*WELCOME ADDRESS BY IYOM JOSEPHINE ANENIH, FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT GENERAL OF NKATA NDI INYOM IGBO (NNII) ON THE 3RD ANNUAL NNII CONFERENCE 2023.*
On behalf of the BOT, BOA and all members of Nkata Ndi Inyom Igbo, It is my great pleasure to welcome you all to this *3rd annual conference* being co-hosted by *Enugu and Ebonyi states.* We are glad to be in the midst of our brothers and sisters in a place we all call home. Home is where the heart is. Ndigbo are sojourners. There is a saying that any part of the world you don’t find an Igbo man or woman, then you might rethink your stay there. Ndigbo bu ndi njeje. But in all our njenje, we never forget home. In fact, Ndigbo are known as one ethnic group in the world that find home everywhere yet there umbilical cord seems very tied to their ancestral homes so they all form communities anywhere they are to commune with each other through nkata umunna na umunne.
Nkata which means communication is the pillar that holds Ndigbo together and I am sure other world communities too. So our group *Nkata Ndi Inyom Igbo (NNII) is a child of our socio-cultural belief system as Ndigbo only this time we as women of Igbo ancestry or married to Igbo men decided sometime in 2020 amidst the global Covid pandemic to come together to have that usual team push to work towards a more functional region and by extension, the country. For those of us who are old enough to remember the hit sitcom television series, *New Masquerade,* the team song is remarkable, *“Izu ka mma na nne ji”.* In this sense, izu which means meeting is powered by nkata for the good of all from family, community to the larger society.
The *Motto of our association is *”PARTNERING FOR DEVELOPMENT”*. But in the three years of our group’s existence, our region, the South East has been a theatre of insecurity and as such, the development in our motto has been literally non-existent. As women who had high hopes of partnering with our men and young people to develop our homeland, we are totally disappointed that all we see and feel is tears, sorrow and blood. As daughters, sisters, wives and mothers, we the women have looked on as our region is mired in self-destructive lethargy and actions. We the women are the greatest victims of the insecurity in the land. Nothing seems normal anymore. We are losing the human capital as we lose our productive men, we are suffering the losses of our sons and husbands and we look on as investors scamper out of the South East to other states because there is fear and anxiety in the land. Our children, our hope for the future are all running away from home and those who remain are unemployed while those outside who feel like hearkening to the ‘aku luo uno’ mantra are reluctant to come home because we literally have a Hobbesian state in Igboland where life seems to be brutal, short and nasty.
We the women are concerned and knowing our capacity to broker peace rooted in our historic antecedents, we are stepping up through this conference with the theme, *“WOMEN: THE UNIFYING FORCE FOR PEACE BUILDING.* We are therefore bringing the Nkata home to you all our dear brothers and sisters. We are ready as women to initiate the moves that can return peace to our region. We have sadly looked on but it is obvious we all need a team spirit for the wrongs to be righted. Every other region in Nigeria might not be an Eldorado but there seems to be some synergy that promotes peace and unity that sadly seems to be lacking with us.
We have extended a hand of fellowship to most women across Nigeria as we believe that women and the pursuit of peace is a global phenomenon we can tap into at this time. We must all look in the mirror to see what ails us and how we can partner for the progress of the third tripod in a Nigeria that seems to be at the crossroads, politically, economically and socio-culturally. As women, we are not happy with the state of affairs and even though we know our men are trying their best, we at Nkata believe that the partnership we seek is the ‘aka nri kwuo aka ekpe aka ekpe akwuo aka nri’ system of partnership. In essence, when the left hand washes the right hand and the right hand washes the left hand then the two can be mutually clean.
The South East needs the urgency of now to address the insecurity that has made the region lose billions if not trillions of naira for a region known for its industry and commerce. We must steady the ship of the region before it sinks like the titanic which even though supposedly built to be strong sank in a very historic manner. We must urgently discuss peace and we as women are here to do our bit. For the avoidance of doubt, *Nkata Ndi Inyom Igbo* has no partisan colouration. We only have the progress of not just our region but that of Nigeria on our minds. Women are the greatest victims of insecurity and the big elephant in the room, underdevelopment.
We must go back to our core values and history to realize that women as Adas in the families and as Ndi Inyom are the centerpiece of peace talks in our communities. The mono leadership of the men seems to have failed, we are here to partner for development. Thank you all for coming and here’s wishing us all a happy and highly fulfilling deliberations.
*We thank you all. Nnooonu.*
*Signed:*
*Iyom Josphine Anenih (mni)*
Founder & President Nkata Ndi Inyom Igbo. (NNII)
