Sometime in November 2012, Hon. Nwabufo Nwankwo, former Chairman of the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN), Anambra State Chapter, inaugurated, in accordance with the constitution of the council, two congress planning committees (CPCs) for the conduct of elections into the local government and state executive arms of NYCN in the state. Of course, consultations were made with the State Ministry of Youth and Sports and a letter written to the commissioner, Mr. Edozie Aroh, requesting him to nominate one person to represent his ministry in the CPCs.He obliged in his reply, nominating the then Assistant Director, Department of Youth Development in his ministry by name Mr. Nnamdi Nwokeania. The request was made to the ministry due to the constitutional supervisory role it plays to the youth council.

The election process proceeded first with the LGA CPC under the chairmanship of Comr. Emeka Okeke, who was the then Vice Chairman, Anambra Central Senatorial Zone, and the objective was to conduct free and fair election into the local government arm of NYCN. Innocent Nduanya was a member of that committee while I was the financial director of the committee, so I stand a good position to give an accurate account of the dealings of that committee until it was put on hold on December 12, 2012. My dates may not be accurate but the facts contained in this article are 100% correct.

The LGA CPC conducted the first election on the November 28, 2012 at Onitsha North and South LGAs. The election was adjudged free, fair and credible by the contenders and the electorate and so it continued in other LGAs. However, on December 6, 2012 congress was held at Awka North LGA which witnessed low degree violence –thanks to security operatives who calmed nerves and enabled us to conduct the election.

Before we conducted congress in Awka North, some aggrieved persons lodged a complaint that the local government secretariat in Achalla, which was the constitutional venue for the conduct of the congress, should not be used. They rather suggested that we use a primary school field at Isuanocha on the grounds that there was a threat to the lives of the opponents by one of the candidates who happen to hail from Achalla.

We notified the security operatives and the LGA transition committee chairman of Awka North and they quashed such insinuations and permitted us to carry out the congress on the secretariat ground. The next day we heard that the opponents who lost out in the election lodged a petition against us in the Ministry of Youth and Sports without copying us so we disregarded their act of “unwillingness to accept defeat” and moved on with other LGAs. However, we had begun to sense strong opposition to what we were doing and some aggrieved persons who out of sheer jealousy or rather who saw the youth council as an avenue to milk from the government purse prying into the activities of our committee and instigating the state governor, Mr. Peter Obi, against us.

Few days later we heard from the media houses a public announcement signed by Mr. Edozie Aro, the Commissioner for Youth and Sports, canceling the whole 16 LGA congresses we already held, nullifying our congress planning committee and the state executives. He went on to inaugurate a steering committee led by his protégée and P.A without duly notifying us or consulting our leaders as we would have done and always has done to him; in other words he disregarded us and overstepped his constitutional frontiers within the youth council and as such it became necessary that someone should call him to order. His actions were unconstitutional as such null and void but the humiliating thing was that some out-grown youths who claimed to be seasoned members of the youth council were really behind him beating the drum while he danced to the tune all in the effort to take over the affairs of the youth council from Nwabufo, who happened to checkmate their excesses during his tenure.

It is important to note that the constitution of the youth council stipulates that once someone steps over 35 years of age he ceases to be an active member of the youth council and can no longer hold executive positions. From then, his actions should be in the passive or advisory role, but that wasn’t the case with those desperate to take power by force. The said personal assistant to Mr. Edozie Aro whom he appointed chairman of the steering committee was a candidate contesting for the position of state chairmanship of the youth council (a man over 45 years of age) before the sad event of canceling the LGA congresses was announced by the commissioner. While all these happened, there was a lot of blackmailing and name-calling on our Chairman, Nwabufo Nwankwo, and all the members of the congress committee. We where labelled enemies of the government and associated with so many names whom we might have never met before.

Ironically, all those people who called us names betrayed the government during the November 2013 gubernatorial elections. Worthy of note is the APGA Youth Leader, an Abakiliki man who joined in ruining the council – he worked for Dr. Ifeanyi Uba of Labour Party against APGA. He was lodged in De-limit Hotel for months, from where he carried out his acts of sabotage.

For us the bone of contention then was that by December 30, 2012, the tenure of the Nwabufo-led executive would have elapsed and the state congress planning committee led by Comr. Anthony Ughenu couldn’t be able to conduct congress into the state executive arm due to the interim steering committee inaugurated by Mr. Edozie Aro. The said commissioner while all this happened could not for one day summon us for a meeting, so it was obvious that what he wanted was to deliberately disrupt the activities of the youths in Anambra State and impose an unpopular candidate on us.

The consequence of the acts of impunity by the commissioner would have been violent mass protests and destruction of valued lives and property. This, however, was prevented by the mature style of leadership of our leader Nwabufo, who calmed all nerves and believed that someone soon would call Mr. Edozie Aro and his cohorts to order. We resolved to write complaint letters to the governor and all the major stakeholders in Anambra State. We wrote severally to the security agencies for posterity sake and we communicated the members of the House of Assembly; I personally delivered some of those letters to these stakeholders because I was close to the past executive.

His Excellency, Mr. Peter Obi, eventually intervened, but I wouldn’t delve into the outcome of the meeting with His Excellency because as far as we were concerned it wasn’t fruitful and it didn’t solve the problem. We were left with the last resort, which was the law court but for our leaders who advised us not to drag the state government and the commissioner for youth and sports to court with hopes that things would be put right. As such, we the young aspiring leaders of the youth were left to our fate.

I was contesting for the post of Financial Secretary of NYCN Anambra State chapter. The current Chairman, Innocent Nduanya, was contesting for state chairmanship. Finally, in the early months of 2013, Commissioner Edozie Aro and Mr. Nduka Alor (P.A. to the Governor on Youth Mobilization) conducted a disputed congress which saw the P.A to Prof. Dora Akunyili as the substantive chairman of the council. All the past leaders and constitutional voluntary and community/faith-based organisations and their representatives that were qualified to vote in the election were bypassed. A list of strange bed fellows was adopted in a motion moved by Edozie Aro at Grand Rivera Hotels Awka.

To us the stakeholders of the National Youth Council of Nigeria, Anambra State Chapter, the election was unacceptable on various grounds, few of which are:

1. The Commissioner for Youth and Sports was never empowered by the constitution to move a motion for adoption or consensus in NYCN elections.

2. The congress planning committee set up to conduct the congress was unconstitutional.

3. The Nwabufo Nwankwo-led executive which was by right and constitutional provisions supposed to conduct the congress by setting up a congress planning committee was discarded and he was absent at the congress venue without a court order in that regard.

4. The council’s constitution stipulates a minimum number of years a candidate contesting for any executive position in the council should have been in the council as a member before qualifying to contest.

5. The council’s constitution also stipulates that the LGA coordinators are statutory voters in the said congress, yet they were not invited.

What we did to remedy the situation: We the stakeholders of the youth council comprising all the immediate past and present elected LGA coordinators organised and fortified ourselves to properly address this issue. We didn’t recognise the kangaroo selection process done devised by the commissioner and we disassociated ourselves from its outcome. At first we set up a six-man committee, two persons per senatorial zone, to study the existing status quo and come up with suggestions on how to move the youth council forward. The six-man committee comprised Comr. Valentine Iwuchukwu (former coordinator NYCN Ekwusigo LGA) and Comr. Ernest Nnoli (former coordinator Nnewi South) representing south senatorial zone; Comr. Osita Onuko (former SA NYCN) and Comr. Ifeanyichukwu Nwosu (coordinator Awka South) representing central senatorial zone; Comr. Malive Nnamdi (former provost) and Comr. Achike Areh (coordinator Onitsha South) representing North senatorial zone.

We decided that an interim state executive committee be inaugurated to pilot the affairs of the council pending when the wrongs of the commissioner would be righted. We also resolved to uphold the elections already conducted in 16 local governments and retain the incumbent coordinators of the remaining inconclusive five LGAs. All this was done in consultation with major stakeholders at the national level and in line with necessary provisions of the constitution.

What I have stated here is to prove wrong those who feel that what we are doing is for personal interest or selfish motive. This is about JUSTICE because, according to Ignatius Sancho, the man of letters, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” These are verifiable facts of what went wrong in NYCN Anambra and I stand to be corrected if I erred in any way.

•Comrade Osita David Onuko, whose photo appears alongside this piece, is the PRO of NYCN in Anambra State.

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