Asaba retreat

[Jerome I Okolo]

Dear friends,

I hope you have all returned safely to your homes following the hugely
successful retreat at Asaba over this weekend. I am sending the draft
report of the discussions, which we shall publicise widely for your
comments. I have omitted certain discussions of Political issues,
plans and strategies as well as personal career ands business
discussions, which I feel must remain private. I also propose that in
the future, these aspects of our discussions will not be minuted to
ensure that discussions are held freely without fear by anyone of his
or her ideas, fears, plans being exposed to unintended audiences.

Please review the following and send me your comments:

REPORT

Exploratory RETREAT by SPUTNIK
NIGERIAN ASSOCIATION OF RUSSIAN GRADUATES

10:00hrs, Saturday, 20th November, 2010


VENUE:
Courtyard Bar,
BENIZIR HOTEL, ASABA, DELTA STATE, NIGERIA

ATTENDANCE

• Dr. Ike Abugu
08033059360
skyward...@yahoo.co.uk

• Julius Akaza
08056837184
aka...@yahoo.com

• Jerome Okolo
08030623986
jerome...@gmail.com

• U. I. Jajah-Omajajah
08037080015
uij...@yahoo.com

• Engr. Fidelis Wopara
08032749560
fwop...@yahoo.com

• Dr. Okechukwu Cosmas Madu
08029263742
okey....@yahoo.com

• Engr. Idong Umoren
08038810001
idong...@yahoo.co.uk

• Dr. David Terfa Gundu
08033647847
dter...@yahoo.com

• Okey Dibua
08033263580
modestfireveh...@yahoo.com

• Dr. C.P.N. Awili
08027070770
doctorc...@yahoo.com


OPENING, INTRODUCTIONS AND APOLOGIES

Dr. Ike Abugu started the meeting by proposing an agenda for the
weekend retreat, and the idea behind the decision to call the meeting.
He said that a lot was happening in Nigeria and in Nigeria-Russia
bilateral relations and expressed the view that it was unacceptable
that the alumni of Russian Institutions were currently without a
National voice in the country.

Dr. Ike Abugu therefore proposed that the meeting should address the
following issues:

• Update on Russian alumni and Russian activities in Nigeria
• New ideas for organising Russian alumni
• Possibilities for more organised Political participation
• Business co-operation and networking opportunities amongst Russian
alumni
• AOB and next retreat


INTRODUCTORY PRAYERS

Dr. C.P.N. Awili was called upon to say the opening prayers, and he
consented with the idea of proposing the agenda before the opening
prayer, and commended the agenda unto God’s guidance and prayed for
successful deliberations.


UPDATE ON RUSSIAN ALUMNI AND RUSSIAN ACTIVITIES IN NIGERIA

Jerome Okolo briefed the meeting on the activities preceding the first
every visit of the Russian President to Nigeria last year and the
SOYUZNIK party held at the dome to honour alumni of former USSR
institutions who had distinguished themselves in various fields. The
intention was to begin to coalesce the various groups of Russian
specialists around the country under one umbrella organisation in
order to wield influence in the country to the benefit of members.
Various SOYUZNIK organisations existed around the country – like in
Lagos, where at least two such organisations existed, Uyo, Port-
Harcourt and other towns that had organisations of specialists from
the former Soviet Union. The previous attempts to organise ourselves
involved trying to register the organisation under the name “SPUTNIK”,
which was spurned by the CAC under the guise that the word was not an
English word. In conclusion, Jerome Okolo suggested that another
attempt should be made to raise funds, register an organisation and
begin to build the membership and raise the profile of the
organisation in order to exert influence.

Dr. Ike Abugu then followed up by presenting the situation in Lagos
and confirmed that an organisation indeed exists in Lagos, which is
headed by Chief Ajomale and old SOYUZNIK, who is also the Chairman of
ACN in Lagos.

Engr. Okey Dibua asked about people who studied in other Republics of
the former Soviet Union and whether they would be invited to join the
association. Dr. Ike Abugu proposed that the organisation be open to
all Nigerians, who graduated from Russian Institutions, and that they
may join only in their personal capacity. After an involved
discussion, the consensus was that our body should be formed to
represent Russian graduates. In this way, the organisation could
interface properly with the Russian Government, who would shirk at
relating to an organisation which also represented Ukrainians,
Turkmens etc.

Dr. C.P.N. Awili then suggested that the organisation should be called
the “NIGERIAN ASSOCIATION OF RUSSIAN GRADUATES”. Dr. Madu suggested we
re-visited the idea of registering the organisation as “SPUTNIK -
NIGERIAN ASSOCIATION OF RUSSIAN GRADUATES”. Dr. Ike Abugu suggested
that Jerome Okolo be mandated to continue with efforts to register the
organisation. Jerome Okolo suggested that the group should be prepared
to set up a secretariat to co-ordinate the affairs of the organisation
and to ensure its affairs were run professionally and efficiently. He
meeting agreed that the organisation should raise money to fund a
secretary to handle its affairs and take up the offer of office space
made by Dr. Obi Okonkwo previously.

Okey Engr. Okey Dibua, Engr. U.I. Jajah-Omajajah & Fidelis Wopara
suggested that the meeting should call Dr. Obi Okonkwo to confirm the
offer of office space. This was done and the man himself re-confirmed
his original offer of office space within his ‘DOME’ complex in Abuja
to the NIGERIAN ASSOCIATION OF RUSSIAN GRADUATES.

Dr. C.P.N. Awili mentioned that his son had gone to the Ministry in
Moscow and he was shown documents indicating that the Russians still
recognised the Nigeria-Russian Chamber of Commerce. The Russians had
then requested Awili Jr. to get Dr. C.P.N. Awili to sign and
countersign the documents re-vitalising the organisation, in order for
it to avail itself of Russian awards of scholarships. He cited this as
another example of the reasons why we should hurry up with our efforts
to constitute an organisation that the Russians would recognised.

Dr. Ike Abugu posed the question of how we would ensure that the
NIGERIAN ASSOCIATION OF RUSSIAN GRADUATES would be the preeminent
organisation in Nigeria representing Russian trained graduates. The
meeting agreed that a massive recruitment drive would be essential to
ensure mass membership from across Nigeria. For this cause, we would
have to deploy a multi-platformed publicity campaign including the use
of modern electronic social networks and the Internet generally, as
well as Radio, Newspapers and Television adverts and messages. Engr.
Umoren suggested that once the organisation was registered, we should
try and set up a professional interactive website with the capability
to receive payments etc online.

The discussion then progressed to the issue of fixing a joining fee
for the organisation. After a heated discussion of the various amounts
suggested – N5,000, N6,000 and N10,000, an agreement was reached by
majority vote that the joining fee should be fixed at N10,000. Dr.
C.P.N. Awili then suggested that we fix an annual fee and another
heated discussion ensued. Finally, a consensus emerged that the annual
membership fee be fixed at N2,000 per month or N24,000 per annum.

Jerome Okolo suggested and the meeting accepted that Dr. C.P.N. Awili
should be tasked with drafting the mission statement to be used in
drafting the memorandum and articles of association of the
organisation. Dr. C.P.N. Awili graciously agreed to carry out this
assignment and report back with his draft shortly.

At this juncture, the meeting felt that an interim committee be
mandated to steer the affairs of the embryonic organisation. Dr. Ike
Abugu was nominated to chair the steering committee, while Jerome
Okolo was asked to be the Public Affairs representative. Both accepted
the nominations.

The meeting decided that a membership drive be launched immediately to
recruit all Russian alumni to the cause of the jointing the
organisation. Dr. Ike Abugu suggested that we should appoint regional
membership co-ordinators the lead this membership drive. The following
people were recommended and approved for the role as follows,
respectively:

1. Imo & Abia States Dr. Okey Madu
2. Rivers & Bayelsa States Engr. Fidelis Wopara
3. Delta & Edo States Dr. C.P.N. Awili
4. Akwa Ibom, Rivers & Cross Rivers Engr. Idong
Umoren
5. Benue, Nassarawa & Plateau Dr. David Gundu
6. Abuja & Niger States Dr. Humphrey Okoroukwu

The attendees at the meeting agreed to canvass opinions widely to
identify the best candidates for mobilising co-ordinators for Lagos
and the South-West, as well as North Central, North Western and North
Eastern zones.

Dr. Linus Awute called in to speak to the meeting and expressed
regrets that he was not present physically, and promised to host the
next meeting in Abuja to ensure the full participation of the Abuja
based members.

The meeting then went into a business session when attendees
introduced their career stories and companies and indicated what kind
of support, co-operation or opportunities they were interested in.
Other members volunteered jobs, contacts and various assistance to
each other and the session ended on a very positive note.

The meetings closed with a proposal to reconvene in Abuja during the
weekend commencing on the 25th of March 2011.