The truth is that Mr. Joseph Eto squandered a great opportunity handed him by the World Igbo Congress Board of Directors, who elected him as the Chairman of the WIC in a court-supervised election in 2012. The board of the WIC, which was badly battered by a protracted legal battle, thanks to Mr. Eto and his cohorts, believed that the best way to heal and put the past behind them, was to hand its reins to the instigator of the impasse. It was a profound mistake.
Quite recently, Joseph Nzenwa Eto, the embattled factional chairman of the World Igbo Congress (WIC), published a piece titled “To Ndigbo Worldwide: WIC Chairman, Joe Eto, Calls for Calm.” It was yet another futile attempt by the former WIC chairman to burnish his ruined image. The publication only served to expose Mr. Eto’s unrepentantly deceitful cast of mind. In that desperate but failed attempt at self-redemption, Mr. Eto painted a clear self-portrait of a man who takes pride in manipulating unsuspecting or gullible people. But those who already know him quite well recognized his game for what it was: another expression of a deeply cultivated gift for greed, arrogance and moral bankruptcy.
In the said publication, Joseph Eto was in character as he made a shameless effort to deceive his readers, especially Ndigbo. Displaying a predilection for exaggerated self-importance, and an uncommon love for power, he released what amounted to a puerile public relations stunt in a last-ditch ploy to apply gloss on his long battered image.
The write-up in question was wreathed with arrogant misrepresentations of the established facts and true nature of his recent brush with the law. That legal trouble culminated in Mr. Eto’s conviction for a serious offence.
Yet, in the write-up, Mr. Eto would not, for once, publicly take responsibility for his actions that led to his arrest in 2013, his indictment, and his conviction in 2014. Instead, he attempted to apportion blame to those who, out of genuine love for his wellbeing and sorrow at his self-destructive path, had entreated him to do the right thing: resign as chairman of WIC.
He must be reminded that Ndigbo are too sophisticated to fall for a morally shameless and rather sophomoric attempt to diminish the gravity of his self-afflicted legal woes, the facts of which are already and fully in the public domain, and will eternally remain there for easy reference.
The truth is that Mr. Joseph Eto squandered a great opportunity handed him by the World Igbo Congress Board of Directors, who elected him as the Chairman of the WIC in a court-supervised election in 2012. The board of the WIC, which was badly battered by a protracted legal battle, thanks to Mr. Eto and his cohorts, believed that the best way to heal and put the past behind them, was to hand its reins to the instigator of the impasse. It was a profound mistake.
Two years later, the 28-affiliate organizations that Mr. Eto inherited had dwindled down to 19. And in a desperate attempt to stay in power, he attempted to reduce them further by three, consequently throwing the WIC into another round of legal tussles.
Few observers are surprised by Mr. Eto’s recourse to cheap misrepresentations. In an attempt to launder his image, he unwittingly led some hitherto unaware people to probe into his unseemly habit of treachery, arrogance and disdain for social norms.
His failure to tell the real truth behind his investigation by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI), his arrest at an airport and eventual conviction depicts an unrepentant man. If he were really serious about self-redemption, he must start by telling the simplest truth, one that is already in the public, widely accessible domain.
In his recent piece, Mr. Eto claimed that the WIC Board of Directors had, in a live meeting in New York on March 14, 2015, passed a vote of confidence in him. It was an absurd claim. If it were true that the WIC reaffirmed its confidence in him, then why would Mr. Eto put himself through so much trouble on account of “the sad activities of the disgruntled few?”
Sadly, Mr. Eto and his ilk trade in deception and duplicity. And Ndigbo do not need so-called leaders whose divisive tactics and preoccupation with self-interest have left our struggle for unity and progress a mirage.
Mr. Eto ought to be reminded that those demanding his resignation are not unpatriotic Igbo brothers and sisters. The real concern lies elsewhere. One, that a man who presumes to lead the premier Igbo organization in the Diaspora would seek to hide from WIC members the true facts of his criminal arrest, indictment, and conviction for fraud. That is troubling. Equally dismaying is to behold the coterie of ethically impoverished men and women, a minority of WIC members, who have chosen to remain blind to the moral quandary of supporting a man who has no business posturing as the leader of any credible group.
The “disgruntled few who would rather destroy WIC” are not those that stand up for the truth even when it is not convenient. Instead, the real enemies are those who look Ndigbo in the eye and tell them cheap lies so they can remain at the helm of affairs of the WIC. The “mischief makers” are not those who refused to be intimidated from having a strong, moral voice in the affairs of the WIC and Igbo people. They are those who threatened and manhandled fellow Ndigbo with police and sheriffs, in an attempt to prevent their victims from voting in an election that would determine the future of the WIC.
The Igbo must stand up against any and all self-deluding emperors. We must identity the real enemies of progress within the WIC fold whose greed and personal interests undermine the corporate goals and interests of the WIC, especially the forging of Igbo unity.
Despite fifth columnists like Mr. Eto and his cohorts, the WIC shall rise again.
Izu Eze, a public affairs and political commentator, is a longtime member of WIC ([email protected])