24032021 - Insecurity threatens 2023 elections, Ortom tells Buhari

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26 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24, 2021 VOL. 2 NO. 75 •Members of an Isusu group •Traders use contributions to start businesses Isusu, a traditional savings and loans scheme boosting petty businesses in Igboland • Isusu helps raise money for business, investment • It is fastest means of raising capital for low income earners —Dim • It is nice but the sincerity of other members must be guaranteed —Ude • It has helped me develop a culture of savings —Ebonyi mechanic • Isusu helps the apprentice, trader to mass business capital —Ihesinulo • Isusu also helps to promote fiscal discipline among the traders • I bought my welding equipment with Isusu loan —Ifeanyi Oyiga By Anayo Okoli, Vincent Ujumadu, Chidi Nkwopara, Chimaobi Nwaiwu, Ugochukwu Alaribe, Peter Okutu, Chinedu Adonu, Ikechukwu Odu & Steve Oko ENUGU—”ISUSU” (meaning small, small), a savings and loans scheme in Igboland, has been of immense benefit to petty and medium size business operators. It has transformed some of these petty traders to big time business operators. It helps them build up capital in their businesses. It is popular in Igboland for capital formation. It is a good alternative for borrowing from financial institutions. The modalities are not too rigid. What an interested person needs to do is to make up his mind to obey the conditions stipulated in the scheme and before long, he saves enough capital to embark on any business he desires. Traders who want to grow their business can, instead of borrowing from financial institutions with their attendant strict conditions,start saving to raise adequate capital through isusu. Even people who want to build houses but do not have enough money to start with, can join isusu club to enable them achieve target savings to enable them accomplish their desire. However, Isusu scheme is principally based on trust. Those engaged in it understand the high risk involved. Mrs. Emilia Nwosu, a petty trader in Awka said she has consistently been involved in isusu for the past 20 years. She explained that one must know the background of the operator before committing his or her money with the person. “When I started my petty trading business, it was very difficult for me to save as most of my profit went into housekeeping. I knew that sooner than later when my children would start school, my husband and I might find it difficult to cope with payment of school fees. “So I joined one isusu club in the market and was contributing N500 daily although it was affecting us in the house as we had to reduce some of the items we were consuming. I persevered and was making the contribution religiously and at the end of every year, I would have saved enough money to pay for the children’s school fees”, Mrs. Nwosu said. Another type of isusu is the one where a number of contributors decide to raise money for their members. They contribute an agreed amount monthly which is given to a member on rotational basis to enable the beneficiary to embark on whatever project he has targeted for himself. It is even on record that many wealthy individuals engage in this type of isusu. Mr. Obiadi Dike, a businessman narrated how he used the money he saved from isusu to build a house for his mother. “We were ten trusted friends making the contribution and the minimum each person contributed every month was N100, 000. I took two slots and luckily for me, I picked the first number during the ballot, which gave me N2 million. The amount went far in the house project and at the end of the cycle, I got another N2 million and completed the house for my mother in the village. “If not for the isusu, the house project would have affected my business or I might not even have contemplated building the house in the first place.” However, isusu business is not always a palatable story to tell. A civil servant, Mrs. Gloria Okonkwo narrated a story of how she lost N60, 000 to an isusu operator. She said: “This lady was always coming to the office on the payday for my monthly contribution of N5000 which was to mature by December of the year. Before the closure of the office for the Christmas when she was supposed to pay all the contributors, she was nowhere to be found. Up till now, she has not showed up and her telephone line had since gone off. “We traced her home only to be told that she had since relocated from Awka. It was indeed a bleak Christmas for my family and I will never get involved in isusu again in my life.” For Fidelis Dim, a curtain and footman dealer based in Umuahia Abia State, isusu has tremendously impacted the Igbo economy as it serves as one of the fastest ways to raise quick capital for low income earners. According to Dim, many middle class Igbo traders and entrepreneurs today at one time or the other, raised their initial capital through isusu contributions. The Uga, Anambra State-born trader, said isusu helps like-minds raise soft capital which members of the group access easily either to help boost their trade or for other purposes. He said that he was actively involved in the practice but currently his wife is much deep into it. “I can tell you that isusu is nice provided you are able to identify sincere and honest people that make up members of the thrift society.It helps people especially those without godfathers to raise quick capital. You contribute small money depending on your capacity, and when it gets to your turn to collect, you receive something bulky. “I did it before and my wife is still in it. It helps us to solve a lot of financial needs especially during Christmas Isusu is a nice thing, but one has to be careful about the sincerity of other members. That’s why I choose the groups I belong, not just every group, to avoid disappointment. period”. He however advised people willing to be involved in the practice to ensure they ascertain the financial strength of other members of the group to avoid a member defaulting. According to him, defaulting members negatively affect other members of the group who are yet to receive their contribution before any break in chain occurs. “That is why members provide guarantors before receiving loans from the group so that in the event of any default the surety will be held responsible”. Dim explained that one person may be involved in many isusu groups and may take loan he collects in one group to service the loan he gets in other groups, thus, defaulting in repayment. Besides such cases of defaulting members, isusu generally, “is a very wonderful idea. Corroborating Dim’s account, a tailor, Mr. Mba Ude from Afikpo in Ebonyi State but based in Umuahia, said he raised the capital to buy sewing machines and rent his shop through isusu contributions. The Alvan Ikokwu graduate of Education/Political Science said that he trained himself in school through isusu contributions. He strongly recommended the scheme but cautioned that one has to be sure of the integrity and financial capacity of other members of the group to avoid some members defaulting. “Isusu is very good. It helps members to set goals and targets for themselves. You can target a particular project you want to execute for the year and make you contributions towards it. Once it is your turn to collect your contributions, you go and deploy it to the project immediately. “It has helped me a lot. I started isusu many years ago and I credit my success story to it. I trained myself in school with isusu contributions. I also used it to buy machines and rent this shop. I currently belong to three different isusu groups. Each year I target one major project I want to execute with the contributions, and once it is my turn to collect, I execute it immediately. “Sometimes I swap turns with other members if I have a pressing need but I usually like collecting last so I can use it for projects. So, isusu is a nice thing but one has to be careful about the sincerity of other members. That’s why I choose the groups I belong, not just every group to avoid disappointment.” A Mechanic who operates at the Abakaliki Mechanic Village, Mr. ThankGod Njoku said that the isusu scheme has helped him develop the culture of savings and prudent management of every available financial resource at his disposal. “The contribution we do is very helpful. If there is nothing like isusu existing, I am not sure I can establish or expand my business. With the isusu, I have begun early this year, I believe that at the end of the year, I will be able to start selling some motor parts in my shop instead of depending on other people. “The scheme helps in the expansion of businesses and helps one develop the culture of savings. With the way and manner money comes to us, if you don’t save, it will be difficult to carry out any other forms of business”, Njoku said. For a Civil servant, Mrs. Chinwe Chukwudi, who complained about the merger salary she gets monthly, the scheme has given her the courage and financial stability to invest in other areas of business, instead of relying on her poor monthly pay. “The salary we are paid is very merger and so isusu has helped us to carryout projects that ordinarily we wouldn’t have been able to do. What we do is on a monthly basis, until the end of the year. “No matter how small you contribute, make sure it is steady and definitely you will reap from it if you are disciplined, determined and dedicated to the terms and conditions of the scheme. “I am planning to buy a car before the end of this year and I believe that with this scheme which has helped Igbo in their businesses, my project will surely be achieved. The reason persons don’t go into it is because, one’s earnings come gradually. Also, if those involved are not committed and faithful to the agreement governing the scheme, it could lead to the disruption of the entire process, monetary loss and sometimes chaos”. In his contribution, a barman in Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu State, Cajetan Agbo, said the culture of saving bit by bit has helped to start and sustain many businesses flourishing in Igboland today. Agbo explained that many Igbo businessmen who are today, owners of big businesses started through such saving scheme. He said that it helps in controlling extravagant spending because those involved in the saving culture usually save something on a daily basis, leaving them with the cash to solve only basic needs. “Some people spend unnecessarily because they have money at their disposal. Different saving schemes have helped Ndigbo to build their businesses. For instance, a foodstuffs retailer who wants to go into wholesale may start saving when a particular foodstuff he is interested in is scarce. He can then use what he has saved to buy reasonable quantity of the foodstuff when it is abundant in the market. That way, he can become a wholesaler of the foodstuff. “Many people have used the method to grow their businesses and even start businesses for their younger ones,” he explained. But for an Onitsah based industrialist, Chief Johnson Okolo, isusu savings and loan scheme, is necessitated by ignorance by the operators and the people that patronize them. “Banks are there for the people to save money but people out of ignorance patronize them and they are creating more trouble for them than solving their financial problems because 80% of the people who transact the business with them end up getting negative stories about what happened to their money. “It is poor people that manage the thing, and when they collect the money and have one problem or the other, they use the money to solve their problems leaving the depositors to cry and complain for mismanagement of their money."
Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24, 2021 — 27 Uproar over alleged ostracization in Ishi-Ozalla, Enugu community • Archbishop Chukwuma, Jim Nwobodo & barth Nnaji during the Ozalla abolition of Ohu system in 2018 By Dennis Agbo A RESURGENCE of Ohu-caste system, an ancient social discrimination stigma that makes one less inferior, has once more thrown into turmoil the Ishi-Ozalla community in Nkanu west local government area of Enugu State. The abolition of ‘Ohu’ practice in the entire Ozalla federated town was celebrated on September 1, 2018 with prominent Nkanu indigenes such as Senator Jim Nwobodo, Prof Bath Nnaji, Mr. Frank Nweke jnr and Bishop Emmanuel Chukwuma in attendance. But last week, the Edeaniagu kindred, a part of Ishi-Ozalla autonomous community marched in protest to both the Enugu State Government House and the state House of Assembly, alleging ostracization from the community. The President General of Ishi- Ozalla Town union, Chief Obinna Nveneh, however said that the allegation was not true; stating that issues started with self-crowning as king by one of the members of the Edeanigu kindred, Don Sylvester Nweke, which he said was repugnant to community as due process was not followed. The Edeaniagu people however insisted that they have been excluded, ex-communicated, banished and out rightly ostracized from their community. One of their leaders, Mrs. Munachi Okoye said that some leaders of Ishi-Ozalla have sworn not to allow peace reign in the community, despite Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi’s intervention on the matter. She said: “The latest that made us see the governor was the ostracization of a group of people in my community. We have not had a king in the community for nine years and anybody that comes out to indicate interest in the kingship will be blackmailed, frustrated and use government apparatus, police, EFCC, thugs to intimidate the person. “Recently, the community decided that they will have the kingship and • Edeaniagu kindred protesting at Govt House last week the community has a son called Don Sylvester who has been doing philanthropic jobs for the community and unanimously people chose him to be king and his family members decided to give him a chieftaincy title in their compound to acknowledge him as their own candidate that will go out and contest with other people during the election and that was turned into a different story. They set him up and said he had crowned himself a King of Ishi-Ozalla, whatever Don Sylvester did was done inside their family house but it was twisted and that started causing ripples in the community. “Thereafter, a cartel in the community held a meeting and instructed people to go and ostracise the entire village, including people that are not part of the village. Some people that are in Amaechi were dragged into Edeaniagu, people in Ndiagbor village were dragged into Edeaniagu and the pronouncement was made in the village square that they have ostracized the Edeaniagus; nobody should buy from them, nobody should sell to them, they will not have anything to do with them, that everybody should be on their own, that they are now outcasts and shouldn’t have anything to do with anybody. “As if that was not enough, they started the execution. Some people went for a traditional marriage and they were beaten up and sent out of the traditional marriage, saying that they do not associate with them. Our children that go to school are being mocked, called names that nobody should hear of, our young ladies that are to get married, people will come for their hands in marriage and they will say a lot of bad stories about them. They have refused peace to reign. We had to cry to the government house,” Okoye lamented. The President General of the community, Obinna Nveneh however said that he had instructed that nobody should discriminate against anybody in the community, warning that anybody found guilty of discrimination will be punished by the community. With the weighty allegation gaining attention, the community was pressed to issue a statement, stating that Ishi-Ozalla remains committed to the abolition of segregation in Ozalla, noting that the community in a progressive and peace loving, together with the other four autonomous communities in Ozalla town, on Saturday September 1 2018, accomplished the widely applauded and historic project for the Abolition of Segregation in Ozalla, PASO, which ended all forms of social discrimination in the entire community.
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24032021 - Insecurity threatens 2023 elections, Ortom tells Buhari

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