Che, Che, Che, Ohafia Kwen, Ohafia Kwen, Udumeze Kwen, Mben Kwen, Abia Kwen, Igbo Kwen, Nigeria Kwen, America Kwen, Uwadum Kwen, Ohafia Kwezuanu.

Your Excellencies Hon. Chiefs
The Honorable Chairman of this occasion,
The Honorable President of ONO and his Executive
Honored Guests
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good day, what a great day. I feel more than honored being here today, and I must thank the indefatigable President of this organization, and his hard-working executives, and the honorable Chapter Presidents, for inviting me to speak here today. I accepted when Mr. Henry Ajike reached out to me and told me what he and his executive were planning for Ohafia since their election into office. It was a great music to my ears. Though he and I had never corresponded, he believed that I could play some roles in what he and his executive were trying to achieve for Ohafia. He followed up with calls, he followed up with emails as well as snail mail, pardon my jargon. Listen, Henry, I sincerely thank you for the great job you have done and are trying to do for Ohafia and the people of Ohafia. Could you please join me in giving Mr. Henry Ajike and his team a great round of applause.

Again, good day everyone. My name is Chika Onyeani. I am from Okagwe Ohafia, guardian of the Ohafia Mighty Warriors. Okay, thanks for agreeing with me.

Normally in the life of a professional Speaker, this is the time he whips out a joke to pretend to calm his audience. But I have been reliably informed that this really to calm the speaker’s nerves, stop his tremulous voice and look his audience in the eye and convey the right message. But for me, I always tell my audience that I don’t have a joke, I am not a comedian, but that whatever story or joke I tell, they must laugh and clap for me. You must do likewise. Okay, let me tell this story of Obidiya, I am sure there are many Obidiyas here. Okay, thank you. Cheee, Ohafia Kwen, Udumeze Kwen, Mben Kwen, Kwezuanu!!

Okay, I think I have recognized and thanked everybody, but those who feel I haven’t recognized or thanked them enough, please don’t get mad, your reward is coming later.

Let me take this opportunity to thank our sponsor, Arik Air International, for agreeing with me on the importance of this organization. Arik Air has become the most important airline in West Africa, and with so many airlines to get a route to the United States, especially after 9/11 and being denied, it was very delightful to see another Airline which could take you from New York directly to Lagos, non stop. So many people who have taken Arik Air, including myself and my wife, are more than satisfied with the services they provide. We will be talking about the sponsorship they provided to this organization later, but I thank them sincerely, especially their Executive Vice President, Mr. Bob Brunner, who formerly was an Executive of British Airways.

The topic I was given to speak today is on the subject of “Moving Ohafia Forward.” I feel especially exalted that I am asked to address this subject, which we need if we are going to succeed in building the type of Ohafia society that we all dream about. Let me say this: I love Ohafia very much, and what we stand for. Ohafia Kwen, Udumeze Kwen, Mben Kwen. I have no doubt that you all love Ohafia as much as I do, and some might even have better claim to loving Ohafia more than I do. But I thought I should here recount a little bit the very insignificant role I have played and will to the best of my ability continue to play for Ohafia and the people of Ohafia.

You see, when I was barely out of my teens, I was elected the Secretary-General of the Okagwe Development Union in Lagos. Then, the Union seconded me to the Ohafia Union, where I was promptly elected the Assistant Secretary General. And before I could breathe, I was seconded to the Bende Union. But before I could do anything, I was posted out of Nigeria by the then Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Commonwealth Relations.

Immediately after the Biafra-Nigeria war, we looked around and found that there were quite a few people from Ohafia in this country, including Prof. Kalu Mba Kalu, Dr. Umah Eleazu, Dr. Kalu Idika Kalu, Dr. Arunsi Chukwu, Dr. Ibe Ukoha Ibe, the late Dr. Ogbu Kalu, and myself. I am sure there are a few individuals I might have missed. We decided that it was time to form the Ohafia Union here in America. Eventually, we got together in the suburb of Washington DC, and elected Dr. Eleazu our President, with yours truly as the Secretary-General.

But those who had foresight, like Dr. Uma Eleazu and Dr. Kalu Idika Kalu, decided to return to Nigeria, but some of us thinking we had a better life here, albeit a falsehood, stayed. With the departure of some of the important members of the organization, the Union became unable to function.

That’s until the 1990s when the late Mrs. Nena Kalu, Prof. K. M. Kalu’s wife, (May Her Soul Rest in Perfect Peace), continued to call me and chastise me for having organized the first Imo State Association in America, helped organize the Congress of Nigerians Abroad, the forerunner to NIDOA, of which I became its National Chairman. As busy as I was at that time, I decided to listen to her, and through my office in New York then, I had my secretary then who happened to be from Ohafia as well, call the Ohafia individuals in the New York tri-state area. At our first meeting, I made it plain that I didn’t want to hold any posts, just because I organized the meeting didn’t mean that I should be its head, a post I nominated Prof. K. M. Kalu to hold. But the people would not have it, and asked me to be the Vice Chairman.

In terms of this ONO organization, let me just say that I knew a very charismatic young Ohafia individual who we believed was willing and able to reach out to others in terms of organizing a effective Ohafia National union, and that individual I still regard as very charismatic is Chief Emmanuel Ukpai. Some of us played a major role in the formation of the national organization, including myself who gave Chief Ukpai the contact name in Washington, DC, Mr. Tony Agwu and spoke to that individual about their forming their own chapter, and that he should expect a call from Chief Ukpai. The Washington, DC chapter was eventually formed and we were all there for its first major event. Again, I spoke to Chief Dr. Nwojo Agwu and gave his name to Chief Ukpai about the formation of the California Chapter. I believe it is now the biggest ONO chapter in America. I believe Chief Dr. Agwu is here today, and I salute him.

Not to bore you further, I provided jobs to four Ohafia citizens in the 1990s when it was critically important for them to have jobs, and even had my mother in law sign the papers for an Ohafia individual, not related to me, to get their green card. Every Friday night in New York, the call sign of my radio program, “StraightTalk with Dr. Chika Onyeani on the AllAfricaRadio,” is the Ohafia War Dance. In 2007, during your Convention in North Carolina, I had MoneyGram sponsor the event, though I wasn’t there or a member of any of the chapters. As I said before, it is totally an insignificant part, and I have no doubt that there many here who could rightfully lay claim for having done a lot more for Ohafia and the people of Ohafia. My love for Ohafia and the people of Ohafia will never end. Ohafia Kwen, Udumeze Kwen, Mben Kwen.

So how do we move Ohafia forward? Let me just say that, unfortunately, for a long time, there developed some internal problems within the organization. I cannot sincerely articulate what the problems were, since I was not there. Here’s where I commend the focused efforts of the present administration of ONO, and its hardworking President, because I could look around and see that almost everybody is back in the fold. Please again, give them a round of applause.

Hence, I say that the first step towards moving Ohafia forward has already been and is being taken. Therefore, I will name Unity, whether here in the Diaspora or back home in Nigeria, as the first order in the essential steps towards moving Ohafia forward. As I wrote in my book, Capitalist Nigger: The Road to Success,” when a grasshopper enters into a clay pot, it will die; but let a thousand or more grasshoppers enter the same clay pot, they will break it into pieces. Unity is strength. You see, when a leader regards himself as a servant-leader, though unfortunately that term was misused by the late Nigerian leader, Yar’Adua, (may his soul rest in peace). When you have a leader who is willing to reach out to everybody, no matter their station in life and is willing to see that things are moving forward, whose paramount goal is that of unity, then you have to commend that leader.

As I said before, our President and his executive have already taken the giant step of bringing together a united Ohafia in the Diaspora. But they cannot do it all by themselves. I still use the proverb of the grasshopper. There is no doubt that there will always be somebody who will be aggrieved about one thing or another. There might be units that are still aggrieved, let’s extend the olive branch to them. What we have to understand is that leadership has no permanent enemies or permanent friends. We see it everyday in politics, we see it with countries. Who could have believed that Libya would be a darling of the U.S. government and be salivating each other’s spittle, given the number of years they were enemies? Today, countries are enemies, tomorrow they are friends, because of their respective interests. Our interest in Ohafia should be our guiding principle. There are many of our people back home who are not as lucky as some of us are, and live an incredible life of hardship. Hundreds of thousands of them are not as lucky as some of our relatives are in having somebody in the Diaspora who could send them money on a regular basis. Our number one priority should be UNITY: it means doing everything possible to bring back everybody into the fold so that we could do something for the teeming thousands back home and even here who need our help.

Secondly, we need effective governance. While we might have effective leadership, we should understand that that goes hand in hand with effective governance. We need to study and emulate how other organizations, albeit maybe non-Nigerian or even African, have evolved into powerhouses of effective and productive partners for development in their respective countries. ONO needs an air-tight constitution. It needs to ensure that the organization is in a position to go to the American people and solicit donations for its activities back home, and to do that, it must ensure that it has the right non-profit status – a 501© 3 designation. If we have a 501©3, we must begin to initiate projects back home which could attract funding from several sources in America.

We have seen how so many Igbo organizations in the Diaspora are embroiled in one crisis or another. Let’s not emulate these organizations. Even our so-called pan-Igbo leadership, the World Igbo Congress, have been divided into two parts, fighting each other in court. Since its founding in 1994, the World Igbo Congress has not done one thing meaningful for Igbo people, except some of them trotting to Abuja or the different Igbo states capital, thinking they will use their position as a springboard to leadership back home.

Unfortunately, I am not privy to the benefits that have emanated and accrued to Ohafia people back home, since the founding of ONO. So it would be foolish of me to say that ONO has behaved in the same way as the World Igbo Congress. It is even possible that individual chapters might have undertaken their own projects back home. While the organization is not based on individual village unions, I am proud to say that the Okagwe Development Union, ODU, could proudly look at the fact that the village has electricity today through the efforts of the Union here, working together with the World Bank. It is not just doing something for our people back home that is important. We need to help one another.

The reason I am invited all over the world to speak is because of what I discovered about Asians – Indians and the Chinese – how they have become extremely wealthy because they help one another, they patronize one another. They might be from different religious backgrounds, or even different political parties, but when it comes to commerce, they behave like one unit. The Indian or the Chinese, could travel hundreds of miles so that they could patronize another Indian or Chinese.

Personally, I am more interested in building a powerful organization here in the United States, that will eventually translate into huge benefits for our people. But if we are to do this, it is necessary as I had said earlier that we must involve the sons and daughters of Ohafia in America, no matter where they are stationed. In this regard, as my wife has consistently and constantly reminded me, we must involve our children in the project called “Moving Ohafia Forward.” I know I am the oldest person here, but we are all getting older. It is our children who will have to eventually take over, whether they were born here in America or back in Nigeria.

It is necessary that we establish a youth wing of ONO, with a view to registering all our children. Luckily, my children are adults who have given me two lovely grandchildren, and I have told them that they need to join the Ohafia organization in their area. I therefore have two children who are ready to be registered in the youth wing, as young as they are. Our legacy must be to continue this project called Ohafia when eventually some of us would have gone to our maker.

I could continue with a litany of things that we need to do, but which due to its burdensomeness, would be unrealizable. But I believe that if we build a very powerful organization here in America, any Nigerian dignitary visiting the U.S. would want to have audience with us, without us running after them. This is why I took it upon myself to reach out to the two Nigerian Consuls-General in New York and Atlanta just this week, who expressed sadness that they weren’t informed in time about our event, but certainly would attend next time we have it. It is to give notice that Ohafia National Organization is a major Nigerian organization that must be reckoned with. When I organized Imo State Association in the 1990s and we had our first event, two Nigerian ambassadors attended. When the leaders back in Nigeria hear what the Ohafia people are doing here in America, with huge benefits to our people back home, as I said, they will seek us out and not the other way around.

Finally, the two proposals I want to make here is with the hindsight of what my wife and I have been doing in the last four years – traveling to many African countries to look at how those countries have organized their tourism. In 2007, the Djibouti government paid for all my expenses, including my airfare and hotel accommodation in the first 7 star hotel in Africa, to join the Africa Travel Association for their annual congress to that country.

Unfortunately, a problem developed in my eye with the result that my doctor canceled my going. In 2008, we went to Tanzania, in 2009 we went to Egypt, and this year, we went to the Gambia. We have seen how these countries, or the specific areas they have developed, have profited immensely from tourists. For instance, tourism is the No.1 industry in Tanzania, the same thing in the Gambia. Tourism brings hard currency to these countries, which in essence is like an export.

Ohafia has a rich history, and we can exploit and turn this into bringing foreign visitors to Ohafia where they will spend money, in staying in hotels in the area, in buying crafts made by Ohafia people, by training and providing guides who are versed in the history of Ohafia. Tourism creates jobs and we need to find a way of creating jobs for our children. For example, my wife and I have been invited for a familiarization tour of Nigeria next month. When you look at the itinerary that they have proposed for us, not one of the Igbo states are included. Why, because we are too busy trying to find the easiest way of making money, like the current spate of kidnappiings, and creating fears within our region. But Akwa Ibom, Cross River and Rivers states are included in the 15 day tour which are being paid for by private corporate and Nigerian government funds.

When people visit Ohafia, they should be told the rich history of our area and people. In this case, I propose the establishment of the Ohafia Museum of History and Culture. With a Museum like this, we would be able to catalog every aspect of Ohafia history and culture, not only for the benefits of tourists, but as well as for our own, especially the coming generation of Ohafians. In this regard, I am personally going to put in $10,000.00 of my own money towards realizing the building of the Ohafia Museum of History and Culture.

Secondly, as we are all aware, erosion is becoming a huge menace in Ohafia. We have seen what Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai of Kenya has achieved in Kenya. I propose that each and everyone one of us here agree to plant at least 10 to 100 trees a year in his village. I further propose the creation of the Ohafia National Park, to be determined where it should be located, and how the purchase of the land could be funded, domestically and internationally, and internally and externally.

As you can see, in the case of “Moving Ohafia Forward,” my proposals have nothing to do with what government can do for us, my proposals are what we can do for the people of Ohafia ourselves, in transforming that area into a heaven that we would be proud to call home.

I know I have already taken too much of your time. But let me take a few more minutes to talk a little bit about the Arik Air sponsorship. When I contacted the Executive Vice President, and asked for a $5,000 sponsorship, I didn’t hear from him for two weeks. Then I called him and asked what was going on. He replied that he could do better than what I had proposed, he could provide two tickets worth more than $5,000 to be raffled at this event. Our President would be providing the rules involved in the use of these tickets by the individual or individuals who are lucky to win. Please join me in expressing our sincere gratitude and thanks to Mr. Bob Brunner and Arik Air International.

Let me re-empasize that the most important aspect of “Moving Ohafia Forward” is Unity. At this time, let us just get up and shake hands with one another and express our love for Ohafia. Okay.

Again, I sincerely thank Mr. Henry Ajike and his executive team for inviting me to speak to you. It has been a great privilege, and hopefully, you might find one thing you like in what I have said. If not, please let’s still move forward in making Ohafia the great people we are born to be.

Cheeeee, Ohafia Kwen, Udumee Kwen, Mben Kwen, Igbo Kwen, Nigeria Kwen, America Kwen, Ohafia Kwezuanu. Ohafia kani wo.

July 2010

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