Personality Profile 3rd edition

I believe Ndiowu will move forward again – Engr. Emenike
It is the prayer of the President-General (PG)of Ndiowu Town Union (NTU), Engr. Chike Emenike, that his town will get out of the mucky waters it found itself and move forward again. In this interview with our Editor-in-Chief, SUCCESS UCHIME, he talks on that and other critical and burning issues in his town Ndiowu. Excerpt.

Question: May our readers meet with you?
Answer: Well, I am Engr. Chike Emenike, a material and metallurgical Engineer. I finished from Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO), Owerri in the 1990s. I run my own company, and we are into corrosion services in the Oil and Gas sector. We are based in Port Harcourt. I am married with three children and I am a native of Ndiowu.
Question: You are the PG Ndiowu Town Union (NTU). For how long have you been the PG?
Answer: By the grace of God, I have been the PG since 2011. I was re-elected in 2013, and have just two years to finish my tenure.
Question: How do you feel being the PG of Ndiowu?
Answer: Honestly, I thought it was something that will not be of stress to me, though it has to be, but I see it as an opportunity to contribute to the betterment of my community. It is not as simple as I thought. Over the years, we have this issue of everybody complaining that things were not done well and that these people were doing this and doing that. So I thought that at 50 years plus, I should be able to do something well.
Question: What motivated you to aspire to that office?
Answer: At least, those things that people complained bitterly about, I wanted to see how we can come and remedy them, especially purposeful leadership. I am talking of a leadership that is devoid of sectionalism and division.  Leadership that takes into cognition, the growth and development of the town rather than of individualism and the thinking of one’s family only. There has been the issue of divide between Mgboms and the Aros in my town. My mother is from the stalk that answers Mgbom, while my father is from the stalk that answers Aro. So I am found in-between, and it will be difficult for me to side any of these divides, but in any case, I wanted to see the possibilities of down-playing all these divisions and move on the name Ndiowu. This is so because, that is the unifying factor for all of us. So that has been my vision.    I came in at a time everyone generally agreed there was no government, that the government then had collapsed, and that their interest was collecting one million from the then government of Mr. Peter Obi and do whatever they liked with it. The leadership completely broke down, either because the leaders then did not have an idea of what to do or that they had a narrow program, and I have to start from the scratch. As a matter of fact, there was no official handover from that regime, because there were two regimes operating parallel to each other. One was championed by one Arch. Godfrey Oguoyibo, while another one called Ndiowu People’s Council (NPC) was over seen by Mazi Rasford Nwafor.
Question: So who conducted election for you?
Answer: By the time we were discussing this election thing, we were told that the two factions were in court. Incidentally and fortunately for the community, the judgment of the court came out within the same period, so NPC won the case. We were not in government then, but we approached them, and requested they give us a go ahead to conduct a single election for Ndiowu, and they obliged.
Question: Was NPC a town union or a political organ?
Answer: It was actually a town union. It was after the court that the community came together and said, “let us drop these two names NPC and NTU and go with a new one.” So we set up a Caretaker Committee that will dissolve the two and conduct a fresh election. Then, NTU rejected the agreement and went to court and challenged APC and they lost the case. The court said APC is legal because it was a child of necessity as a result of the crises and factions. But already, NTU, because of their long leg, had NTU registered with the government. So we could not let it go. So when the 2011 judgment came, we then said, since we have NTU registered with the government, let us hold an election with that name instead of getting a new one, but it will not be a continuation of that regime. It was a consensus thing, and NPC was not operating with any constitution because it was a caretaker committee set up by the community. Meanwhile, NTU said they have a constitution, and on that day of election, there were intrigues. The Local Government Transition Committee then and the Town Union and Chieftaincy Matters at the states level brought all of us together in one single election, held at one venue, and that was the election I emerged. Mind you, that election was not conducted with any constitution, because NPC that won in the court did not have any constitution, they only had guidelines. NTU had a constitution which they called 1990. It was a factional constitution which also had its electoral guidelines and putting the two side by side, we could not have been able to conduct a successful election, because their guidelines were saying different things.
 Question: So what did you do then?
Answer: We merely adopted all the provisions. It was a consensus and by the grace of God, the Local Government Chairperson then, had to be our own Hon. Emeka Aforka, and he was there present, he practically supervised the consensus and we went on with the election. By the time we entered, it was obvious to me that we could not just continue to operate without a document and we said let us have a Constitution Review Committee along the line. Agreement was reached that four years should be ideal for the tenure of the executives, and that was my first two years in 2012. In August 2013, a new election based on the two years we agreed initially was supposed to come up in December of that same year, 2013, but this agreement was reached in August to be specific. We then said okay, whoever wins the 2013 election will run for four years. The agreement was documented; people were there from all over the places. On the day of the election, it was equally announced just to reaffirm, and the election took place, and I won. The inauguration was done by the transition chairman then.
Question: Having been PG for four years, what are your landmark achievements?
Answer: Okay yes! One major achievement I think we have made was that we were able to create that enabling environment that the entire Ndiowu people now believe in Ndiowu project. Based on that, a whole lot of things that were not happening before then started happening. Like as you were coming here, I hope you saw the tarred road. Within the few years I was there, the then Governor, Peter Obi made a promise to our able Hon. Okey Ude, and it came to pass. We looked at those things as major achievements we have made, because if we did not create that enabling environment, probably it would not be possible. Again, our people used to petition whenever a good thing is coming, but to my greatest surprise, there was no single petition.That borehole there is from MDGs, solar street lights also came from MDGs, and another borehole was done by the MDGs. Question: Do you have any budget estimate for 2016?
Answer: There is no budget apart from the income we have received now. That is, the N500, 000 the state government gave this December as palliatives. So it has been difficult getting fund, because most of us work against our attempt, even some prominent persons, most of them you may know in this town, have never supported the Town Union. The fact is that Ndiowu politics is very unique. Each time the Town Union makes a move, you must find people that will counter it.
Question: Why did you say that Ndiowu politics is unique?
Answer: It is unique in the sense that right from my childhood, there has been this divide. Some people use the Ngbom as a platform, because 99% of those that claim Ngbom in this town are not really Ngbom. We all know who the Ngboms are, but people use them as a platform to fight anything that is coming into the town, why? Because they said they are being described as slaves. They say some feel the town belongs to them, and because of that, they will never allow them to rest until they too become part of Ndiowu. The real Ngboms are all quiet and calm, very good people. You cannot find them fermenting troubles or being part of the meeting of the trouble makers.
Question: Are the Ngboms agitating for the Eze?
Answer: On the issue of Eze, the Ngboms say they need to be included in the politics of Ezeship. I quite agree that people have the right to agitate for one thing or the other. But I also know that you do not ask people to give you a position. You have to come into the fold and demand for your right. You do not fight from the outside. As far as I am concerned, that does not tell me they are demanding for anything, and that is my position. I know everyone has the right to agitate, but first of all, let us come together. Let there be a forum for discussion, and there, you tender your demands.  If they have a demand, they have to come and we address the issue one after the other, not by mudslinging or by writing petitions when you hear that government wants to do something in the town, then you write petition against it. Does that entail you are making a demand?
Question: What happened with the tenure issue?
Answer: Yes, they accused me of tenure elongation and manipulation of the constitution. I was accused of all manner of things. Even I was accused of selling a whole village and pocketed the money. I was accused of arming some youths with dangerous weapons and that they, the youths, have driven away all the prominent people in the town. Well, what I did as a result of all these accusations was to sit down and put my position in writing. I called it “Matters Arising” as regards Ndiowu chieftaincy and constitution. You know I have talked about a committee, after they did what they did and we took decision in 2013, nothing much happened again. They did not complete their assignment, so in the presence of the late Eze, a decision was taken to continue with the constitution, so as to complete it. We were making arrangements on how to finish the work on the constitution when an accusation came that I was going into the constitution because I wanted to become the Eze, and also that I wanted to elongate my tenure as mentioned earlier.
Question: Let us talk about the court issue. What prompted you going to court?
Answer: What happened was that the Special Adviser to the Governor on Chieftaincy Matters who when he invited us, that is my executive and the other faction led by Hon. Emeka Aforka, as usual on the constitution matter. I gave him all the documents and write-ups, how everything went. The said Hon. Aforka brought a document which he called their constitution and gave to the Adviser. He, the Adviser, said he will get back to us, but he never did. So we discovered that he was using the supposed constitution from the other faction as Ndiowu constitution. We protested and told him he cannot give Ndiowu a constitution, that the so-called constitution they gave to him was not Ndiowu constitution, that it was a factional thing. We had a heated argument, and I saw he was bent on using that constitution, and was about to set fire in Ndiowu. I should be stupid to allow him cause damage. So I have to start a court process to stop him from using that factional constitution to empower the other faction from holding an election.
Question: Did you just stopped at the court process?
Answer: No! I also wrote a petition to the Inspector-General (IG) to stop this group from setting fire to the community. They were really prepared. They threatened to kill me, kidnap me and all that, in the presence of the entire community. It will be stupid of me to just keep quiet. That was why I had to run to the IG, and he gave instructions that no election should be held until all the naughty issues are settled.
Question: So in summary, what is the key problem in Ndiowu?
Answer: Well, the key problem has been the constitution. So what is it in the Constitution? How the Eze will rotate. Will it rotate amongst the nine villages that make up Ndiowu, or the four quarters we have in the town? I have started the process of solving this longtime problem, and once I am able to end it well, people will be able to see that we have been able to relatively solve a major problem. We have been able to have a draft constitution on Chieftaincy and the Town Union. We are distributing copies to everyone, so people can make input.
Question: Any promise or prayer for Ndiowu?
Answer: You see, when I was growing up, I never knew anyone as Ngbom or Aro. So there is need for us to get back to our first love. Until we are able to do that, we cannot progress. When we are able to select a vibrant Eze and Town Union executives, I believe Ndiowu will move forward again. Therefore, my prayer is that God will help us have an acceptable constitution.