IGBO Organization of New England Hosts WIC Convention
Mike Ozulumba, Esq.
PUBLICITY DIRECTOR, IONE

The event which will hold at the Copley Marriott Hotel in Boston will surely attract the who is who from Nigeria and around the World of Igbos.
As plans to showcase the best convention gets underway, several committees have been formed both at WIC Level and the Host Affiliate level in order to streamline activities that will mark the convention. The cultural Committee, the Budgeting and Finance Committee, the Publicity Committee and Business and Linkage committee are among the Committees recently revamped and inaugurated to get rolling with the various areas of their assigned task.
During a meeting on May 13, 2006 in Hyde Park Massachusetts, the WIC Planning Committee Chairperson, Mrs. Patience Oruh toured the convention facilities in Boston in company of her New England point Guard, Prof. NT Izuchi and met the various committee heads. During the meeting, Mrs. Oruh expressed satisfaction with the progress made by the Boston Host Affiliate Organization but demanded promptness collaboration and transparency between Affiliate Committee heads and WIC Committee representatives. Ms. Oruh was impressed further by the caliber of men and women raised by Boston Affiliate to handle the Convention.
Prof NT Izuchi promised the visitor that New England is unbeatable in planning and executing fine events and WIC Convention will be no different.
The convention Invitation Cards are out and members are advised to contact the leaders of WIC or IONE Offices should they need any. VISIT Igbonewengland.org website for further details.
Furthermore, the Convention official brochure has been kicked off by the publicity committee. They are requesting interested business owners desiring to advertise in the brochure to contact the publicity committee or the business and linkage committee for early registration for ad and sponsorship.
Time and space is limited. Take advantage of early bed registration to save big on the sponsorship and advert rates.
Please feel free to contact Igbo Organization of New England Offices here and in Nigeria for any questions.
Visit our website often for more news!!
PRO : Mike Ozulumba 617 719 6066

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THIS past couple of weeks have been a rare moment of great media feasting. Thanks to the transparency, which Senate President, Chief Ken Nnamani and House of Reps Speaker, Alhaji Bello Masari, subjected the Constitution Amendment Bill to, Nigerians, through the newspapers and the private television stations, especially our own heroic Africa Independence Television (AIT) have followed the views put forwards by members of the two chambers of the National Assembly. Just before I sat down to write this piece, a reader of this column called and asked a question that many others like him had been putting to me of late: “are legislators from the South-East and South-South cursed?” The question springs from the pattern of the debates and reasons adduced for the positions taken on this matter. It seems that the vast majority of legislators rooting for tenure elongation are from the South-East and South-South geopolitical zones. There is also, “understandably” a very large preponderance of South- West and Northern lawmakers in this camp, but it thins out as you move from South-East/South-South to the South-West and finally the northern zones.
On the other hand, the vast majority of lawmakers fighting to defeat this odious tenure elongation are mostly northern legislators, particularly those from the upper north. South-Western opposition elements are giving it its greatest moral force, while their few South-Eastern counterparts, particularly Senator Uche Chukwumerije, Senator Ben Obi, Hon.Uche Onyeagocha and others, are its brains and main thrust. Apart from our valorous Senator Udo-Udoma and Temi Harriman, the South-South seems to be the weakest link in the chain. This is a great, if pathetic irony, given the sentiments out here in the real world.
We entered the political season of 2003 - 2007 with the understanding that President Olusegun Obasanjo, having exhausted the chances of the Sout-West under the “rotational presidency” arrangement to which the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has committed itself, would be excused from the race, especially in the PDP. The president, in his many media chats, always reiterated his belief in the principle of rotation and power shift, stressing that apart from himself and the South-West Zone, every other section of Nigeria was entitled. This was the answer he always gave whenever the major contenders to the presidency - the South- East, South-South and the Northern zones - pressed him to commit himself to a section of the country his successor would come from.
Tenure elongation has now completely spiked that presidential undertaking. It is noteworthy that the bulk of the National Assembly men from the upper Northern Zones have remained resolute in their determination to kill tenure elongation so that their part of the country will have another shot at the prized office of the President of the Federal Republic. It is also a great irony that legislators of the South- East and South-South zones have failed to follow up with the yearnings and aspirations of their people as expressed by their delegates to the National Political Reform Conference (NPRC) of 2005 viz: that power should in 2007 shift eastwards rather than northwards. THE pitiable dimension of internal betrayal or desertion is evident in both zones. After the NPRC, inter-zonal meetings and summits were held in which the South- East and South-South even agreed to join together to secure the shift of power to them. The only sticking point was that some elements in both zones were not convinced of the usefulness of a joint bid and continued to work independently towards it. But when it came down to reducing the demand to practical application, the saboteurs and political merchants suddenly started showing their faces. In the South-East, the now disgraced President of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Professor Joe Irukwu, was the first to sell out the “Igbo presidency” cause at the Abakaliki “public hearing” of the agenda for constitution amendment. Following the vehement rejection of Irukwu’s support for tenure elongation, the PDP and the Presidency infiltrated and factionalised the Igbo umbrella body. Today, Irukwu heads the pro-Obasanjo, pro-tenure elongation PDP-controlled “Ohanaeze”.
In the South-South, there is clear lack of connection between the Niger Delta governors and legislators on the one hand, and the various popular vanguards championing the cause of the zone, especially the South-South People’s Assembly (SSPA). Their excuse during the debates was that being loyal party people, they would stand by the decision of the PDP to push for tenure elongation for the benefit of Obasanjo.
One may wonder why northern legislators are more sensitive to the collective wishes of their people (to get power back to the north) than their southern counterparts. The answer is quite simple. The elections of 2003 in the south was largely “won” by people who are alien to the electorate. We are living witnesses to the outcome in Anambra where all the state and national legislators were simply compiled and forwarded to the Electoral Commission to issue the certificates of election. We all saw what happened in Enugu, Abia, Rivers, Delta and Ogun States. The products of such elections know that they are not derived from the votes of the people. They owe their “mandates” to the Party in power (the President and his henchmen). The President’s wish is their command because the President has proved to be a more capable mandate giver than the electorate under the current so-called democracy we are practising under Obasanjo.
THIS is the simple explanation. Perhaps, that is what the “curse” is all about. Southern politicians in the PDP have sold out to Obasanjo because Obasanjo has taken the people’s power to elect and recall away from them. But in the north, his success in this regard was very limited because the north knows that selling out to Obasanjo is political suicide. When third term is eventually defeated and Obasanjo begins to pack his load, the people of South-East and South-South must see to it that all the political rags are flushed down the river for good.

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Back to US last week from a special trip to Anambra State, I sat in my home in Boston and carefully evaluated my experience in a meeting with the heavy weights of Anambra State APGA Led government as they methodically waded through complex issues that confronted them upon assumption of office in Awka. I will leave out very sensitive issues that require further deliberation, consultation and analysis before public pronouncement on these matters.
On a positive note however, I can assure all admirers of our Anambra State that things are going just fine. Everyday in Awka, the approach seems readily apparent. The new Governor has yet to move into the Governor’s office as it was burnt down during the November 2004 assault by former Gov Ngige’s traducers. Interestingly, the office was a simple bungalow built by Governor Mbadinuju and would require less than $35,000 to completely rehabilitate based on the present condition after the arson. Yet Gov. Ngige stubbornly refused to rebuild the office along with other buildings that received milder damages and chose to rule from residential foxholes. Gov. Peter Obi is as calm as a man in a fall season temperature. This outlook is both natural to him and consistence with his public disposition to speak less and act more. He intently listens to his team of advisors and occasionally departs for Abuja and Lagos to further repair and reconnect with institutions that would play a crucial role in bringing necessary funding and programs to Anambra State to ensure that his vision to create employment through the private sector is actualized.
Meanwhile, a group of men sits for upward of over 10 hours per day at the Women Development Center at Awka to deliberate as charged by the governor on setting the policy agenda priorities for the Governor. I met exclusively with the arrow head of this Committee, Dr. Tim Menakaya at one of the modest hotels in Awka where he rests after the end of the day’s work. A close interaction with him showed the arduous task the committee confronts everyday. Besides the drones of political job seekers that pester these men everyday, they had to grapple with political, ideological and social issues that confront Anambra State today. I can assure my readers that based on my questions and findings, APGA and Gov. Obi has a tough task ahead, and the Governor is eminently capable to impress our people and deliver the campaign goodies. Gov Obi is smart, focused and fiscally prudent. He is not impressed by constant praise singers and understands the enormity of the task ahead.
Anambra State was run by a smalltime thin God called Chris Ngige. Ngige ruled Anambra state without solid bureaucratic and democratic institutions in place. His OMATA (Traders Association) style of leadership in Anambra State has left the new government scratching their head to find a positive lead to anything in the state. Gov. Ngige arrogated power to himself and dispensed it as he wished to his admirers and detractors. He was on constant fear of his enemies and seemed to rule the state with clear knowledge that his tenancy would be terminated at any time and he may have doggedly, invidiously and intentionally left a heap of confusion to mask his culpability in further looting of Anambra State treasury that he sang relentlessly that he was protecting from the “locusts”. This Governor won the PR war in the state by his public construction of many dilapidated roads in the state. To achieve this road construction policy, Governor Ngige cleverly confiscated Local Government allocations by smart collusion with his self appointed Local Government chairmen and used the allocated funds to these Councils to add to state allocations to construct the roads. The total number of roads constructed by Ngige is hotly disputed by facts in Awka and the cost he supposedly paid for these roads where deemed to be and grossly unrealistic and manifestly inflated. However, Ngige’s name in Anambra State has positive connect with the indigenes. For a people politically brutalized by successive rogue governments, Ngige appeared to have put a legacy on the ground that regardless of the claimed discrepancy in numbers, a majority of Anambrarians fully appreciated the Ngige road projects in the STATE. This singular achievement has set Gov. Obi on a high bar to cross to appease and appeal to the Anambra People.
When I took a sample opinion from artisans, workers, market women, teachers, traders and students, by overwhelming majority, they seemed satisfied with Gov Ngige’s administration. Seven out of ten responders to the opinion question totally dismissed APGA revelation that Gov. Ngige lied about the amount of money he actually left for the new Gov Obi. They questioned APGA’s protestations and reminded Obi that Ngige did not meet a single Naira in the treasury when he took over from Gov. Mbadinuju. By far number, they advised that Governor Obi should not embark on any funny job creation sermon and for him to strongly continue with the road projects started by Ngige and surpass it if possible within his one year left in office. They empathize with circumstances that thwarted his mandate, but they argue that he need not reinvent the wheel as the Anambra people now have discovered that it is possible to provide good roads in the state. In fact, the relief occasioned by the newly constructed roads was so evident last December in Anmbra State that out of state residents returned en masse with resultant traffic jams that took over Nkpor, Nnobi Amawbia and Nnewi cities. Business men and women enjoyed the presence of so many people in the communities and the attendant economic boom and the confidence in the indigenes of the state to return to invest is now driving a new housing construction boom in Awka, Nawfia, Umunze and other towns in Anambra State.
This observation was shared with the Governor’s committee and they seem to have understood the people’s sentiment. They assured that they would do everything possible to put better smiles on the faces of Anambra people by the turn of next election in April 2007.
But remarkably, Governor Obi has very strong well wishers. The people of Anambra State heaved a sigh of relief from the face off of the PDP Gladiators of Chris Ubah and Chris Ngige. There exists a strong sense of relief as the people positively hope and pray that in their life time, Anambra State is now led by a government that the people voted in their desperate efforts to shed PDP off their necks following the deadly political combat played out in Anambra State by political godfathers since the inception of the young state in 1991.
With high expectations for Governor Peter Obi, he is now delicately putting together a team of executive officers that would have a short period of time to work selflessly for the execution of the Governor’s vision anchored on principles consistent with his avowed campaign manifesto. Only time seems to be the greatest challenge.

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Mayor's Office of New Bostonians
Boston City Hall
Room 803
Boston, MA 02201
617-635-2980 (phone) 617-635-4540 (fax)
www.cityofboston.gov/newbostonians
To: Colleagues, Friends, Community Based Organizations and Constituents From: Rev. Cheng Imm Tan, Director
Date: May 11, 2006
Subject: Free Nursing Program - $250 monthly stipend/guaranteed job placement

Nursing Program/FREE TUITION
If you know of anyone between 18-28 years old, interested in the nursing field, the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) is offering FREE tuition, FREE books, a $250 monthly stipend, and guaranteed job placement as a nurse at Providence Hospital upon graduation (it's a 3 year program) with a starting salary of $40,000. The program is recruiting new students now!!
Please contact:
Ms. Beshon Smith (202) 266-5481 or email bsmith@urbanalliance.org

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By Tony Edike
Posted to the Web: Thursday, May 11, 2006
ENUGU - Following the formal retirement of former Biafran Police officers with effect from year 2000 by the Federal Government recently, 226 of the affected policemen who died during and after the war have so far been issued letters of retirement.
The Police Service Commission recently announced pardon for the ex-Biafran police officers who were earlier dismissed from the police force for fighting on the side of Biafra during the civil war. The Federal Government had following appeals from the affected officers for the payment of their retirement benefits, approved their formal retirement from the force with effect from year 2000. It is expected that their entitlements would be paid from that period. Those who benefitted posthumously were 40 superior officers, 36 Inspectors, 73 non- commissioned officers and 117 constables. A total of 1,520 were formally retired from the force in the exercise conducted by the Police Service Commission and office of the Inspector-General of Police.
National President, Association of War Affected Police Officers (AWAPO) Chief Charles Machie, in whose office the retirement letters are being distributed, yesterday, expressed gratitude to President Olusegun Obasanjo for coming to their rescue. Machie applauded the president’s swift response to the plight of the war affected policemen, saying the retirement letters of his deceased colleagues would be handed over to their relations after proper screening to make sure that the money goes into the right hands.
"These late policemen are going to be paid through their next of kin who would be scrutinized to make sure that they are really the next of kin to the affected people" the AWAPO leader said. He expressed hope that all Biafran policemen would soon receive their retirement benefits noting that the onus now lies on the police pension’s office to move into action and process the pensions and gratuities of the affected officers.

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As this year’s second Saturday in the month of May, the day Mazi Richard Obilo’s administration has hallowed and canonized in New England gburugburu as the Igbo Women’s Day, continues to draw closer, the entire Igbo Community in New England, from New Hampshire to Rhode Island, are now in festive mood: the men folks are learning new Mothers’ Day anthem, women folks shopping for new clothing, the community DJ oiling all his music machines in order to ensure a hitch-free music supply on that day and the Organizing Committee members are busy packaging and wrapping numerous kinds of gifts and awards to be doled out to women on that day. From all indications, the stage is now set for the great day of joy, romance and fanfare, thanks to Mazi Richard Obilo, the current President of Igbo Organization of New England, who decided to up the ante by moving the celebration from simply being one of the agenda items in May’s general meeting of the organization to a more elaborate all-night weekend bash.
Truly, this noble enterprise by the New England folks is worth every dime and time being invested in it. Igbo woman deserves more, and that more, may not even be enough.
Never in the history of the community here is New England had there been an event that has awaken so much passion and burning enthusiasm among Igbo men than this May 13th Igbo Woman’s Day celebration. Igbo men are cheerfully emptying their pockets in order to ensure that the comfort and happiness of Igbo woman is not in short supply on that day. There are some who feel offended that nobody has swung by to ask for donations, while there are others who, without any solicitation, are sending up their donations to the organizing committee. An enthusiastic donor summarized his respect and admiration for Igbo woman thus: “she is a hero; she deserves everything I have, including my whole self as a person”
It was out of this passionate and adoring respect and sacred belief in the nobleness and dignity of Igbo woman by the generality of Ndigbo in New England that Chief Chris Okafor, Ononikponze ndi Enugwukwu, the immediate past president of Igbo Organization of New England, during his reign, set aside every First Sunday of every month of May as a day to celebrate the honor, nobleness, motherhood, sacrifice and uniqueness of Igbo Woman. Since its inception, this tradition has been kept devotedly by Igbos in New England. All Igbos, both young and old, have, in affectionate reverence to the work of Igbo woman, steered all non-emergency activities away from this sacred date. The day for Igbo Woman must be total, sacrosanct and hallowed, and above all, devoid of any form of controversy.
With the United Nation’s forecast that Igbo language may disappear by the year 2100, Igbo woman, today, remains the only bulwark against this threat of extinction and total obliteration of Igboman from the face of this earth. It is Igbo woman that gave us live we live and, also, us this precious language; and, as always, still serves as the surest defense against the endangerment of the specie called Ndigbo Igbo.
Without Igbo woman, Igbos would not have recovered from the countless crimes of genocide and ethnic cleansing visited on Igboman at various times (which still continues today) by the Nigerian State and her people. It is Igbo woman that kept replenishing this population that daily confronts genocidal forces.
Though not involved in the governmental policies that led to the Biafran war, the brunt of that war was borne mainly by Igbo woman. The pains and humiliations of Igbo woman in that war came in various forms and degrees, such as the killing and maiming Igboman in her presence and that of her children; sadistic and conscienceless disemboweling of pregnant Igbo ladies and their unborn fetuses gutted out and left to the mercy of hot earth and scorching sun on the dirty and dusty streets of Northern Nigeria; serving of Igbo damsels to leprosy-infested urchins in public view on the streets of Northern Nigeria; violent rape of Igbo beauties, plus the atrocious violation of the purity and virginity of our teenage daughters and other innumerable heinous sacrileges committed against their innocence. These were horrific acts of psychological war aimed at stalling the engine house (Igbo Woman) that powers the Igboman.
In all these, Igbo woman still bear Igboman with great dignity and in an admiring love, and never for once raised her voice in rejection. Rather, Igbo Woman lent herself to the downtrodden and badly traumatized Igboman to lean on. When Igboman, morally and psychologically depressed, was still licking his war wounds and counting his losses after the war, it was Igbo woman that picked up the pieces of that broken, crushed and conked out spirit sewed them back together into body and soul, nursed and tended it back to life and pride. It was Igbo woman who supplied that resilience will to fight on with the undying belief that all is not lost.
Today, Igboman hops around in zillions of cultural costumes, priding himself as Ogbuefi, Alhaji, Kekere, Kabiesi, etc, assuming every hue and color of the society and environments he finds himself, but on the other hand Igbo woman fine-tunes and reinforced her role in the family by transforming herself from Oliaku to Odoziaku.
Few years ago in Anambra State, Nigeria, during the crisis between former Governor Chris Ngige and his Aso Rock masters which came very close to engulfing the entire state with an inferno unparallel in the Nigeria’s political history, it was Igbo woman that traded where Igboman was scared to hell to venture into; where bishops and priests of all religious appeal chickened out and reclused into the sanctuary of their religious cocoons pretending not to be aware of the danger facing the population they minister to. An Igbo woman in the person of Mrs. Josephine Anenih led the bull by the horn and called a spade a spade. Her timely and patriotic action brought both relief and much-needed breeding space to the besieged people and government of Anambra state.
The mother of it all was that the first organized revolt against colonialism and taxation that actually gave teeth to the struggle for self-rule, and, ultimately, Nigeria’s independence, was organized and executed by Igbo woman: Aba women’s riot of 1929. This was at a time, in the whole of black Africa, from Sahara to Cape Town, when the rest of colonized African nations were cowed to death by the mere presence of a white man, much more standing up to his superior fire power. Truly, the empowerment of Igboman is sourced and derived from the durable faith and courage of Igbo woman.
When Igbo woman enters an Igboman’s house, the man’s life is forever changed for good. She gives him heirs and also gives him in-laws. All these she did and will continue to do at the expense of her life, her health, her youth, her freedom, her beauty and her precious tender looks. Igboman’s death is honorable when there are several sons and daughters and in-laws left behind to mourn him. If not for Igbo woman, no matter how wealthy and influential, the Igboman’s existence would be nothing but a hopeless journey right into a dark end. With Igbo woman by his side, he looks forward to a golden old age. It is Igbo woman that makes him a complete man and an accomplished chief.
When Igbo woman finds herself outside the geographical territory of Igboland, she makes herself a bridge by which Igboman uses to source goodwill from other parts of Nigeria. She never forgets Igboman and strives consistently and continuously to award him the bests: better treatment of Igboman remains a daily companion in her heart. Today, Asaba is the administrative capital of Delta State in Nigeria not out of the political prowess of the grossly-marginalized Igbos of Delta or that of the entire Igbo world; neither was it out of the superior oil bloc politics, but out of an undying love of an Igbo woman (Maryam Babangida) on Igboland. Even though she has married out of Igboland, she still remembers home. The home that will, forever, be occupied by Igboman.
In all these and more, Igbo woman’s love for Igboman is solid and evergreen, likewise her unwavering support to his leadership authority in the family. Even when she hauls in the most quantity of Dollars into the family coffer, she never assumes the title of the head of the household nor that of the breadwinner. To Igboman she gives all the credit, and, at the same time, still calls herself Odoziaku, and not Okpata-aku
It is against the backdrop of these pricey, sterling and unfading qualities of Igbo woman, too numerous to mention, that The Rising Sun (Boston’s Authentic Voice of Ndigbo) is joining the rest of the Igbo New England Community and their friends to celebrate the 2006 Igbo Woman’s Day. We therefore call on every New Englander to troop out and come out in hordes and in great multitude so that we can all be witness as honor is bestowed on she that rightly deserve it: Igbo woman!
Emenike Anigbogu
The Irrepressible Voice of The Oppressed
Publisher, The Rising Sun (Boston’s Authentic Voice of Ndigbo)

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The IONE Meeting of April 2006 was as tense as it was exciting. As the Organization readies to host its First World Igbo Congress Convention, ripples emerged that nearly knocked IONE out of hosting the convention. With deft conflict management capabilities, the IONE President, Mazi Richard Obilor and the New England WIC Planning Committee Chairman, Chief NT Izuchi worked overtime to resolve the nagging misunderstanding. To consolidate and present the needed picture of solidarity, IONE played host to the WIC Chairman, Vice Chairman, Legal Adviser and General Secretary on April 2, 2006. As expected the meeting hall was nearly filled to capacity as the host Organization trooped out to welcome their WIC leaders.
The meeting did not lack heavy politicking as both the WIC heavy weights and the local champions sparred to fine tune areas of doubt in responsibility for the upcoming convention. The WIC Chairman, Ichie Onwuchekwa equally used the opportunity to dispel rumors that they had planned to move the convention to Detroit instead of Boston. While IONE members breathed a sigh of relief from the clarification, subcommittee chairs were charged to get down to business in order present the best WIC Convention ever.
However, WIC seems to still be boiling with some controversy surrounding the powers of the House of Delegates who were accused to have attempted a Coup against the WIC Board of Directors and the WIC Executive Council.
Both camps have however resolved to first come to Boston where they hope the opportunity may present itself for the settlement of the nagging issues. As the host City, we are ready in Boston to receive our guests and judging from our past records, Boston sure cannot disappoint.
invitation cards are now out and we encourage our members who may wish to invite loved ones and friends to the Convention to quickly contact IONE Leadership or the PRO, Atty. Mike Ozulumba at 617 719 6066 to obtain invitation cards. Ozulumba’s email address remains: mozulumba@yahoo.com