Ndokwa Vanguard Publisher Wins As President Of South South Writers Forum

Writers in South South under the aegis of South South Writers Forum, SOSOWFO had the maiden edition of her International Convention. The event held between March 13, 2025 which was arrival day and spanned till March 16, 2025 which was departure day. The event held at Loccocoon Hotels Ltd. Kwale.

The Theme of the convention was “Building the Creative Economy of the South South Region of Nigeria: The Role of Writers” with Dr Peter Omoko as the Keynote Speaker.

During the period of the convention they had election to usher in National Executive Committee that would run the affairs of the body in the next four years; had the maiden Annual General Meeting, AGM, went on tour to Ogume Grammar School, Ogume, Umukwata Kingdom where they were amazed at the giant strides of HRM Friday Abaja and also visited the source of River Ethiope at Umuaja. It was a richly packaged convention.
At Ogume Grammar School, they sensitized the students about the forum and enjoined them to take their books seriously, stressing that they were there at the instance of Uncle Alaska Ekele an eminent Old Boy of the school.

They informed the students that they would be organizing healthy academic competitions among schools in the Geo-political zone. Before leaving, they promised donating some of their books to the school through Alaska Ekele.

During election which held on Saturday, March 15, 2025 candidates were screened thoroughly and were given ten minutes each to present their manifestos by the Dr BC Anyanwu led Electoral Committee. At the end of the exercise candidates for the offices of Assistant General Secretary and Treasurer were screened out as they could not give account of themselves.

Those that passed the litmus test and elected were:
Uncle Alaska Ekele – President
Mrs Joy Esuku – Vice President
Prof Ofonime Inyang – General Secretary
Chief Nelson Ulie – Financial Secretary
Dr Rita Inoma-Abbey – Legal Adviser and
Mrs Esther Dominic Nwabuisi – Publicity Secretary.

As for the vacant offices, members were asked to aspire as bye-election would be conducted in due course. The winners were issued Certificate of Return by Dr BC Anyanwu and were inaugurated by Barrister Donatus Chukwuma.

In his acceptance speech on behalf of other elected national officers Uncle Alaska Ekele thanked members for finding him worthy of leading them and also thanked the Electoral Committee for professional, successful and peaceful conduct of the election. He said with the new crop of national officers, the forum would surely get to greater heights. As a new beginning he has collapsed all the existing state chapters and charged all members to plot a graph that would usher in new committees at the state levels to be inaugurated by the National Executive Committee in due course. He enjoined members to go for membership drive.

Far reaching decisions were taken during the AGM. Notable was to honour HRM Friday Abaja the Ukwata 1 of Umukwata Kingdom with a Prestigious award for transforming his community and for touching lives. As a mark of honour to the first National President, Uncle Alaska Ekele, it was agreed that headquarters of South South Writers Forum, SOSOWFO to be established in Ndokwa land. Uncle Ekele according to the forum has done creditably well that without him the group may have collapsed and may not have been registered with Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC. Students across board were given waivers for free membership.

The group would be making policy statements through press releases, come up with a communique and to act as a watchdog to the region. It was indeed a successful convention with Akwa Ibom state given the hosting right for next the 2026 convention.