An ongoing attempt by some Nigerians to raise money to restore the state of Zik's Statue has landed in controversy as an aide to Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State has termed such moves a fraudulent enterprise. It will be recalled that some newspapers in Nigeria reported that "Ghanaians and Nigerians raise funds for Azikiwe’s statue". Below is the statement by the Governor's aide:

STOP USING ZIK’S NAME FOR FRAUD – OBI’S AIDE

The Senior Special Assistant to Gov. Obi on Communication, Mr. Ifeanyi Ubabukoh has appealed to Nigerians to treat the name of Zik with reverence and stop using it to extort money from people.
Mr Ubabukoh was reacting to the news which appeared in some papers and is currently circulating on the INTERNET where some Nigerians led and supported by one Dr. Mobolaji Aluko, Ojo Valentine, Okenwa Nwosu, Azuma Anugwom among others are said to be soliciting money from the public and donating money to restore what they called the decapitated Zik’s statue in front of his House in Onitsha.

Ubabukoh who regretted  the level some people have sunk in the name of making money said that the statue in question was intact  and appealed to the public to beware and vigilant . He said that the Statue was decapitated when different gangs existed in Onitsha, but that with the restoration of peace in the town under Obi, that all the structures the gangs destroyed have all been replaced. On the Statue, he said: “The decapitated statue was since restored in 2007 and is standing even as I speak.”

On the next step the Government would take, Ubabukoh said: “first of all, we are appealing to our people not to fall victims of scam by some unscrupulous Nigerians. This is our major concern especially against the fact that some people have already donated money to them. Next, we cannot rule out prosecuting those people for what is clearly a well orchestrated 419 and criminal false information.”

Ubabukoh regretted that some of those doing this are those who pretend to be concerned with the growth and development of the State. He said that they were not in a position of power and yet they were doing havoc to the society and asked rhetorically what those tribe of men would do when entrusted with real power.
Ubabukoh assured that the Governors of the South-East will continue to respect their past heroes by doing everything possible for their immortalisation

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Commenting on the above statement Dominic Ogbonna wrote: 

If the  Governor's aide did indeed make the statements that have been attributed to him -and please note that I said IF - that would really be regrettable, because a lot of good people have pledged to the project out of the genuine generosity of their hearts. I hope the folks here who are directly in touch can reach out and provide better information to the Anambra State government.

But it does highlight some of the serious concerns that have been raised about this project. Some of you don't want to hear it, and many of us have been intimidated into silence for fear of being branded with the ethnic slur-word, but again, this project has a lot of K-legs, including the following two:

(1.) Absolute lack of proper planning. What exactly are we trying to accomplish? Even that much is not clear, and the said statements from the Governor's aide is the latest evidence.

(2.) What we are trying to do -why is it important? If haveno clear idea about what it is that we are doing, how would we know if it is worthwhile?

(3.) Why should anyone contribute? I have no idea, beyond a certain warm feeling that it is good to make a donation whenever the rest of the herd is also doing so!

(4.) How much will whatever it is that we are going to do cost, and do we have anywhere near the  amount of money required? This is Project topic 101, right? But absolutely nobody knows! Dr Kassim thinks it is 34 million, and Bolaji is trying hard to raise and redeem 1 million and between the two nobody knows who is right or wrong,  or even who is more likely right or wrong. At this point, anybody's guess is as good as anybody's guess.

(5.) And how are we going to deal with those who own the mausoleum, and who have already invested tons of money and effort into it?  Nobody knows.

You don't have to be a petty-minded ethnicist to conclude that a lot of critical details have not been worked out, and that any number of  of these details could completely derail the project.

Do you know what worries me most? Constructive criticism of the project is barely possible. Dr Valentine Ojo and his army of self-righteous better-than-thou progressives are standing by with a big stick, ever ready to wield the ethnic stick.  You can't  highlight these issues without being labeled obstructionist or anti-woman or petty-minded or ethnicist, or unprogressive or whatever the particular whiner chooses.

The thing di egwu - person taya no be small.

And mind you, all of these is before we deal with the vexatious issue of Bolaji Aluko. Pius Adesanmi will now crawl out and say "Yes, you will be on top of it if Bolaji is involved",  but as the IGBO would say, those who come to equity must do so with Ogu and Ofo - with clean hands.

Even before the ink dried on the NOT missing statue head, Bolaji Aluko had quickly tried to extend the project to a rehabilitation of  Zik's eldest son.

So, no matter how you cut it, that this whole thing started out as a mock attempt is not at all in doubt, otherwise, why else would  Adesuji Kolawole, a man who was cheer-leading many unprintable things about Zik, and who claimed, over-and-over again, that Zik accomplished absolutely nothing, pledge a donation to honor Zik? It makes no sense and some of us were not born yesterday. And yes, stuff like this needs to be digested, because some of us are not in the business of playing ostriches.

Anyway shaa, I am glad that the project has since outgrown the cynicism and mockery from which it was born, and that a lot of  well-intentioned people have since pledged donation, but since many people, justifiably or unjustifiably, find Bolaji Aluko so decidedly unpalatable, those who initiate future projects would perhaps do well to choose safer and less controversial characters.

Enough said.
Dominic

But Bolaji Aluko retorted:

We wish to thank Stanley Okechukwu Chira (alia Oderaigbo of Guangzhou, China) - the original fortuitous instigator of this Zik Project, who out-of-nowhere displayed a shocking but dated picture of a headless statue of Zik standing next to yours truly  -  for once again bringing us news from the South East Governors' Forum about continuing and future support of this project.  The statement credited to "The Senior Special Assistant to Gov. Obi on Communication, Mr. Ifeanyi Ubabukoh" ends with the reassuring statement:
 
QUOTE
 
Ubabukoh asureed (sic) that the Governors of the South-East will continue to respect their past heroes by doing everything possible for their immotalisation (sic).
 
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That line alone assuages to a lot of extent the tissue of disinformation and outright - and sometimes comical - lies  against the humble persons of Ms. Azuoma Anugom, Dr. Valentine Ojo, Dr. Okenwa Nwosu, and my humble self, Mazi Bolaji nwa Aluko, that went before it.  The other pledgers and donors will also be happy about the amount of attention being brought to bear on this particular subject, noting that this might be the fourth or fifth media focus on the matter in the past three or four days.
 
Despite the negative spin, we shall not be deterred over this Zik Project, and we shall do everything possible to parry the disinformation, and get all the stakeholders to work with us.  The governor Peter Obi will certainly be properly advised directly, as well as his aides.  After all, no one expects to just wake up and show up at Inisi Onira or DMGS roundabout with hoes, cutlass and paint in hand.
 
So, kindly let the donations continue.  The total pledges now stand at $10,500 and almost 90 pledgers.  Having exceeded the original N1 million pledge mark and revised $10,000 target, the next target is 100 pledgers - we are just 10 to go!  Who knows - we might then stop all pledges for a while to concentrate on redemption - who knows? [We still have the target of N1 million redemption by November 1.]
 
So kindly pledge now - and avoid the rush! :-)  More importantly, redeem your pledge  - and avoid the cynicism of one Cornelius (Didymus?) who wrote, quite amusingly, that:
 
QUOTE
 
Having said that, out of over 10,000 dollars that has been pledged for this venturr (sic), only about 900 dollars has been stated to have been collected. It will take about 8 years to collect all of that and even at that, collectors will have to send out 3,000 reminder e-mails to the dead beat pledgees. and if HEN and TONY Egbe pledged a dime, it will take for ever and they still will not buldge. The rest of them will simply find 2 million reasons to not have paid theirs and half of them will demand 30,000 signatories to protect the 1 dollar they pledged. That's just the way it is with the African
 
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Tony Egbe I know, but looking through the list of pledgers, I did not wish to speculate who HEN might be - but we must work hard to beat Cornelius' skepticism - or is it cynicism?
 
And there you have it.
 
  
Bolaji Aluko
 
PS:  The ploy by Stanley Chira to set ndi-Imo against ndi-Anambra will not work.  Read him - again:
 
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Cornel ,i think it may be ok in Imo state ,i mean OHAKIM may use people to exort 2,000 naira each from over 200,000 applicants for 12,000 unexisting jobs,and i am sure nobody will find fault with it.
But this is ANAMBARA state ,people are using DR NNAMDI AZIKIWE to raise fraudlent money ,they are raising fund based on headless ZIK which has been restored over 3 years ago.
SHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO somebody warned them to check first the status of the statue but they want the money ,they start fund raiser ,which means if the state kept mute after they may have collected the fund [this solicitations appeared on some Nigerian Newspaper] ,which job will they claim they did ?. Well it is fraud and fraudlent people are liable to face prosecution.

UNQUOTE
 
He really appears to be a "disconnected Igbo Diaspora elite" in far away China - with apologies to Godson nwa Offoaro