Ohaneze Crisis: “We Are Close To Meeting With The Lagos State Govt!” Chief Sunday Ossai

 

 

 

Albeit the crisis still steaming from the impeachment of the former president of

Ohaneze Ndigbo Lagos State, Chief Solomon Aguene, over allegations of

tenure elongation amid his retention of office, the newly-elected president –

Chief Sunday Ossai – has disclosed that plans are afoot to meet with the Lagos

State Government to officially present him as the new president of Ohaneze

Ndigbo Lagos State.

Ossai, while disclosing this to Eastern Eye Magazine, bade the Lagos State

Government to stop dealing with Chief Solomon as news are rife that he is still

parading himself to them as the Ohaneze Lagos president.

Beyond the crisis, Chief Ossai spoke on other issues; excerpts:

 

On The Two Factions:

There can’t be two factions and I don’t believe that there are two factions of

Ohaneze Ndigbo, rather there is an impostor. The impeached president is

claiming to be the president. He is like a general without soldiers because what

Ohaneze needs is the people and the king. A situation where you don’t have the

king and the people behind you, and you are brandishing yourself as the

president, I don’t take that one as a faction. A faction of Ohaneze is a situation

whereby some people are with you or some leaders are with you but in this

regard, there is nobody with you. So, I don’t believe there is a faction of

Ohaneze. I only believe on the Ohaneze under my leadership; an Ohaneze

affiliated with the national body; an Ohaneze with the people and the king

behind him; an Ohaneze with the whole Igbo and the unity of one voice saying,

‘this is our president'.

So, the other person is just an impostor who thinks money can do everything for

him.

 

On Assuming Office In The Secretariat:

Yes, I ought to have assumed office in that secretariat but eventually, the

impeached president refuses to vacate the office. But there is a way we are

planning to vacate him by force though not through fighting. I don’t want the

image of Igbo to be tainted in the public. I don’t want the means of him to

 

vacate the secretariat to dominate the headlines or police issue; so, it would be

wisely handled by elders and stakeholders of Ndigbo in Lagos. With time, he

must vacate there.

 

On The Former President Still Parading Himself As Such:

A plan is on the way for stakeholders, elders and Ndi Eze of Ndigbo to go and

officially inform the Lagos State Government that the tenure of the former

president has expired and his intent to perpetuate himself in office with

elongation of tenure, citing Covid-19 and EndSARs crisis, as an excuse. But

then, it is being competently handled by the elders of Ndigbo in Lagos, and with

due time, the Lagos State Government will be officially informed about the

change of leadership of Ohaneze. I have just been elected and there are lines of

action to finally dismantle him to stop him from parading himself as the

President of Ohaneze, Lagos. Once this is successfully done, I think we have

achieved the result without making noise or fighting ourselves.

 

On His Manifestoes:

As the newly-elected president of Ohaneze Lagos, I have a very fine manifesto

that if successfully implemented, will benefit all the Igbo, both in Lagos

diaspora and elsewhere in Nigeria because Igbo is known for commerce. I want

Igbo to dominate commerce in Nigeria, and to be very successful in it – because

that is what we are known for.

Again, I don’t want any Igbo to suffer injustice in Nigeria and so, have planned

to provide free legal services to any Igbo person being victim of human rights

abuse or being victim of social abuse or security personnel rascality – these are

just a tip of what I have planned for the Ndigbo.

 

Apart from that, I wish I will make the Igbo comfortable wherever they are. I

will achieve results by protecting their interests and rights and achieve results,

even without making noise or fighting. I will achieve such in a very peaceful

and diplomatic manner. I’m saying so because we cannot achieve anything by

force rather it would worsen the situation.

 

On Ohaneze Ndigbo Lagos’ Preferred Candidate For 2023:

 

Ohaneze Ndigbo is a social-cultural organization; we are not partisans but you

know, every ‘animal’ is a politician; though individually, we have our minds

somewhere but Lagos State is where we exist, reside and earn our living,

therefore, anything that would be made to support the Government of the day in

Lagos Sate, we will do that. They are our host and have provided us with

comfort and various markets that dot the State. We have been given a freehand

to execute our businesses. Under these circumstances, we have no option than to

support the Government in power so that they can continue to offer us the olive

branch to fully execute our business,

 

On Igbo Developing Their Homelands:

There is a project being managed by the national body of Ohaneze and that

project is ‘Think Home Mantra’ – I will make sure that the Igbo will start to

invest some of their businesses in Igbo land so that the equation will be

balanced; so that our home too can witness development as we are developing

our host and communities. So. Lagos State Ohaneze will support virtually every

item of the ‘Think Home Mantra’ being initiated by the Ohaneze worldwide.

 

On The Insecurity in East:

Insecurity is a general phenomenon in Nigeria right now but we are not

relenting; we are making every effort that will minimize insecurity in Igbo land

and partially, synergy with the Federal Govt to provide security for the citizenry

of Igbo. While doing so, we will be organizing workshop whereby the negative

impacts of insecurity will be made know to everybody because these ‘people’

are children of Ndigbo; so that their parents can adequately caution them to

desist from ever taking arms against a fellow human being. Idleness is the

devil’s workshop – we enjoin the State and the Federal Government to do

everything humanly possible to provide jobs for the teeming youth.

The sparse space of land is where millions of youth can be engaged in

agricultural products. By then, the youth would be engaged and the economy

would be boosted and there would be sufficient food for the people. The youth

can be easily lured into criminality when they are hungry. One of the criminal

elements can be lavishly spending money, then, an hungry youth watching them

can be easily lure into that act, because after spending on them, these criminal

elements can stop and ask the youth to join them in their criminal activities.

The key to the stoppage of this insecurity is to provide job.

 

Advice To Every Igbo In Lagos:

Be serious and take whatever you are doing very serious and when crisis erupt,

they should abstain from taking revenge or offence at anybody; rather, they

should dialogue and that is why the secretariat of Ohaneze is open to them.

I can remember when I was young when I used to take security shelter in my

mother’s room; any time I ran away from trouble into my mom’s room, I always

feel secured – that is how I want every Igbo to feel secured and free to come and

complain at Ohaneze secretariat so that necessary action would be take to nip

the crisis at the budding stage or even to fight for compensation if there’s any

damage to his property.