The
founders of World Igbo Congress (WIC) were originally motivated
to build it into an umbrella organization for all Igbo associations
existing outside Nigeria. Its founding leaders succeeded
to a large extent in implementing the initial phases of
the group’s agenda, which focused mostly on bringing
this entity to the notice and recognition of the leadership
of Igbo political elite worldwide. The WIC has managed to
captivate the imagination of a critical mass of Diaspora
Igbo who now look up to it as the veritable platform to
be used for articulation and projection of their viewpoints
on Igbo affairs, in particular and Nigeria’s national
development, in general. For an organization that bases
its structure on affiliate membership, growth in the numbers
of constituent member groups, soon after its debut, convinced
some that WIC has irrefutably become the epicenter of Diaspora
Igbo leadership. Personal and philosophical differences
between the core group that founded the WIC gave birth to
the World Igbo Council (WIC*) and the Enyimba amidst others.
The World Igbo Congress has effectively weathered this crisis
and emerged fairly intact and has since shrugged off any
challenge to its image as the premier Igbo Diaspora organization.
But initial successes of the WIC were not sustainable for
a variety of reasons. Succeeding leaders of this body have
become involved in acts that portrayed the WIC, its operational
agenda and programs as well as its raison d’etre as
mere outlets for courting favor and undue recognition from
home-based political elite. Enormous capital was squandered
by WIC leadership and rank-and-file membership in organizing
and orchestrating big national conventions in large population
centers of North America and Europe. These large and well-attended
conventions were used to arrive at policy positions that
were soon abandoned or misapplied in the aftermath of those
get-together. For example, the WIC 2002 convention in Houston,
Texas, came up with a strong resolution for it to spearhead
the actualization of the Igbo presidency project for 2003
general elections. It is not only that the entire project
was botched, but also the WIC leadership made no visible
public effort to galvanize Ndiigbo to rally toward the execution
of the organization’s resolutions.
Failure of the Igbo presidency project in the last general
elections has raised doubts in the mind of the average Diaspora
Igbo as to the desirability of propping up a lackluster
and impotent umbrella organization which cannot muster the
wherewithal to implement even its own resolutions. Well-meaning
individuals have spoken out criticizing WIC performance
and its inability to fit the label that it appends to its
name. There are signs that a wave of change is poised to
sweep through the WIC’s operational agenda and interaction
with the people it claims to represent. The WIC Education
Committee has convinced the parent-body Executive Board
to adopt a program that shall enhance quality education
amongst Ndiigbo in Diaspora and at home. The Education Committee
has been given the green light to initiate a scholarship
program for outstanding students, organize an Igbo-language
essay contest and establish a journal that will act as voice
of the WIC. In a recent release, the Chairman of WIC Education
Committee, Dr. Ugorji O. Ugorji, promised to unveil the
outcome of his committee’s assignment during this
year’s national convention billed for Nashville, Tennessee,
USA.
WIC past leaders sought to play a leading role in ameliorating
the miserable survival conditions of wounded Biafran war
veterans camped at Oji River, Enugu state, Nigeria. But
that laudable endeavor has stalled and appears to have been
put in the organization’s back burner. This new thrust
of quantifiable endeavor that is to be implemented by the
Education Committee is certainly going to be a test of the
ability and will of present and future WIC leadership to
implement the group's resolve. A big vacuum presently exists
in Igbo leadership which a reinvigorated WIC can play a
major role in filling if its leadership can begin now to
do the proper things at the right time. Pan Ndiigbo Foundation,
(PNF-USA), Osondu Foundation, Inc. and lots of other Igbo
groups and individuals stand behind the Dallas All-Igbo
Political Summit which has been called for the weekend of
July 11-13, 2003 to initiate the process of deriving a practical
consensus agenda to guide Ndiigbo for the foreseeable future.
The summit shall offer a unique opportunity for Ndiigbo
to establish firm basis for prioritizing actualization of
key issues that are of critical import to the Igbo mainstream.
Involvement in or maintenance of participatory oversight
on the deliberations and outcome of this summit shall further
reinforce the encouraging impression that the WIC is firmly
committed to playing its expected leadership role in affairs
of generality of Ndiigbo.
