NOBODY CAN UNDERMINE THE CONSTITUTION OF IGBUZO YOUTH – ASIODU

By: Ike Philip Abiagom & Benson Nwoko

As Youth President seeking to nurture future Community leaders,focus first on cultivating empathy ,service and ethics in yourself and others. The out going Igbuzo Youths  Council (IYC) ; the umbrella body of all youths organisations in Igbuzo. In this exclusive interview with Newsbreeze, speaks on the Youths election in Igbuzo , his achievements and challenges  amongst sundry issues.  Hear the passion, vision, and expectations for the youths at Harvest of Royalty. Get inspired to take your place in this divine celebration of out going youths President of Igbuzo . Excerpts!

Q:   Can we meet you sir

My name is Chief ( Comrade) Ifeanyi Asiodu ,from  Umuodafe Igbuzo

You are the outgoing president, can you tell us about your achievements

Thank you very much. Yes I am the out-going President of Igbuzo Youth Council. So far so good,I would have done more, if not for a few individuals and groups that said if you are not a cultist or politician they will not allow you to excel or do what you are supposed to do but like I said we have achieved a lot. I can beat my chest to say what we have done in the first year and second year, my predecessor’s tried their best but  we beat their records.

For example in my administrating,we were able to buy two Toyota Sienna buses ,one for the Igbuzo police and the other for one for Oshimili North surveillance . There was nothing we didn’t  do then to help encourage the police to protect life and properties in our dear town, the records are there. In my tenure we guarded the entire community . We don’t have so much resources in our purse but I personally funded some of the youths activities. We have ten Ogbes in Igbuzo and anybody who is an indigene knows what it takes to prepare youths to guard throughout the night and the Local Government would always promised to assist financially but they never did.

During the Covid 19, when the protesters were looting ware houses, we guarded Igbuzo well,even when warehouses in Asaba were looted and some items carted but the Igbuzo youths guarded day and night without any problem.

Come to the issue of roads, we did our best, before now you can testify that there were lots of pot holes in some of our roads. We tried our best to fill them, if you go to Kefas road up to the junction by Okwali`s house ,people can always testify that the culvert was bad for many years  and no vehicle or trucks can pass the road, not even the government did anything about it. We the youths took over the project of the culvert and constructed it manually and today it is passable and big trucks can ply the culvert now.

Again from Kefas road to Useni road and other roads in Igbuzo, we filled the pot holes  roads and make them  motorable again. Those are what we did as Igbuzo youths council on our roads .

Sir, How did you tackle Kidnapping and Cult crises in Igbuzo? 

I can say during my tenure ,we tackle kidnapping in Igbuzo to the barest minimum and we did our best and I will tell you why kidnapping are still going on . The people in government knows why. There was this night there was a case of gun shooting  in Umuoehea  farm road in Igbuzo and two people were caught but when the police found out that they were  rival cultist members, the people in authority changed the matter immediately accusing the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) that he is taking side and because the two culprits are members of particular cult group that are in power, power that be called Igbuzo DPO to release them because they were members of a particular cult group and they were released at last.

When I discovered that it was big cover up from the authority ,I told myself that I cannot be  investing my money and risking my life and that of my members guarding the Igbuzo people and the government in charge will be sabotaging our efforts. They only bring people to book if the culprit does not belong to a particular political group or cult.

Sir, can you talk on Youths Empowerment in IGBUZO?

Under my leadership, we set up a free computer school in Igbuzo which is still operational. We rented a  complete duplex and employed qualified  teachers that we are paying every month and it is still on till date.

Under my leadership, we empowered more than hundred men and women the records are there. The people are still alive they can testify. We gave them cash of ten thousand each, apart from that we have people we are training in schools. More than fifty of them are under my personal scholarship .  Since 1997, I have been sponsoring people in the Universities and Secondary schools. Recently three people just graduated from Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka.

On sanitation everybody can testify what we did as youths, we cleared the drainages from Kefas junction to Isieke, Useni roads and inside the town you can go and verify. We cleaned the entire Ashi -Eke market with millions of naira.

Under my leadership we were paying the most senior Diokpa of Igbuzo till death, I started it from the previous Diokpa.  infact I started paying from the first day I assumed duty as youths president. Everything I have said are verifiable.

Sir, Lets Talk about the Youths Election that is Heating up the Politics in Igbuzo 

We ought to have conducted this election since last year and the delay of the election was as a result of respect we accorded to the local government Council chairman, we held meeting last year with him concerning the election and he personally appeal to the Youths Council to suspend their election till after the local government poll and give the government some time to settle down so that the youths election will now be conducted in a peaceful atmosphere. We waited as discussed and since the government had now settled down we decided to go ahead and conduct election to enable new executives emerge. We set up Igbuzo Youths Electoral  Committee with the mandate to sale forms,screen and conduct election as guided by our constitution. The new Electoral Committee was introduced to our Royal father ,His Royal Majesty, Obi(Prof) Louis Nwoboshi and the Local Government Chairman  Hon. Innocent Esewezie  and we followed our constitution which is the grand norm.

The Igbuzo youths Constitution wasn’t written by me or one person. it was meant for the future and this is the first time it is going to work. As the President of Igbuzo youths, we must follow our constitution and we  must protect the constitution and make sure it works to the end.

The Ibusa Youth Council has always Operated under a well defined constitution, particularly  Section 13, which empowers the youths President to constitute Electoral Committee that can carry out their duties independently.
Moreover, after few months of not conducting a fresh youths election, Ibusa Youths became worried that a new exco was supposed to have emerge and it was based on this public outcry and petitions that prompted the setting up of an electoral committee as required by Ibusa Youths Council Constitution, Section (13) to oversee the election process of the incoming executives.

Eleven Man Electoral Committee and three advisory members was set up and the Committee  headed by Barrister E. Charles Nwaogwugwu as Chairman and Amb.Vincent Oliminah as Secretary respectively, the electoral body was inaugurated to conduct and to usher new executives who in turn paid a courtesy visit to HRM Obi Prof. Louis Nwoboshi, the Obuzor of Ibusa along with his council of Chiefs and he was briefed on activities and the readiness of the committee to conduct a free and fair election and in response, the Obuzor of Igbuzo commended the committee for doing a good job and promised that he will stand by them to play his advisory role as stated in Igbuzo youths council constitution. The committee also paid a courtesy visit to the Local Government Council Chairman, Hon. Innocent Esenwezie ,they equally briefed him of their readiness to perfect and conduct a transparent youths election come February 2nd 2025,the council chairman pleaded his total support to enable them conduct a peaceful election.

Few days to the election, HRM Obi Prof. Louis Nwoboshi called a stakeholders meeting requesting for the postponement of the election date saying that he will reconvene another meeting of which he did. We were surprised to see a new list of Electoral Committee members been released from the palace in which seventy percent of the previous names was removed and new names of people who are above the age bracket of youths?

With due respect to our Royal father, HRM Obi Prof. Louis Nwoboshi, He does not have the Constitutional right to altered the list of Igbuzo Youths Electoral Committee according to Section (12 )of Igbuzo Youths Council Constitution, the Obuzor has only advisory role to play and the Obuzor position as pertaining to the youths is advisory role only.

I commend the effort of the palace of the Obuzor of Igbuzo ,but all we want is a free and fair election.  I have no preferred candidate whoever wins have my hundred percent support . We don’t want any interference from individuals or groups , I don’t want anybody to hijack the youths election or turn the Youths body to political party.

Before I became Igbuzo youths president, it has a kind of appointment before but now we have a constitution and we must consolidate on it . During my tenure  a lot of petition was brought in . When Umuodafe Youths Chairman was removed illegally they called me to authenticate his removal but I refused because he was legally elected constitutionally. To remove an elected president there are rules to be followed. Ogboli issue came up the same thing. If I had compromised by now there won’t be any election.

To the good people of Igbuzo, I ask one question: should we continue to do the same thing over and over and expect different results? It is time to be daring and try new ideas; ideas that have worked in other places ideas based on measurable indices, ideas that create a level playing field for all. What I’m promising Igbuzo Youths is something they have always known is possible, not a tall tale. nobody can undermine the constitution of Igbuzo Youths.

Part 2 coming soon…….