By Okey C. Iheduru/Business Day
Washington, D.C., the United States capital, hosted a number of events and activities about Nigeria over the past week. Acting President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan met with President Obama in his first official outing as head of state, and later participated in the nuclear weapons summit, interacted with heavy weights at the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations, and had an hour-long interview on CNN.
By all accounts, our acting number one citizen acquitted himself well and put the country back on the international arena. Shortly before Jonathan's arrival, however, the eight annual conference of Igbo Studies Association (ISA), appropriately themed Nigeria at 50: The Igbo Experience, was held at Howard University from 9-10 April 2010.
From its modest beginning in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1999, the ISA has become a prestigious annual event that now attracts eminent academics, media moguls, businesses, and politicians from North America, Europe, and Africa. There were about 84 academic papers, four plenary sessions, and fourteen concurrent sessions on topics ranging from Igbo language, literature, religion, spirituality, civilization, culture, health, environment, women, education, conflict management, entrepreneurship, youth and sports, and the old and new Igbo diasporas.
For many Igbo intelligentsia resident in Nigeria, ISA conferences are among the few venues where reasoned debate can take place without the suffocating stench of 419 money-bag politicians, silly chieftaincy and religious titles, and charlatans of all stripes that now bestrode a land once noted for honest individual achievements and sense of community. The goodwill message from Ohaneze Ndi-Igbo president, Ralph Uwechue praised ISA as 'a strong platform to showcase Igbo civilization and the contribution of our people towards the advancement of global civilization.' Prominent Igbos, such as Onwuchekwa Jemie, editor-in-chief of Business Day newspaper; and Ebere Onwudiwe of the Centre for Democracy and Development, Abuja; Ihechukwu Madubuike, former education minister and Vice Chancellor of Tansian University, Umunya; T. Uzodinma Nwala of University of Abuja; Pat Utomi of Lagos Business School; and Senator Uchechukwumereije regularly attend these meetings.
Over the years, the keynote address has become the big masquerade of ISA conferences. Last week, Senator Chukwumerije's address, 'Journey in Reverse Gear: Tragedy of Self Denigration' did not disappoint. He traced the phenomenal success of Igbo identity-building and civilization before the tragic events of 1966 and the subsequent Biafra-Nigeria civil war, and proffered strategies to reverse Igbo marginalization and self-denigration that accompanied Biafra's collapse forty years ago.
There was also a 'special plenary roundtable' on 'Emergent Issues of Peace and Security in Nigeria: Challenges and Prospects for Democratization and Development' featuring Judith Asuni of the U. S. Institute of Peace; Peter Lewis of the School of Advanced International Studies at the Johns Hopkins University; as well as Utomi and Nwala. As usual, ISA poetry reading featured some of Nigeria's best in the craft-Obi Nwakanma, Chimalum Nwankwo, Dubem Okafor, Ikeogu Oke, and Tess Onwueme. But the trophy goes to Chris Ebighgbo, a Fine/Applied Arts lecturer at University of Benin who regaled the audience with traditional Igbo wooden flute and dignified step-dance, traditionally reserved for titled men who pranced about in tandem with the call of the flutist, demonstrating their war prowess and other noble deeds.
The second-generation Igbos in attendance was clearly attuned to issues of extra-territorial citizenship and loyalty. A group of Washington, D.C.-based Igbo high school students raised funds for summer work experience at the historic Igbo Village project in Virginia, USA. Records show that Igbo slaves-about 37 per cent of blacks in the state of Virginia prior to the American civil war (1860-1865)-built up that state. The Illinois-based Umu Igbo Alliance, comprising high school and college-age Igbos, marketed their upcoming July 29-August 1, 2010 'Igbo Ezue: Launching the Igbo Renaissance' where Igbo youth and organizations from all over the U. S. are expected to attend.
It is indeed a reflection of Nigeria's present predicament that the most credentialed gathering of Ndi-Igbo discussing Nigeria at 50 took place in far away America. Few universities in Nigeria can boast of one-fifth of the scores of Igbo scholars that assembled in Washington last week. Appropriately, the conference communiqué called on Ndi-Igbo to pay close attention to Igbo migration, specifically, the implications of brain-drain. The language of ISA meetings is English, not Igbo, an irony amplified by the conference communiqué's call for an
Igbo Language Academy 'as a matter of urgency' to help reverse alleged imminent disappearance of the Igbo language. Also, as Igbo villages decay and turn into kidnap counties for the well-to-do, Ndi-Igbo are busy re-creating Igbo village and youth culture in America. Is America the best hope of preserving the best of Igbo culture and civilization?
Over all, the 2010 conference brought out the very best in various actors. The U. S. consular staff in Abuja and Lagos received deafening applause as Nigeria-based attendees recounted the professionalism and cooperation accorded them during their visa applications and interviews. The biggest kudos, however, went to the conference chair, Apollos Nwauwa, a professor of history at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, USA whose remarkably efficient organizational skills (including liaison with the U.S. consular officials) earned him another term as conference chair.
Showing posts with label Okey C. Iheduru. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Okey C. Iheduru. Show all posts
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Saturday, May 23, 2009
On the Upcoming Economic Summit of the World Igbo Congress
By Ebere Onwudiwe & Okey C. Iheduru
Ndigbo at home and abroad have been treated to a number of colourful ‘summits’ ostensibly organized to articulate strategies to develop that part of Nigeria. The latest is the First Igbo Economic Summit being organized by the World Igbo Congress (WIC) in the city of Atlanta, USA, 29-30 May 2009. Despite the unfortunate choice of foreign venue for the summit, this is a welcome change for an organization whose mere mention in the USA where it is headquartered elicits negative reactions due to its recent lack-luster leadership. Generally, WIC events are dismissed as ‘useless and sterile jamboree’; while its leadership marked by perennial squabbles and juvenile internet hecklings have earned the organization the sobriquet ‘World Igbo Confusion.’
But WIC means well. It was a brilliant idea at its founding as the pivotal platform for the Igbo Diaspora to partner with the homeland to incubate and disseminate practical solutions to development problems there. While contemporary indignation and frustration with it is unassailable, there is something in the forthcoming Atlanta Economic Summit that warrants a serious reconsideration of the tendency to dismiss the organization as amateurish.
The founders of WIC are part of the unsung Igbo heroes who shouldered the onerous task of poverty reduction in the defunct Republic of Biafra. Today, Igbo Diaspora remittances constitute the most visible form of insurance to many beneficiaries (individual, household and local community) to withstand the economic crisis and shocks that reduced income. In the social economy, the Diaspora has financed social services and infrastructure including transfer of medical equipments, health centers, books and computers, sponsorship of scholarships, apprenticeship, start-up funds for business, and many other forms of resource transfer to practically every community in Igboland.
The challenge that faced WIC at its founding was to articulate concrete strategies to turn this financial manna from the Igbo Diaspora into sustainable development in the homeland. This still remains ‘the road not traveled’ by WIC, one which hopefully, the new Joe Eto administration, given the priority of economic empowerment in his platform, is set to explore.
WIC can shed its current reputation of an internet name-calling and irrelevant club of amateurs by returning to its central mission as a change and development agent in Igboland. In truth, WIC does not deserve this image. Whatever the case, the organization needs some “re-branding of sorts and the Atlanta Economic Summit is a necessary first step, one that must be supported by the political and economic leaders from the Igbo zone. That support will be a wise and complementary development policy for the region if only because WIC can be a powerful vehicle to trigger and promote change in the homeland.
From what we have observed so far, the new Eto administration is keen on cultivating and harnessing the Igbo Diaspora’s social energy, their passion for ‘giving back’, to move from poverty alleviation to development. This is good news for Igboland and the country as a whole.
Although there are many wealthy Igbos all over the world, previous Dispora development efforts have failed. We hope that the new WIC administration will learn from those failures. That it will go beyond economic summits and grandiose conventions to build a sustainable and respected organization able to back its bark with a bite.
Frequently initial enthusiasm to support WIC’s development efforts dissipated because people got tired of the all ‘heat and no action’ of its immediate past leadership. To sustain enthusiasm for its projects, the new WIC must bring in the thousands of Diaspora Igbo professionals presently too disgusted to be part of its current cacophonous umbrella. It can do this simply by becoming a more focused, more refined and serious organization befitting of the time and effort of these very busy professionals. If the Eto administration focuses on this, a more harmonious and capable WIC will emerge.
In addition, WIC must try to promote the interests of Igbo migrants abroad, not just those of political leaders at home. It must craft social events and conferences as forums to build social capital and networks of abundant Diaspora Igbo talents and moneymen that can generate feasible projects and the funds to implement them at home. More importantly, the new WIC leadership needs to focus on more humble objectives. Our review of WIC’s annual convention agendas shows that the organization suffers from certain grandiosity despite palpable skimpy resources which its past leadership did pretty little to boost.
Also, it will not hurt to learn a few things from a number of successful models of Diaspora mobilization for homeland development. For example, a WIC program can organize Diaspora Igbo executives in major companies to borrow a leaf from their Indian counterparts. It was the Indian executives in major multinational corporations that influenced their companies to outsource knowledge-intensive operations to India through the creation of Technology and R&D outsourcing networks.
South Africa, South Korea and Israel benefited from the Mentoring/Venture Capital Model whereby managers and owners of European start-up firms of South African origin, for instance, worked with South African start-up firms to develop and finance commercially viable projects through their venture capital networks.
There is also the example of Chinese Diaspora. Diaspora as Investors Model, or ‘Bamboo network’ was instrumental in the rise of Greater China. Here, Diaspora members who know the reality of home country well and had access to risk-mitigation strategies were able to build personal trust between members of cross-border investor networks that enabled them to reduce transaction costs.
The new WIC should learn from these examples by kick-starting its new focus on economic development via the creation of a network of Igbo executives at home and abroad with a mission to develop programs to manage its homeland development projects.
Ndigbo at home and abroad have been treated to a number of colourful ‘summits’ ostensibly organized to articulate strategies to develop that part of Nigeria. The latest is the First Igbo Economic Summit being organized by the World Igbo Congress (WIC) in the city of Atlanta, USA, 29-30 May 2009. Despite the unfortunate choice of foreign venue for the summit, this is a welcome change for an organization whose mere mention in the USA where it is headquartered elicits negative reactions due to its recent lack-luster leadership. Generally, WIC events are dismissed as ‘useless and sterile jamboree’; while its leadership marked by perennial squabbles and juvenile internet hecklings have earned the organization the sobriquet ‘World Igbo Confusion.’
But WIC means well. It was a brilliant idea at its founding as the pivotal platform for the Igbo Diaspora to partner with the homeland to incubate and disseminate practical solutions to development problems there. While contemporary indignation and frustration with it is unassailable, there is something in the forthcoming Atlanta Economic Summit that warrants a serious reconsideration of the tendency to dismiss the organization as amateurish.
The founders of WIC are part of the unsung Igbo heroes who shouldered the onerous task of poverty reduction in the defunct Republic of Biafra. Today, Igbo Diaspora remittances constitute the most visible form of insurance to many beneficiaries (individual, household and local community) to withstand the economic crisis and shocks that reduced income. In the social economy, the Diaspora has financed social services and infrastructure including transfer of medical equipments, health centers, books and computers, sponsorship of scholarships, apprenticeship, start-up funds for business, and many other forms of resource transfer to practically every community in Igboland.
The challenge that faced WIC at its founding was to articulate concrete strategies to turn this financial manna from the Igbo Diaspora into sustainable development in the homeland. This still remains ‘the road not traveled’ by WIC, one which hopefully, the new Joe Eto administration, given the priority of economic empowerment in his platform, is set to explore.
WIC can shed its current reputation of an internet name-calling and irrelevant club of amateurs by returning to its central mission as a change and development agent in Igboland. In truth, WIC does not deserve this image. Whatever the case, the organization needs some “re-branding of sorts and the Atlanta Economic Summit is a necessary first step, one that must be supported by the political and economic leaders from the Igbo zone. That support will be a wise and complementary development policy for the region if only because WIC can be a powerful vehicle to trigger and promote change in the homeland.
From what we have observed so far, the new Eto administration is keen on cultivating and harnessing the Igbo Diaspora’s social energy, their passion for ‘giving back’, to move from poverty alleviation to development. This is good news for Igboland and the country as a whole.
Although there are many wealthy Igbos all over the world, previous Dispora development efforts have failed. We hope that the new WIC administration will learn from those failures. That it will go beyond economic summits and grandiose conventions to build a sustainable and respected organization able to back its bark with a bite.
Frequently initial enthusiasm to support WIC’s development efforts dissipated because people got tired of the all ‘heat and no action’ of its immediate past leadership. To sustain enthusiasm for its projects, the new WIC must bring in the thousands of Diaspora Igbo professionals presently too disgusted to be part of its current cacophonous umbrella. It can do this simply by becoming a more focused, more refined and serious organization befitting of the time and effort of these very busy professionals. If the Eto administration focuses on this, a more harmonious and capable WIC will emerge.
In addition, WIC must try to promote the interests of Igbo migrants abroad, not just those of political leaders at home. It must craft social events and conferences as forums to build social capital and networks of abundant Diaspora Igbo talents and moneymen that can generate feasible projects and the funds to implement them at home. More importantly, the new WIC leadership needs to focus on more humble objectives. Our review of WIC’s annual convention agendas shows that the organization suffers from certain grandiosity despite palpable skimpy resources which its past leadership did pretty little to boost.
Also, it will not hurt to learn a few things from a number of successful models of Diaspora mobilization for homeland development. For example, a WIC program can organize Diaspora Igbo executives in major companies to borrow a leaf from their Indian counterparts. It was the Indian executives in major multinational corporations that influenced their companies to outsource knowledge-intensive operations to India through the creation of Technology and R&D outsourcing networks.
South Africa, South Korea and Israel benefited from the Mentoring/Venture Capital Model whereby managers and owners of European start-up firms of South African origin, for instance, worked with South African start-up firms to develop and finance commercially viable projects through their venture capital networks.
There is also the example of Chinese Diaspora. Diaspora as Investors Model, or ‘Bamboo network’ was instrumental in the rise of Greater China. Here, Diaspora members who know the reality of home country well and had access to risk-mitigation strategies were able to build personal trust between members of cross-border investor networks that enabled them to reduce transaction costs.
The new WIC should learn from these examples by kick-starting its new focus on economic development via the creation of a network of Igbo executives at home and abroad with a mission to develop programs to manage its homeland development projects.
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