A new Igbo socio-political and cultural organisation, the Igbo Improvement Union, has emerged and indications are that it might be operating in parallel line with Ohanaeze Ndigbo, which has been facing leadership crisis for some time.

Promoters of the new organisation, who met in Awka, the Anambra State capital, at the weekend, said its first major task is to reach out to all the governors and leaders of thought in all the Igbo-speaking states of Abia, Anambra, Delta, Ebonyi, Enugu, Imo and Rivers states, adding that branches of the organisation were already being launched in the various states.

Among prominent Igbos behind the new organisation include Hon. Ugochukwu Agballah, Chief Edozie Njoku, Senator Anthony Agbo, Hon. Emeka Maduagwu, Hon. Eugene Odoh, Dr. Alex Obiogbolu. Hon. Chuma Nnaji, Dr. Amanze Obi, Chuka Obele-Chuka, Chief Nnachitta Udoka, Nze Onwulali, Barrister Vincent Okwale, Mr. Enyinnaya Orji, Mr. Ike Olu and Mr. Chinnaya Mba.

At the launch of the Anambra State branch of the organisation in Awka, problems facing the Igbo nation in Nigeria were identified and measures towards solving them were also suggested.

In a communiqué issued at the end of the meeting, members of the organisation said their driving force remained the social, political, economic and cultural mobilisation of Ndi-Igbo at home and in the Diaspora through community efforts and projects geared towards addressing the problems besetting the Igbo nation.

Apparently referring to the style of operations of Ohanaeze, the organisation vowed to “avoid treading the familiar path that could make it look like other Igbo socio-political and cultural organisations whose activities have not helped the cause of the Igbo.”

The communiqué reads in part: “To this end, the organisation is working towards identifying the missing links and gaps in the effort of the Igbo people to address the nagging Igbo question in order to fill the gaps.

“The organisation has already identified some problems confronting the Igbo nation and set up committees to address them. They include Committee on production of a concise document on the vision and ideology of Igbo Improvement Union; Committee on Igbo Marginalisation; Committee on Social Media; Legal Committee; Committee on Erosion Control and Committee on Igbo Festival of Sports, Arts and Culture.

“The organisation also set machinery in motion for the mobilisation of Igbo youths, women, market and religious organisations, the economic and social class, as well as intellectuals and Igbo in Diaspora.

“The Igbo Improvement Union continues to note and regret that Igbo marginalisation has become a deliberate and willful policy of the Nigerian State, even as reflected in the exclusion of Ndi-Igbo from the commanding heights of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.

“The Union expresses serious concern about the ecological and flood disaster in Eastern Nigeria, particularly the erosion menace ravaging the South Eastern States, and urges the federal government, through the instrumentality of the Ecological Fund or any other intervention fund, to find urgent and lasting solutions to the problem.

“The Union calls once again for urgent closing of ranks among all the Igbo groups, organisations or movements so as to foster the much needed unity. Never again should any Igbo group attack or undermine another.”

•Photo shows Dr. Amanze Obi.

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