. After the various presentations, there was a general consensus that the change, which was generally agreed to be inevitable, must extend to socioeconomic and political spheres of our lives for it to be meaningful. It was also the consensus of the attendees that there is an incredible need to mobilise to alter the psyche of our people. The League cannot do this alone and this forum prepares a fertile ground.
Permit me to step up from there. The change must concretely and significantly drive Ngor Okpala to paramount roles in Imo State and at the Federal levels where we must assert our rights and take our possessions on the basis of equality and not sympathy. The traumas of failure and shame of backwardness of Ngor Okpala in our various collective endeavours should not be seen as catastrophes. These should spur in us the desire to overturn the negatives to stepping stones of greatness and accomplishment and we have no doubt that it is possible. When some people outside Ngor Okpala gather, they envy our potentials but lament our gullibility. They deride our inability to convert opportunities to the benefit of all and to the good of our generation. We have no reason whatsoever why we should not lead Imo State, impact upon Nigeria and influence our world.
We recall with joy that Ngor Okpala produced the first speaker of the Eastern Region House of Assembly in the person of late Eze Daniel Okereke. Ngor Okpala produced also the Chief Whip of the Regional House of Assembly in the person of Sir Sampson Onyeso Nwachukwu. These were pre-civil war achievements of this great Local Government Area. Today, Nigeria is littered with private universities of various calibre. But we have forgotten that it was the ingenuity and courage of an Ngor Okpala man in the person of Dr Nnana Ukegbu who bravely established the first private university in Nigeria during the Second Republic against all odds.
The battle that this feat sparked off was fierce and gruesome yet he surmounted it to the end. Except for the myopia of the military that over ran Nigeria’s polity that time, the glory of TEDEM’s existence would have placed Ngor Okpala on the world’s educational map. Be that as it may, we will never forget that great step that has become a turn around in Nigeria’s educational sector. It is not incorrect therefore to assert that Ngor Okpala ought to be the political capital of at least the present Imo State judging from the antecedents highlighted above. Ngor Okpala was already playing key and fundamental political roles when the others were still in their farms and rural markets. The late Chief Chukwubuiko Okereke was trail blazer in what today has become money spinner – home video industry.
We can also boast of highly respected Ngor Okpala sons and daughters in the academia in well-known institutions in Nigeria and abroad. We have a former Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Prof Jude Njoku. Prof Chris Iroegbu then of the University of Nigeria, Prof B. G. Nworgu and Prof B. O. Okere are still at that University. There is also another Prof Okere at the Imo State University and there are many more in the various Institutions in Nigeria. There are many others abroad. We have many other professionals in various callings too numerous for mention. The League had a meeting with journalists from Ngor Okpala and I was very surprised at the number of journalists that came.
One wonders: what is wrong with our people. We are not less educated, we are not less exposed. I think the coarse relationships we have with one another make it imperative for us to have a strong platform of unity that MUST enable us to have a strong and cogent voice in state and national issues as well as on issues affecting the generality of our people. This colloquium is offering preliminary podium to have one solid organisation in Ngor Okpala.
I realise one thing. We don’t sing our heroes. We don’t celebrate our achievers. Important and distinguished indigenes of Ngor Okpala excelling in their various areas of calling hardly mean anything to an average Ngor Okpala man. That may probably account for the embarrassing gap that is existing between our past and the present. That may be why there was no handover of the baton so that the glory will be sustained. Today, Ngor Okpala is not considered for even a kindergarten role in the political equation of Imo State, not to talk of Nigeria. When other areas gather and share political positions and patronages, our people are assigned to any kingpin from another area to be given the crumbs that manage to fall from the table. I am aware that in political alignments all parties are equal and those who cannot get lion shares in the first turn know that their own are by the corner. That is not the position with Ngor Okpala.
The painful thing about this misfortune is that the few who grab such crumbs are prepared to kill their brothers or sell Ngor Okpala just to remain subservient, but they dare not open their mouths to demand a thing as of right for the generality of Ngor Okpala. We are prepared to die for councillorship, chairmanship and house of assembly slots as if there are no other positions in the world to contest or occupy. They cannot insist on equality outside Ngor Okpala. It is further painful that any person from Ngor Okpala who manages to receive a pat at the back from outside is strongly vilified and roundly condemned. Our people will make themselves the person’s first and deadliest enemy. These are the scourge upon the land that has reduced us to political slaves in Imo State and mortgaged our future in Nigeria and in the world at large. We will no longer go to political war with our 4th eleven.
Distinguished audience, the consequences are disastrous and devastating. May I quote our brother, F. C. Amakor Esq. who said in an article titled Alienation of Land as a Development Strategy in Ngor Okpala “Development in economic parlance is economic growth plus change in the quality of life of the citizenry. It is increase in the gross national product plus change in the standard of living, and increase in human capacity of the citizens. It has other non- economic index like increase in literacy rates, increase in the role of women in socio-economic activities and sustainable environment”. He adds= “In modern times, the best form of economic management is to empower the people to manage their resources and the primary function of a leader is to protect the resources of his people – human, material, environment, ecosystem and cultural property.
Ndi Ngor Okpala, if we use this gauge anchored on sound principles and international best practices, to assess our area, we will make a pitiable result. These, our neighbours in the Owerri zone and indeed in Imo State know very well and which they assure themselves that however they use Ndi Ngor Okpala, the heavens will not fall. That is why Ngor Okpala has not produced a Governor and no person is considering such slot for Ngor Okpala. That is why Ngor Okpala has not produced a Deputy Governor of Imo State and it is taken that it does not matter. It is for the same reason that Ngor Okpala has not produced a Senator and no one has raised an eye-brow about it. In this table of woes includes the fact that a whole Ngor Okpala has not produced a judge of the High Court of Imo State and we feel so unconcerned.
Our participation at the Federal level is disheartening. Ngor Okpala has not produced a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. We have not produced a judge of the Federal High Court, a justice of the Court of Appeal, not to talk of a justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria or the Chief Justice of Nigeria. We have not headed any Federal Ministry as Permanent Secretary. No Ngor Okpala man has had the privilege of chairing a Department of any Federal Agency. However, thank God for our own Dr. Sam Amadi, the Chairman of the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission. We were in Capetown, South Africa together in April, 2013 for the Commonwealth Law Conference, and I was happy when he chaired one of the sessions there.
Similarly, we have not produced an ambassador or any staff of foreign missions. We do not have a Commissioner of Police or an Assistant Inspector- General of Police and so the hope of producing an Inspector-General of Police in the nearest future is far-fetched. The position in the Army is not different. We are yet to produce a General in the Army or similar positions in the Air Force and in the Navy. We doubt if there is any hope in the nearest future. The situation is not much different in Industry, Mines and Power as well as in Agriculture. In each of these sectors, where are we?
Ngor Okpala is abundantly blessed with table land but we lack the knowledge that this is an economic resource. It is common to hear our people beckoning on land grabbers to come and take land and develop them. What an insult? The wisdom is whoever is bringing an industrial project should be assured that our land when properly evaluated should be landowners’ share capital in the project which will make us part owners. This leads us to the associated intrigues of citing of the permanent of Imo State University. We will leave this to crystallize from our discussion.
Ladies and gentlemen, enough is enough. We must arise to the challenge of the hour. We are all Christians and so we believe that it is not out of the way to refer to the scriptures. Apostle Paul asked the question in his epistle, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound, and he added, God forbid. We must arise to place our demand on the political table of Imo State and indeed in Nigeria. We are entitled to insist that we must produce the next governor, we are entitled to insist that we must produce the next senator for the zone, we are entitled to insist that we deserve ministerial or ambassadorial appointment. We can take a decision as to what to do with the land that God has blessed us with. We on our own can attract agro based industries. There is no cassava processing industry in the south east and presently cassava is an export commodity and a raw material for over twenty products in the world. We can attract the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture and before you know it unemployment and poverty will not be ravaging our communities. These sound Utopian, but we know that with God all things are possible. We know of somebody who has become a governor without a good house in his state capital or a mansion in his village. Determination saw him through. An average Ngor Okpala man does not believe he can go far in life and that cannot be true, the time for change is NOW and the how is the sole agenda for this meeting.
NGOZI OLEHI ESQ
Chairman, Ngor Okpala Renaissance League
