By Chuks Iloegbunam
Onyeka
Onwenu was, on September 13, 2013, appointed the Director General of the National Center for Women Development (NCWD) by
the Jonathan administration. The all-changing Buhari government relieved her
of the position last month.
On her
tenure, she claimed thus in an open letter:
“I served for two years and five months and did my best under very difficult
conditions. We hardly had money to operate and the place was badly run down.
Worst, there was low moral and lack of commitment among the staff. Most spent
the day loitering and gossiping. Many would not show up for work or arrive 11
am, only to leave before 3 pm. Some were absent for months and were just
collecting their salary at home. My administration changed all that. Most staff
were turned around and became passionate about the work, appreciating also the
changes they thought were not possible but were happening right before them.”
Is she
correct? The answer would seem to be positive because, nearly two weeks after
the claim, no voice has controverted her. This should cause botheration in
conscientious quarters because she protests that her sterling service to the
country was repaid with the objectionable coins of injustice: “There remained, though, a remnant who felt
that the Center was their personal preserve and that the position of Director
General should only go to someone from their part of the country. I was initially
dismissed as just a musician. When that did not work, I was targeted and
abused for being an Igbo woman who came to give jobs to and elevate my people
while sidelining them. When these detractors could not provide answers to the
spate of improvements we were bringing, they resorted to sabotage and
blackmail. The first such salvo was fired when a Senate Committee visited on an
oversight mission a few months after my arrival. All three Generators at the
Center were cannibalized, overnight, just hours to the visit.”
Onyeka
stated in her open letter that, to begin with, she hadn’t lobbied to be
appointed DG-NCWD. Nor was she ever minded to grovel in order to retain the
post. Once word arrived from above that she had had her day at the Center, she
made to leave. “But some people were
going to exact their pound of flesh. They organized some staff, mostly
Northerners, invited the Press and set about to disgrace themselves. By
mid-afternoon, while the Heads of Departments were putting together the handover
notes, they seized the keys to my official car, even with my personal items
still inside. Threats began to fly. ‘That Ibo woman must’, ‘We will disgrace
her.’ Their chief organizer, the Acting DG, went about whipping up ethnic sentiments
against me. Late 2015, the same officer had gone to the Center’s mosque to ask
for the issue of a Fatwa against me, claiming that I was working against the
interest of the North. We nipped that in the bud by calling a town hall
meeting and asking that proof be provided. The Fatwa was denied and peace
reigned for a while. Police was called in to the Center to escort me out and
avoid bloodshed as I disengaged. Eventually, in the midst of insults and name
calling, with an angry baying crowd, some of whom were brought in from outside,
I entered my official car and left.”