The Chairman Council of Elders of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu on Monday said that he accepted to be the President General of Ohaneze Ndigbo Worldwide due to unbearable pressure from Ndigbo both in Nigeria and in Diaspora.
The Elder Statesman disclosed this when he received members of Federation of International Women Lawyers FIDA Imo State branch who paid him both solidarity cum courtesy visit in his Glass House Office, Owerri for accepting the clarion call by Ndigbo to take over the President General of Ohaneze Ndigbo Worldwide.
He said: “when the issue was mentioned to him, he and his family objected to it based on certain principles”.
He said that but when the pressure became unbearable from Ndigbo in Nigeria and in the diaspora insisting that Ndigbo needed him more this time around because of their precarious situation in the socio-economic- political development in the present day Nigeria, he accepted the call.
He however promised to give Ohanaeze Ndigbo a face that will be the pride of Ndigbo.
Chief Iwuanyanwu charged the Association to ensure they continue to instill some acceptable moral and social behaviour in the society.
He advised the leadership of the Association to map out action Programmes so that people will know how to participate in assisting them.
The Ahaejiagamba Ndigbo appealed to well-meaning Nigerian society members to use their wealth to assist in such humanitarian services as FIDA is doing.
He enjoined the Association not to relent in their good works to the society.
He identified foreign exchange policy as the problem of the country as well the failure to tackle the reactivation of the nation’s refineries and building new ones.
He recalled that as Chairman Raw Materials and Research and Development Council , they presented a memo to the Federal government to build Refineries in all the States of the Federation then and the memo was approved by the Babangida administration.
He wondered why the proposal was abandoned pointing out that if the proposal had been implemented, the nation’s economic growth would have been very high and stable.
He lamented that the cabals who deal on the sale of Oil would not want such a Programme to succeed.
In her speech, the Imo State President of FIDA, Barr Mrs Adaure Azuama-Nwosu said the choice of Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu as President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide is a well deserved one and congratulated him for accepting the clarion call of his people – Ndigbo.
Mrs Azuama-Nwosu desclosed the intention of FIDA to partner with him adding that nobody can say anything about Ndigbo without somebody like him and that is why they are very happy with his choice as the voice of Igbo nation.
She appealed to Chief Iwuanyanwu who is their Patron for assistance maintaining that Imo FIDA has been lagging behind whenever it comes to National issues as a result of lack of assistance from various quarters.
She said that when they go for national Programmes, other State Governments sponsor their own people but Imo delegates do not have such opportunities.
The FIDA President appealed to the Governor for a Bus to enable them carry out their activities in the State ponting out that they receive so many Cases bothering on rape, child abuse, domestic violence etc but they do not have the facilities to execute the tasks.
Mrs Adaure Azuama-Nwosu also mentioned that in other States, their members are appointed to the Bench, given various appointments and included in the pilgrimages but it is not like that in Imo State.
She appealed for Chief Iwuanyanwu’s intervention and support as well as from the Governor.
Also speaking, a member of the delegation Ugoeze Lizzy Ajoku informed Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu that FIDA Budgets submitted to the Government had since been approved but they do not know why the release and implementation have not seen the light of the day.
She lamented that FIDA is being oppressed in Imo State adding that FIDA handle so many Pro-Bono cases in the State but due to lack of assistance, they cannot do anything.
