A frontline Nigerian rights activist, Comrade Emeka Umeagbalasi, Chairman of the Board of the International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law (Intersociety), is one of the 24 international personalities from across the world billed to participate in this year’s session of the International Visitors Leadership Program (IVLP), organised and sponsored by the United States Department of the State.

Umeagbalasi is the only Nigerian invited to participate in the programme holding in Washington DC from June 10 to 29. His nomination was communicated to him by the Public Affairs Section of the US Embassy in Lagos, via a mail dated February 27, 2013.

“We are happy for our chairman for this well-deserved recognition and we look forward to his participation in the programme helping to take Intersociety to the next level,” Intersociety’s Administrative Secretary Ifeoma Chidozie told News Express.

Participants in the IVLP are chosen by the Government of the United States through her Ambassadors/Consular-Generals in various countries of the world, who each year select 21 to 24 socially unstained personalities for that purpose. The participants are selected from among hundreds or thousands who fill the IVLP forms. The successful participants are drawn from both public and private social institutions and establishments, which include civil rights/pro-democracy leaders and members, former and serving top government functionaries, leaders and members of community, faith, health and physically challenged based organisations, etc. The IVLP programme is subdivided into sub-topics such as NGO Management Course, etc, with successful participants drawn according to their professional competence.

Other participants in this year’s programme are drawn from Mexico, Lebanon, Latvia, Kenya, Italy, India, Ethiopia, Costa Rica, Bahrain, Afghanistan, Mongolia, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, China, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Trinidad & Tobago, Uganda, West Bank (Palestine), Yemen and the United Kingdom.

The programme, according to the organisers, “is designed to expose the participants to rich US cultures including unity in diversity and during the prestigious program, participants will visit Washington DC and Seattle including the White House in the State of Washington; Louisville, Kentucky; Huntington and Birmingham, Alabama; East Lansing, Michigan; St. Louis, Missouri; and Denver, Colorado. The program also prepares the participants for future credible political leadership at local, national, regional and international levels.”

Congratulating Umeagbalasi on his nomination, Intersociety’s Chidozie said in a statement made available to News Express: “Our Board Chairman, Emeka Umeagbalasi, is reputed and known locally, nationally and internationally for waging numerous successful advocacy wars against the killing fields of the Bakassi Boys and the Onitsha Traders Vigilante Group in Anambra State, Southeast Nigeria, which prompted the Federal Government of Nigeria to dislodge the murderous squads (AVS) in September 2002. He led a fierce struggle against the masterminds of the 2003 armada of electoral fraud that foisted the illegal regime of Dr. Chris Ngige on the people of Anambra State, which was ousted judicially in March 2006. He was also given credit for the drastic reduction in February 2012 of over 3,500 police road blocks and associated unlawful killings across the country.

“The Intersociety, which he founded, has been in the forefront in the campaigns against the continuing massacre of Nigerian citizens of Igbo extraction in different parts of Nigeria and systematic sidelining of the race in federal appointments and promotions. His group is the leading group calling for the fishing out of those police SARS operatives who masterminded the massacre and dumping in Ezu River of over 50 young Nigerian citizens of Igbo extraction in January 2013.

“Comrade Emeka Umeagbalasi had been in rights activism since 1995, when he joined Amnesty International, Nigerian Section, and later became the Onitsha Pre-group Coordinator. He also joined Human Rights Watch in 1995 as an international contributing member. He made his mark in the Civil Liberties Organization, Nigeria, where he rose from the Anambra State Branch Publicity Secretary, to become its Vice Chairman between 1999 and 2001, before becoming its State Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Southeast Zone from 2001 to 2007. He has been Intersociety’s Board Chairman since 2008. Comrade Emeka Umeagbalasi is also a major contributor to burning national, regional and international issues. Under his Intersociety’s leadership, over 150 major advocacy activities have been carried out locally, nationally, regionally and internationally. His nomination by the Government of the United States, the world’s number one country, is not only an honour well deserved, but also an international encouragement and moral support for him to do more and improve upon what he has done.”

•Photo shows Comrade Umeagbalasi.