ALAIGBO DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION AND BUILDING IGBO CONSCIOUSNESS

Source: thewillnigeria.com

Like Chinua Achebe pointed out in most of his writings, “… a man who does not know where the rain began to beat him cannot say where he dried his body.” Studies on the brain behind the giant technological, cultural, political, economic and industrial advancements of countries like Japan, China and the United States of America have shown that they actually traced where the rain began to beat them before they dried their bodies. Whatever they have become today is a result of this national consciousness.

The birth of Alaigbo Development Foundation (ADF), following the International Colloquium on the Igbo Question in Nigeria in 2014, is an effort to rebuild and develop the Igbo nation, and the rebirth and advancement of the spirit of her culture and civilization. This initiative was informed by the instability and crises-ridden nature of the Nigerian federation as well as the perennial and enormous challenges facing Ndigbo both in Nigeria and globally. It is a glaring fact that the absence of internal cohesion and national focus within Igbo land as well as the extreme physical and political vulnerability of her citizens made the International Colloquium inevitable.

The crème de la crème of Ndigbo from across the world, during the colloquium, deliberated on matters of overcoming their predicaments which will enable them to live a life of dignity and self-confidence, co-exist peacefully with their neighbours, protect their lives as well as their collective and individual interests, apply their God-given talents and endowment for the betterment of themselves and the entire human race, do honour to the spirit of their ancestors and serve their God without let or hindrance.

The current situation of Ndigbo in the Nigerian polity in particular calls for serious introspection considering the acute marginal position they occupy within it, and given the doggedness with which Ndigbo have sacrificed so much to help build Nigeria as a home for all without discrimination.

The relentlessness of the Igbo spirit is manifest very eloquently in history. In this regard, the life and works of Olaudah Equiano, the Igbo ex-slave and celebrated abolitionist in 18thcentury Britain; the life and struggles of King Jaja of Opobo Kingdom in the Niger Delta; the 1929 Oloko Women's Tax Resistance that rapidly spread beyond Igboland to their neighbours in Ibibio land, Efik land and Ijaw land, easily come to mind. They are proofs of the unquenchable thirst for freedom that has remained a hallmark of Ndigbo.

The egalitarian nature of Ndigbo is also manifested in the struggle for independence across Africa. The radical nationalism of the disciples of Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe – the Zikist – easily come to mind here. Covertly, however, the colonial masters turned this collective victory against the Igbo race by manipulating the political development of Nigeria in ensuring that the Igbo race is supplanted at every level. This audacity in the struggle for independence informed the deliberate exclusion of Ndigbo from effective participation in the government of the Nigerian federation and also a conspiracy to antagonize them with their neighbours in the Nigerian federation, resulting in a series of massacre and brutal repression, including the pogroms and genocidal wars of 1967 – 1970 and the years after. One is not also oblivious that Ndigbo were initially the fundamental targets of the dreaded Boko Haram sect. The casualties have all been displaced with government deliberately feigning ignorance of their plight.

It is proven beyond doubts that the under-development in Igbo land since the Nigerian Civil War, following the grounding of every human and economic activity in the worn-torn South-East, as well as the neglect and punitive federal government's policies were targeted at further impoverishing the Igbo race. This observation is still on many years since the war ended. Indeed, if Ndigbo were left to control their natural resources and social space after the civil war, the story today would have been different. Ndigbo would have been able to build on the foundations laid by the Azikiwe-Okpara regimes in the areas of infrastructure, agriculture, industry and commerce, education and manpower development, cooperatives and culture. Unemployment and crimes that go with it, such as kidnapping, armed robbery, and swindling would have been reduced to the barest minimum, if not totally.

It is against this backdrop that participants at the International Colloquium resolved as a matter of urgency that it is time to think home because, like Chinua Achebe also wrote, “Setting a goal is a matter of intelligence and judgment. Faced with a confusing welter of problems all clamoring for solution at once, man's most rational strategy is to stay as cool as possible in the face of the confusion and attack the problems singly or in small manageable groups, one at a time.”

To this end, the Colloquium resolved that this is the time to restore the development trajectory in Igbo land that has been distorted since the end of the Nigeria-Biafra war. Some of the measures the Colloquium identified in attaining this goal are Igbo renaissance/restoration, rebuilding the Igbo heart, recapturing of Igbo values, culture, language, lore and literature; youth education, employment and protection; mutual coexistence between Ndigbo and their neighbors; ensuring that the Nigerian federation becomes a federation of willing and not that of the conquerors and the conquered; imperative of autonomy in political and other socio-cultural matters; honoring the spirit of Igbo icons and ancestors as well as serving their God without let or hindrance.

Some of the objectives that informed the establishment of Alaigbo Development Foundation (ADF) include promoting a comprehensive Igbo National Charter for the immediate and long-term restoration, renaissance and development of Igbo land, encouraging research, documentation and social actions on various issues that affect Igbo land; cooperate with organizations with similar objectives, and to publish the results of ADF engagements. The membership is open to Igbo sons and daughters with similar objectives.

ADF is neither a rival nor a replacement for Ohanaeze Ndigbo as an Igbo national socio-cultural organization. It is to support Ohanaeze anywhere her support is needed, especially in actualizing the visions of the founding fathers of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, and to ensure that those elected into positions of leadership of Ohanaeze abide by the vision and constitution of Ohanaeze Ndigbo.

The Foundation's programme of action is result-oriented. In politics, it aims at ensuring a regional autonomy within which Ndigbo can guarantee rule of law, justice, preservation of their culture and language, unhindered economic, political and social development of Igbo-land. In the economic aspect, the Foundation targets to support the establishment of an Igbo-wide development commission which will harness the economic and other resource potentialities of the zone and coordinate the operations of the various zonal initiatives to be undertaken towards the sustainable development of the region; and also promote an investment-at home movement to encourage indigenous and foreign investors to invest in Igbo land, enhance employment and reduce crimes in the region.

The goal of the Foundation in the education sector includes improving the educational curriculum in primary and secondary schools in southeast states to reflect the culture and language of Ndigbo; to inculcate a sense of identity and pride in Igbo children and entrench the teaching of civics, science and technology to develop the much-needed human capital for a dream first-class economy to meet the challenges of the times. The need for increased number of institutions of higher learning in Igbo land is very acute. On infrastructure, the Foundation's agenda includes collaborating with South-East governors to enhance human and infrastructural development either through joint government projects or public-private partnerships. On agriculture, the strategy is to, among others, urge the South-East governments to establish a Bank of Agriculture to ensure micro-credit facilities to enhance mechanized farming and encourage agro-allied initiatives. The health sector will also be strengthened by utilizing the abundant well-groomed talents of Ndigbo across the globe aimed at making Igbo land a medical tourism centre and destination in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Alaigbo Development Foundation (ADF) also takes security of Igbo land seriously. In this regard, it proposes setting up regional police and other security systems free from partisan political interference for the protection of Ndigbo within their land. In the international circle, the Foundation plans to reconnect with countries, regions and cities which have historic political and cultural relationship with Ndigbo such as Israel, Haiti, Brazil, USA, Oxford, Montreal, Vatican, Tanzania, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Ghana, Zambia and South Africa. It also recommends setting up departments of Igbo languages and Igbo studies in universities in Igbo land and wherever it may be possible globally.

The board of trustees of the Foundation is made up of eminent Igbo leaders and scholars. They include Dr Dozie Ikedife, Chairman, Board of Trustees; Prof T. Uzodinma Nwala, President; Elder (Dr) Kalu Uke Kalu, Vice-Chairman BOT. Other members are Prof Bath Nnaji, Chief Innocent Nwoga, HRH Princess Alu Ibiam, Chief Emmanuel Okey Nwankwo, Bishop Obi Udemezue Onubogu, and Prof Chimah Korieh.

The International Igbo Colloquium of  2014 is a semblance of the 1981 Tokyo Colloquium which initiated a roadmap to what Japan has become today. Achebe, citing a family anecdote rendered by Japanese scholar Professor Kinichiro Toba of Waseda University at the Tokyo Colloquium, recalls that “… as Japan began the countdown to its spectacular technological lift-off, it was also systematically recovering lost ground in its traditional mode of cultural expression. In one sense it was travelling away from its old self towards a cosmopolitan, modern identity, while in another sense it was journeying back to regain a threatened past and selfhood. To comprehend the dimensions of this gigantic paradox and coax from it such unparalleled inventiveness requires not mere technical flair but the archaic energy, the perspective, the temperament of creation of myths and symbolism.”

Without mincing words, if the goals of the Alaigbo Development Foundation (ADF) were enabled to mature and see the light of the day through collective efforts, the dream of the founding fathers of Igbo land will eventually come to light.

Written by Chinedu Aroh.
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