The South East Society of Professionals (SESOP) has launched the NdiIgbo Values Initiative as an ambitious project to change values and the orientation of citizens in the South East geopolitical zone, primarily, and Nigeria in general. NdiIgbo Values Initiative took off at a ceremony in Enugu on Tuesday, December 19, 2017.

The NdiIgbo Values Initiative is a philosophical framework encapsulated in graphic reminders to pass on critical messages drawn from Igbo cosmology and values.

NdiIgbo Values Initiative, according to Michael Orekyeh, Convener and Programme Coordinator of SESOP, is a clarion call on the Igbo to return to the values that distinguished them and set them on the path of progress and civilisation in the past. It is also a compass to values that would enable the Igbo to manage the challenges of living amid the complexities and the changing political and socio-economic realities of Nigeria for today and the future.

Juliet Kego Ume-Onyido, one of the active members of SESOP, stated that the NdiIgbo Values Initiative targets all Igbo, home and in the Diaspora as a borderless race and group not bounded by geography. “The core target are the 65% youth demographic but also post-war generation, most of whom never heard of or experienced the initial renaissance of Ndi Igbo in Nigeria,” she said Wednesday in a statement.

Ume-Onyido added: “Igbo professionals are driving the NVI based on an awareness that we have collectively failed to speak out on behalf of our under-served masses. It also draws from a generation of Ndi Igbo who are willing to embrace more comprehensive perspectives/explore solutions of pre/post-war issues that affect us as a people.”

SESOP said it would distribute NVI posters, handbills and flyers to reach Ndi Igbo through towns unions, clubs and associations. It would deploy online using all available platforms.

The NVI commences with ten values. They are Ezi okwu bu ndu (Integrity), Akonauche, nauchu (Creativity), Igwebuikeanyi (Collaboration and unity), Akuluo uno (Service), Ome mgbe oji ka ohi mma (Discipline), and Egbe belu ugo belu (Empathy). Others are onye aghana nwanne (Loyalty), Isi m nammụọmụjuruoyi (Humility), Onwe m juru m afọ (Contentment) and Ndụmmadụniiledịmkpa (Sanctity of life).

Orekyeh said SESOP as a non-political platform would seek to create awareness and adoption of the values by groups and individuals in Igboland in the manner the old Igbo State Union initially mobilised the people in the pursuit of education and Western civilisation beginning in the 1930s.

SESOP’s membership cuts across the diversity of professions and geographic locations of Ndigbo and includes Obi Asika, Chinenye Mba-Uzoukwu, Uche Onyemobi, Yvonne Mbanefo and Emeka Maduegbuna. Others are Chukwuemeka Fred Agbata, Appolonia Ukuzu, and Odinaka Ugwuozor. Also included are Uwakwe Azikiwe, Chioma Chigurl Omeruah, Nneka Moses, Muna Okam, Emeka Okoye and Chido Nwakanma.

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