Ohanaeze Holds Igbo Reinvention Retreat March 27

The Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide has announced that its retreat aimed at reinventing the Igbo innovations and resilience will hold on March 27, 2024.

The event, with the theme, “Ako Bu Ije”, will be held at the Old Government Lodge, Enugu, with former military Governor of the old Anambra State, Admiral Allison Amaechina Madueke (retrd), as the Chairman of the event.

According to the National Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze, Dr Alex Ogbonnia, the need for an Igbo retreat became imperative in view of the prevailing circumstances in Nigeria as they affect the Igbo.

Ogbonnia, in a release, said the President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, was committed to lifting Ohanaeze from its present provenance to a glorious and enviable pedestal “where it can harness the Igbo natural endowments and creative potentials for the benefits of Igbo land in particular and the entire Nigeria in general”.

He said, “Chief Iwuanyanwu laments that those virtues and values which were the Igbo characteristics are fast evanescing.

He recalled with nostalgia the group resourcefulness, team spirit, entrepreneurship, tenacity and resilience that placed the Michael Okpara administration as the fastest developing economy in Africa.”

The time has come for the Igbo to reflect deeply on how to transform the Igbo land into a tourist and investment destination, Chief Iwuanyanwu said, adding that the human and material resources “that are required to develop the Igbo land are within us and that we only need to give them direction and momentum to achieve the desired goals”.

THE WHISTLER gathered that Chief Iwuanyanwu had set up some committees to drive the Ohanaeze vision to reality. The committees are an education trust fund, youth employment and skills acquisition, business leaders, culture and tradition, reconciliation and peacebuilding, and a committee on the diaspora.

The scheduled retreat, our correspondent gathered, will feature paper presentations by scholars and technocrats.

“Professor Okey Ikechukwu is the lead paper presenter; Professor Nnenna Oti, the vice chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, will speak on ‘Education:Technological Innovations and Entrepreneurship in Igbo land’, Dr Nnaemeka Obiaraeri will speak on ‘Agricultural Development and Food Sufficiency in Igbo land’.

Meanwhile , Professor Maurice Iwu will deliver a paper on ‘Health Care: Harnessing the Potentials in Igbo Traditional Medicine’; and Monsignor Professor Obiora Ike will speak on ‘Reorientation of Values –A Panacea to Insecurity in Igbo Land’; Dr Ogbonnia stated, adding that governors of the five states in the South East region will be in attendance.