The Task Innocent Chukwuma Left for Us to Complete

The author

By Chris Kwaja PhD

In the words of the preacher as written in Ecclesiastes 3:1- 8 of the Holy Bible: “For everything there is a season. A time for every activity under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die”. As we come to terms with the reality of the demise of one of Africa’s most progressive minds – Innocent Chukwuma, we are yet reminded of the frailty of the human life in that message and which is that we are just like “a candle in the wind” that glows and ebbs. According to William Shakespeare in Othello, “there are many events in the womb of time”. These events truly defined the personality and convictions of Innocent Chukwuma in the six decades of his sojourn on earth.

My engagement with the CLEEN Foundation, which Innocent conceived, dates back to 2010 before I got to know Innocent in person. I was commissioned by CLEEN Foundation to be part of a team to undertake a Security Threat Assessment (STA) of the country in the run up to the 2011 elections. I was thereafter retained by the Foundation to work as a consultant for the STA up to 2015. Beyond the STA, I served the Foundation as a consultant on several projects relating to elections, policing and broader security issues. I remain eternally grateful to Innocent’s Foundation for those opportunities to grow. Special thanks to the Foundation’s staff with whom I worked at various times in the organization.

After my appointment into public office in May 2011, an unusual call came through. “Hello Chris, my name is Innocent Chukwuma, I work with CLEEN Foundation. Our mutual friend Chidi Odinkalu gave me your number. Congratulations on your appointment as Director General, Research and Planning with the Plateau State Government. This is an opportunity for you as a young activist to make a difference in governance. Be rest assured of our support. Please do not walk the path of other activists who saw public office as an end in itself.” These words came from Innocent at a time that I was battling within my soul the huge transition; from a young scholar-activist that should be speaking truth to power, to one that was now positioned in the centre of power to speak for it. The phone call ended with my firm commitment to Innocent that I will do my very best to balance my role of speaking for power and speaking to power.

The next call I got from Innocent was in relation to an opening for appointment as West Africa Director of Ford Foundation. It was to the effect that some persons had petitioned the headquarters of the Ford Foundation that he was not fit to hold that appointment for reason of some comments he had made previously with respect to the infamous Jos Crisis in Plateau State. The questions that dominated my thoughts at that time had much to do with how such an issue will affect the wider civil society family to whom I had strong affiliations. During that period, I took it upon myself to track all comments credited to Innocent in the print and electronic media, irrespective of his position with any of the conflicting parties. The petition generated huge public attention and Nigerians were at war amongst themselves, not minding the fact that if Innocent lost the appointment, it might be offered to a non- Nigerian. In the end, the job was his and Innocent made notable and excellent achievements in that role.

A creation of the late Innocent Chukwuma

Innocent belonged to a special breed of nationalists, the few good men, who believed in the Nigerian project. He bore a true desire to see that the nation worked for all its citizens. He dedicated his life towards the actualization of this goal from his days as a student leader, to his final departure as a civil society leader, always in the business of mentoring people and building institutions. As a member of the N-Katalyst, a platform established for like minds within the Nigerian civil society to exchange ideas, Innocent was one of the moderating voices, ever quick to remind us of our roles in the quest for a better Nigeria. In him I saw a big brother, a friend and a leader. Innocent possessed an admirable persona. He was firm, articulate and clear in his convictions. At a time when the civil society was split up along the lines of politics, religion, ethnicity and regionalism, he was one of the few that rose above these divisions. Even though he belonged to a number of groups that sought to articulate an agenda for the Igbo nation, the agenda was clear. Innocent believed that what we refer to as the “Igbo nationalism”, is one that should be located within the broader discourse of the Nigeria nationalism. Here, the national agenda is one that must be framed from the vantage of equity and justice for all ethnicities. In essence, Nigeria belongs to all and Nigeria must benefit all, that all may have a sense of belonging to Nigeria.

At the end of his tenure with the Ford Foundation in February 2021, I rang Innocent to congratulate him for a successful outing and to talk about his future plans. But Innocent turned the conversation to the state of the nation and proposed interventions to build up nationalism. We compared notes regarding our engagements at different levels and identified the desperate need for synergy among civil society, to leverage on some of the relationships fostered with like minds in the corridors of power. His position was that we have huge network of friends within the civic space that must not be abandoned. This is the task Innocent left for us to complete.

Though Innocent is gone, his struggles live on. Innocent left us at a time a climate of uncertainty is sweeping across the nation, driven more by the forces of centrifugal praxis triggered and sustained by what many citizens view as state inertia. We will surely miss a true Nigerian, one who dedicated his life to the pursuit of a country where the rule of law, justice, equity and fairness should prevail. My deepest condolence to his family and friends over his demise. Good night Innocent. Until we meet on the other side!

Chris Kwaja is of the Centre for Peace and Security Studies, Modibbo Adama University of Technology, Yola, Adamawa State, Nigeria.