Grilling a governor IImo s Ikwechegh faces fire from Owerri chiefsAMADI Ikwechegh. the youthful

naval commander who became

the occupant of GovernmentHouse. Owerri. two years ago may behaving second thoughts about the dubious pleasures of governance. The governor of Imo State is currentlyembroiled in a no-win battle on two

fronts: one with the people of Owerriand the other with multi-millionaire in

dustrialist and football club owner Chief

Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu.First, the Owerri case. On December

29. 1987. President Ibrahim Babangida.on a working tour of Imo State, called atthe palace ot Eze Alexius AnumakuNjemanze. 95, the Igwe Ozuruigho 1\of Owerri. The famous IBB gap-toothed smile vva-> in place as the Ezcwelcomed the President Major-General Ike Nwachukwu. DuroOnabule. Chief Press Secretary to thePresident and the rest of the entourageinto the palace. Babangida was still hisusual warm self as the ritual breaking otkolanuts and pouring of libation lookplace in honour of the ancestors

But Babangida s smile was not to lastThe President became stone-faced asNath Onveukwu, one of EzeNjemanze s chiefs got up to read a •welcome address" on behalf of thenonagenarian ruler. After a preamblewhich noted that the President's visit"may not be an appropriate forum to

give expression to our numerous problems." the Eze said he had no choice butto let the President know "that vourloyal citizens in Owerri. Imo State capital have continued to roast in the furnaceof oppressive state administration "From then onwards, the speech becamea roller coaster-ride into the grievancesof Owerri people against the state administration. "As if Owerri were Sowetoof South Africa'*, the Eze charged, "theheat has been turned on my people withgreater intensity." The grouses ofOwerri people, as graphically describedin the seven-page address are:

• The state administration has acquired large portions of Owerri landwithout taking into consideration theneeds of the growing community andwithout paying compensations.

• Owerri people are denied employment and public appointment "for no

THE AFRICAN GUARDIAN MARCH 14. iVSS

• Governor Ikwechegh and (right) Eze

reason than that the state capital is sitedhere

• State and local government officials conspired to share out stalls at theEke L'kwu Owerri market to friends

and relations

• Even our dead have not been

spared'" Without informing the com-mumtv corpses were exhumed at thelocal cemetery on government orders,then battered by bulldozers while clearing was being done for a new reliefmarket

• The timber marked in the area, agreat source of employment to the indigenes, was being moved to anotherlocal government area.

• Eze Njemanze and other traditional rulers in the area were being subordinated "to inferior institutions out

side our community."The address demanded that

Njemanze be given a place in the statecouncil ot chiefs as he is one of thelongest serving traditional rulers in theState The Eze's speech ended by urgingBabangida to ""defuse the socioeconomic and socio-political time-bomb" and for an "extensive open investigation or commission to look intothe Owerri question"

There was a charged, pin-drop silence

Njemanze: A hver between

I while the speech was being read. Butj Elze Njemanze obviously happy with his

coup de grace nodded his grey headapprovingly The state governor, likeone whose tail was on fire, sat at the

edge of his seat, a horrified expressionon his face, and he looked as if he would

spring out of his chair any minute to stopChief Onyeukwu from going on. Therest of Babangida's party •" Major-General Ike Nwachukwu. Onabule and

newsmen at the occasion looked on in

stunned silence, occasionally exchanging meaningful glances

After the speech. Babangida got up torespond. He chose to speak off thecuff, ignoring the prepared speech. ThePresident reiterated his administra

tion's policy of social justice, self reliance and economic reconstruction,

and promised to look into the grievances of Njemanze and his people. Itwas a subdued party that left the Eze'spalace after the short speech. Onabulewas later heard asking the governor'sPress Secretary. Chike Tasie, why hedid not get a copy of Njemanze's speechbefore hand. Tasie's reply was that thespeech read was different from the onehe got from the palace before the visit,and that, anyway, Njemanze hadpraised the state governor when the De-

fence Minister. Domkat Bali was in Imo

for an earlier visit.Before leaving Imo State, sources

say. Babangida ordered Ikwechegh todo something about the complaints ofthe Owerri people. But Ikwechegh wasapparently determined to have hispound of flesh. Eleven days later, hesummoned Njemanze and his chiefs toGovernment House, Owerri and gavethem a dressing down for embarrassing"our revered Mr President" andcharged that their action was in badfaith and also unbecoming of any community in Igboland".

"Since Owerri became the capital,since the creation of Imo State, the people of Owere Nchi-Ise (the originalname of the town) have consistentlypetitioned against the government andconsistently obstructed the state government in whatever it is doina."

Cover Choice

Ikwechegh fumed. "'You can't continueto do what you do and get away withit.... what happened on the day Mr.President visited was an absolute sign ofdisloyalty to this administration."Ikwechegh also threatened to "dealvery firmly with anybody, just aboutanybody who tries to obstruct this government." The governor ended by declaring that "Owere Nchi-Ise community constitutes a very minute percentageof Owerri Local Government, not totalk of Imo State in general, a population of 200,000 against 9 million. You donot even constitute a third." After thespeech. Ikwechegh abruptly thankedthe Eze and others for coming, thenturned on his heels and stalked out

IN a move that would have made afiction writer envious, unknown to

Ikwechegh his spe'ech was recorded

"Personality clash'Iwuanyanwu, government exchange punches' over airport

out seething with rage three days afterthe report appeared. In a statement reported extensively by the state's broadcast and print media, the governmentaccused Iwuanyanwu of distorting facts,adding that "it is becoming increasinglydifficult to distinguish between hisavowed patriotism and his misguidedstatements " The statement went on to

"elucidate the issues raised by ChiefIwuanyanwu" with a lengthy explanation of the credibility of those involvedin the project, complete with the namesand qualifications of the engineers, consultants, trustees, and contractor. The

statement added for good measure that"Chief Iwuanyanwu's past involvement

by one of those who attended the meetingwith Njemanze. On January 12. EzeNjemanze sent a tape of the governor'sspeech and the transcript to Babangidawith a note that the governor's action is"'the highest level of disrespect thatcould ever be meted out to a traditionalruler of my age anywhere in this countryfor any reason". Eze Njemanze alsosent a lengthier note to Ikwecheghwarning that "if the intention of yourdressing down was to intimidate us.then you have to think out anothermeans" He also countered the governor's charge that the Eze was tactlessin his choice of forum by asking: "If youcould at the civic reception at the stadium make demands on the President

what is wrong in our telling him ourproblems at my palace? You spokeof Igbo culture and custom. I wonderhow you place your own action

in airport construction and aviationmatters was as a pupil engineer withNCFC Limited which reconducted the

Enugu airport at the end of the civilwar i

Iwuanyanwu was also accused ofjumping the gun because an applicationfor an upward review submitted by thecontractor for the first phase (initialcost; N29.78V.55i)) has not yet beenconsidered. The government lambastedhim for making his doubts public at alaunching organised to promote theproject The attitute, ruled the government, was "improper and inelegant."

Iwuanyanwu's response contained ina statement signed by his company'sdirector of administration a few dayslater, explained the circumstances thatled to his speech. He hurriedly left ameeting of the trustees of the StateBlood Bank that day as soon as he was

THE Imo Airport Appeal Fund isnot your routine, run-of-the-mill

fund-raising effort As any Owerri taxidriver would tell you, an airport is notjust a necessity,having one is a matter ofpride And nobody knows this betterthan Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu.multi-millionaire industrialist and philanthropist who has doled out at least N2million for the project since it was launched in 1986 and made numerous publicappearances promoting the fund

Improvbable as it may seem.Iwuanyanwu is currently at loggerheadswith the state government over the project. The immediate cause of the increasing tension is a story in the National Concord of February 7 which reported Iwuanyanwu's criticism of theescalating cost of the project from aninitial N50 million to N80 million.

In the report which he has admittedare "especially my views,"Iwuanyanwudeclared that the airport project mightbecome a "bottomless pit" and warnedthat "the people of Imo State might beheld to ransom" by the foreign construction company handling it.Iwuanyanwu who made his criticism atthe launching of an album to promotethe airport project also said that the additional N59 million would have to be gotelsewhere at "a higher level and outsideImo State."

Obiously angered by Iwuanyanwu'scomments, the state government came • Governor Ikwechegh (left) and Chief Iwuanyanwu: When the going was good

16THE AFRICAN GUARDIAN MARCH 14. 198X

at you, an Igbo boy would walk outon me without the least respect, to saythe least, is an abomination."

In a third note to the Chairman of the

State Council of Chiefs, Eze AkanuIbiam, Njemanze asked him "to bringgood reason to bear on this boy." Soonafter Ikwechegh got wind ofNjemanze's action, the man who recorded the governor's angry speech wasinvited for a "chat" with securityagents. He was, however, released onthe same day, apparently on ordersfrom Lagos.

Since the controversial welcome

address, reactions have come from different sections of Imo society. The statecouncil of chiefs has criticised Eze

Njemanze for directing his grouses tothe President and asked him to make a

public apology to the governor. The deputy chairman of the council, Eze Onu

informed that the record launching wasabout to begin and his presence wasneeded as chief launcher. He had re

ceived no prior notice of his role at thelaunching. Iwuanyanwu also stated thathe based his comments on figures supplied by Biety Nwanju a permanentsecretary in the Cabinet Office, Owerriwho also doubles as the secretay of theAirport Appeal Fund. Iwuanyanwualso added that contrary to the government's statement, he was an "executiveengineer" not a "pupil engineer" whenNCFC handled the Enugu airport project.| Nwanju, who signed the governmentstatement, has refused to commentdirectly on the controversy. "I am a civilservant. I'm gagged," he pleads. And ina conciliatory tone, he concedes thatIwuanyanwu, like everyone else, supports the project. If he didn't, hewouldn't have allowed his team to playlast Saturday to promote the appealfund." Nwanju also declared that (thestatement) was a collective thing. Isigned for someone."

Iwuanyanwu does not think now isthe time for compromise. He told TheAfrican Guardian that he has "a stake inthis state. I have spent a lot of my moneyon this state. I have a right to criticisewhat I don't agree with. I don't deservethis kind of attack." Iwuanyanwu is enraged at suggestions that he criticisedthe project only because his company's(Hardel and Enic) tender was rejected."I did not tender out of principles. Aftergiving so much money and putting in somuch effort, I did not want it to seemthat I was only contributing because I

THE AFRICAN GUARDIAN MARCH 14. 1988

• President Babangida: Urged Ikwecheghto act

Egwuwoke told The African Guardianlast week that the President's visit "wasnot personal to Njemanze and his community. It was to show respect to thetraditional rulers of Imo State. It was

wanted something for myself. That viewis malicious. And it is the same civilservants who told false and malicious

stories about my career", he fumed.What has been the reaction of people

to his much publicised face-off with thegovernemnt?

"It has back-fired. People are askingquestions. I have received over 3,000messages of solidarity from people. Themasses are against them."

Why did he choose to criticise the

"Iwuanyanwu declared thatthe airport project might become a "bottomless pit"and warned that''the peopleofImo State might be held toransom'' by theforeign construction company handlingit."

handling of the project at a launching inaid of same?

"Why can't I criticise? People look upto me. If things fall apart, they will askme questions," he explained. There areinsinuations that Iwuanyanwu was critical of the project because the chairman of the Task Force, Chief Evan En-

werem, who is from his village Atta,near Owerri, is a (peal rival. Iwuanyanwu is unimpressed by such suspicions.He says "Evan Enwerem is a politician.I'm not. I don't have any political ambition, at least not now. But 1 did not

not a forum for the expression of parochial community views." Some insiderssuggest that Njemanze's reference in hisaddress to Babangida to "the inferiortraditional institution outside our com

munity" to which Owrri chiefs havebeen subordinated was to Egunwoke.But Eguwunwoke denies this: "I don'tbelieve he was referring to me. Underthe law, no autonomous communuty isinferior to the other." Egwunwoke,who is also the Chancellor of the Un-

viersity of Jos feels that if Njemanze wastalking about him "it's unfortunate. ButI don't want to make a post-mortem ofthe incident."

Several organisations in Njemanze'skingdom have condemned the StateCouncil of Chiefs for criticisingNjemanze. The Owere Nchi-Ise Community Assembly, Njemanze's cabinetand the women in the community, have

attack Enwerem.

Iwuanyanwu contends that the onlyfear he had nursed over the project before the recent controversy was over thenon-completion of the first phase, comprising civil works, terminal buildings,control tower, fire service station andhangar, airfield, lighting and navigational aids.

IGIC Limted, the Israeli firm whichgot the first phase of the project, alsobuilt the Imo State University's permanent site, Okigwe, and the Grasshoppers International Handball Stadium,Owerri.

So far, N 10,941,562 out of NT2.6 mill-lion collected has been spent on the project. About N8 million in the state's current budget is earmarked for the airport.The initial payment of N4.5 millionwas made by the government.

Significantly, there is something onwhich Iwuanyanwu and governmentofficials seems to agree. In spite of theenthusiasm of the citizens of the state, it is

unlikely that the bulk of the money forthe project would come from small-timedonors. "We need big donors and bigfirms," says Nwanju. Iwuanyanwu putsit this way: "Imo people cannot pay therest of the money. There's no way theycan.

However, there is a beneficial fall-out

from the government-Iwuanyanwufeud. IGIC International, the firmhandling the project, seems hardly eager to press its request for an upwardreview of the project since Iwuanyanwu's fiery speech and the reactions it hasgenerated.

By Paul Nwabuikwu in Owerri

17

Cover Choice

A mafia saga

Ghost of a powerful Bende clique hunts allBENDE is a small, relatively unknown town that few

people outside Imo State have ever heard of. Within thestate,however, it hasa larger-than-life mystique asthe placeafter which apowerful interest group comprising military bigshots, top civil servants, government officials and businessmen is named.

Like the kaduna, Langtang, Ikenne and Kuru versions, itis difficult tosay whether any such group exists orwhether itis really as powerful and cohesive as itis said to be. Membersof the Bende mafia are saidto come fromAbiriba,Uzuakoh,Ohafia, Item and towns around and within the old OkigweProvince.

A roll-call of the so-called mafia members, reads like aWho is Who of prominent Imo citizens: The nation's ex-number two man, Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe (rtd); Transport Minister, Kalu Idika Kalu; External Affairs Minister,Major-General Ike Nwachukwu; AFRC member Commodore Godwin Ndubuisi Kanu and Ambassador Igwe. Members of the Mafia, so the story goes, are also in charge ofstrategic ministries inImo State including finance where both

the commissioner and permanent secretary are said to be inthe Bende group. The Secretary to the state government,and most significantly, the present state governor who isfrom lgbere, near Bende, are also supposedly members.

The emergence of the Bende clique can be traced to thepre-and post civil war periods when large numbersof youngmen from towns around Bende joined the military. Many ofthem later attained prominence in Nigeria's post-civil warscene, dominated by the military. Most of those who insist onthe existence of the mafia are drawn from outside the Bendearea.

One of the charges made against the mafia is that themulti-campus system of the ImoState University which covered the five senatorial districts of the state was discardedfor a single campus sited in Okigwe. in the Bende areas.

Whether or not there is any substance to the talk about amafia is open to debate. Already, there are some fall-outsfrom the pervading disenchanment amongthe Bende outsiders. After the furore generated by the unauthorised recordingof the Governor's angryspeechto someOwerritraditional rulers and the subsequent despatch of the tape to thePresident (see main story), all visitors to GovernmentHouse, Owerri are now thoroughly searched. Not even commissioners are exempted.

come out in support of him, insistingthat there is "no basis for the Eze toapologise."

Ikwechegh's problems with Owerripeopleare not entirely of hisown making. Various administrations in the 12-year-old history of Imo State, from thatof Commander (now Commodore)Ndubuisi Kanu to Navy Captain AllisonMadueke, Ikwechegh's predecessor,have had to grapple with the Owerriquestion. Compensation for land takenfrom the indigenes for government projects has remained the thorniest issue,although other issues such as appointments to public offices have come aclose second. Indigenes of the state whohave been governors — Kanu, IkeNwachukwu and Ikwechegh — haveshown a marked tendency to becomeenmeshed in the politics of the "Owerriquestion" as it has come to be known. Inthe note he sent to Ikwechegh togetherwith the transcript of the governor'sspeech to Owerri chiefs, Njemanzemade a barbed reference to "smalltowns that have provided governors,"obviously referring to the governor'shometown, lgbere, near Bende.

During his tenure as governor,Nwachukwu released 14 plots of land toNjemanze when the disputes over landand compensation became unbearable.The Owerri ruler decided to share itout, hamlet-by-hamlet in his community. Some "eminent citizens", were nothappy and it became another excuse forbitter in-fighting

18

The Owerri problem is not a simple,cut-and-dried issue of a people who areangry with government over wrongsdone them. Njemanze's community isnot unanimously behind him. althoughthe "renegades", as Njemanze's supporters describe the opponents, are inthe minority. In the shifting sands ofOwerri politics, there have been numerous alignments and re-alignments with

"Compensation for land takenfrom the indigenes for government projects has remained thethorniest issue, although otherissues such as appointments topublic offices have come a closesecond."

various prominent subjects taking turnsat supporting either the Eze or the government. The dramatis personae include Duke Njiribeako, a lawyer,T.C.K. Osuji, H.S.K. Osuji (the majority leader in the state House of Assembly under the Mbakwe administration)and Dan Njemanze, all well-knownaround Owerri. Those currently crossing swords with Eze Njemanze includeH.S.K. Osuji and Dan Njemanze, whoheads Oha Owere (Council of Elders).A press anouncement by Oha Owerethat there was likely to be a breach ofthe oeace during the annual Oru Owerefestival led to a government ban on the

festival last July.Njemanze's demand that he be made

a member of the state Council of Chiefs

because he is one of the few pure traditional rulers in Imo State typifies thebizarre nature of Owerri politics. Thecouncil is made up of 42 traditional rulers, one half appointed by governmentand the other half through elections bychiefs in the various "autonomous com

munities." Njemanze is not a memberbecause, for unknown reasons, he hasbeen side-stepped by various governments. He lost when he ran for electionin his community in 1986.

THERE is no doubt, however,

that the grievances of Owerripeople, whatever their merit, are

deep-seated. It is a peculiar case of apeople who have come to perceive thechoice of their territory as capital as thesource of their misfortune. "Peoplefrom other places in Imo State havecome to cause trouble between us. Theythink they can take our land and ourmarket stalls and everything away", declared an angry Owerri indigene to TheAfrican Guardian.

If only to forestall a re-enactment ofwhat happened when the Presidentcame visiting last year, and save himselfthe ordeal of a verbal public hanging.Governor Ikwechegh must confront theOwerri issue once and for all.

By Paul Nwabulkwu with reportsfrom Victor Alozie in Owerri Qfc

THE AFRICAN GUAREflAN MARCH 14. 1988