NIDO LEGAL IDENTITY CRISIS DEEPENS

LAOLU AKANDE
AFRICANANEWS.COM

More Nigerians abroad are expressing their views aloud on the proposed National Dialogue just as the crisis rocking the Nigerians In Diaspora Organisation in America continues to deepen.

For instance a former University of Lagos senior lecturer now based in the US questioned the sincerity of the federal government in calling the conference. According to Dr. Steve Nwabuzor, now a senior university professor at the University of Michigan, the federal government's recent turnaround and the sudden summoning of the conference is suspicions.

Another leading Nigerian in the US, Kayode Oladele, the lead counsel in the human rights violation case against immediate past Nigeria's military head of state General Abdusalami Abubakar now at the US court of appeal has criticised the nomination of the "same age-old Nigerian politicians to the conference, wondering whether some of them would have the requisite energy and fresh ideas to move the country forward. In a short comment, Oladele also condemned the in fighting going on among Nigerians abroad in NIDO saying "government just threw in a small carrot and there has been so much scrambling." According to him, Nigerians abroad in their critical mass are far more honorable than that.

Few days after the current leadership of the Nigerians In Diaspora Organization- NIDO Americas -led by Dr. Ola Kassim-announced the restoration of its earlier revoked incorporation with the municipal government of US capital city Washington DC, officials of the city government have written to that NIDO leadership that the restoration was in fact in error.

A press release issued last month stated thus: "The Board of Trustees and management of Nigerians in Diaspora Organization Americas (NIDO Americas Inc) hereby informs all Nigerians and the general public that the legal status of the organization In Washington, DC has been restored."

According to NIDO's statement "the Board of Trade, Washington DC has confirmed to NIDO Americas' officials that a group of people made an unsuccessful attempt to acquire NIDO Americas Inc's name and trade mark on January 26, 2005."

It would be recalled that just about the time the federal government asked NIDO to nominate four representatives of Nigerians abroad to the ongoing National Dialogue, a set of Nigerians here in the US went to register the name Nigerians In Diaspora Organization, Incorporated (on Jan 28, 2005, three days to the deadline given by the federal government for the nomination of representatives from NIDO).

And the new incorporation by another set of Nigerians was possible because, unknown to the current NIDO leadership the initial registration had been revoked Sept 9, 2002. And since that time the name had become available. In an interesting twist, it turned out that the Legal Counsel to the new set of Nigerians who obtained the new NIDO incorporation was the former chairman of NIDO, Emeka Ugwuonye, who is believed to have been forced to resign as NIDO's chairman resulting from several internal misunderstanding within NIDO.

Reacting to that revocation, Dr. Ola Kassim, the current chairman of NIDO Americas, the organization holds Ugwuonye responsible for the lapse in registration because according to Kassim, Ugwuonye was the one asked to perfect the registration. But Ugwuonye said he did all he was expected to do up to the time he resigned and it was the duty of the leadership that took over from him to manage the situation from then on.

Afterwards, Kassim, a medical doctor based in Canada, then mobilised a new set of NIDO lawyers to go and investigate the status of NIDO registration with the Washington DC local government. NIDO-America's head office is based in the US capital and that is why the incorporation is under the authority of the Washington DC government.

It was as a result of the effort of Kassim and the NIDO lawyers that the press release released announced that the NIDO incorporation had been restored. AfricanaNews.com learnt that the NIDO lawyers actually physically went to the Washington DC government offices and were able to convince the local government to restore the revoked incorporation.

But when AfricanaNews.com checked recently with officials of the Washington DC government who had earlier confirmed NIDO's incorporation revocation previously, it was explained that the said restoration was in error. According to Maxine Ebb, an official of the local government a letter has since been sent to the current leadership of NIDO to explain that another Nigerian group had secured the name and no tow groups can use the same name. She said she has since asked the current NIDO leadership to adjust their name, since another set of Nigerians have already properly incorporated the name NIDO Americas.

Ebb said it is possible for the current NIDO leadership led by Dr Kassim to still use a similar name but it has to be a "distinguishable."

Another city official who spoke with AfricanaNews.com, Patricia Grays, the Superintendent of Corporations said it was the Washington DC city that made the mistake when the current NIDO lawyers visited. She said the restoration should not have been done since another group has secured the name. To this end Grays said the city has informed the Kassim-led NIDO leadership that it could amend its name and if they use a distinguishable but similar name, they will get a different incorporation. But Grays insisted that the name Nigerian in Diaspora Organization Americas now effectively belongs to another set of Nigerians. Emeka Ugwuonye, NIDO's past chairman is the legal counsel of those set of Nigerians who now have legal rights to the name NIDO.

When we asked the city officials how this crisis would be resolved, Ebb said the Kassim led NIDO could just decide to adjust their name at no charge to them since their is an error from the city for erroneously restoring the name, otherwise the matter may have to go to court. But she explained that as things are and based on the records, the Kassim led NIDO is not duly incorporated, while the Ugwuonye afflicted group has the legal rights to the name NIDO. She also disclosed that the Kassim led NIDO would have to reply "immediately" to the letter that has been sent to them regarding the status of their organization, and adjust the name accordingly failing which she warned that the Kassim-led NIDO would return to revocation status, where it is now technically.

Ugwuonye has also said his clients, who registered the NIDO name have also signified their intention to sue the Kassim-led NIDO asking that the court would bar the Kassim leadership from claiming and using the NIDO name forthwith

In the NIDO statement announcing the restoration, just before the Washington DC city said the restoration was in error, the Kassim led group had also indicated that " past or future attempts by a group of individuals to register an organization with any names associated or purported to be associated with our esteemed organization will be deemed fraudulent and illegal."

NIDO Americas' registration and legal status in Washington, DC has been reinstated following the completion of all due legal processes.

Mr. John J Edem the Chairman of NIDO's Public Advisory Committee was asked to comment on the Washington DC's latest decision that the Kassim-led incorporation restoration was in error. Edem who signed the press release announcing the restoration said he was not aware of the latest decision from the Washington DC government, but promised to find out and make a public statement afterwards.

A copy of the letter dated Feb 8, from the Washington DC government officials to the Kassim-led NIDO was made available to AfricanaNews.com. It was addressed to the NIDO office Manager in Washington DC, Ms Stella U. Onuoha.

Meanwhile in a press release by Dr. Nwabuzor, he said there was indeed need for a national conference. According to him since the civil war "Nigerians have been running from pillar to post in drafting constitutions, which are good on paper but rarely enforced. Right now, the people are unsure if the country is running a unitary or federalist constitution and have abandoned faith in the constitution being a binding document in the affairs of state. "
He lamented that such a situation has left the development of the country in a dilapidated state.

Said he "Ambitious paradigms along the richest country in the world -USA- were superimposed on a mono cultural economy that has refused to blossom relying solely on exploitation of fossil fuels underlying the geologic strata of her mangrove forests and offshore assets to finance unwieldy political experiments and white elephant projects."

Nwabuzor, who is also the president of the US-based Nigerian Leadership Forum added that " politics has become a wasteful exercise with no imaginative or creative plans or will to improve the productive sectors of the economy by the ruling class. The failure of the state to provide a new lease of life is evident for all to see due to bad planning, selfishness, corruption, graft, mediocrity and mutual mistrust amongst the ethnic nationalities."

He expressed concern that the Obasanjo presidency only assented to a conference "at a time when its legitimacy is being questioned and its good will has been virtually exhausted."

According to him the question should not have arisen, whether or not Nigerians should participate in a conference about their future but stated that added that "these are not normal circumstances in the country. Nigerians have gone through much constitutional rigmaroles as to jump into any reformative process that is not predicated on the principles of fairness and representative democracy. It is in the latter that one can emphatically state that the presidential invocation for a national reformation has fallen short and started on a false note."

According to him, what government ought to do now is something similar to what took place when the Mid-Western region was to be carved out of the former Western Region. He recalled that then , a plebiscite was carried out to ascertain if the indigenes of the current Edo and Delta States wish to get out of the old Western region. Said he "It was the result of that plebiscite that accelerated the creation of that region in 1963. The latter is what a representative democracy should be.Much as Nigerians want to remain in one country the principles of democracy must be pursued in all its ramifications, especially in such an issue as a reformative conference which should give voice to the majority of the people. Any vestiges of tyranny or unilateral decision to emasculate the majority by vesting discussions and decisions on handpicked individuals by the government should be rejected in its totality."

Nwabuzor then condemned "the selection of 50 individuals by the presidency out of a total of 400 members of the committee; the ascription of 6 persons to be nominated by each of the 36 state Governors (of which 28 are controlled by the PDP); the unilateralism of asking other political parties and Diaspora Nigerians to send an imaginary and under allocated number of delegates from a government-sponsored organization as Nigerians in Diaspora Organization (NIDO) runs foul of an authentic democratic government."

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