Amid the shouting at the Port Harcourt Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (PHCCIMA) quarterly forum, one question has gone unasked: who approved a second chamber in the same city, and on what grounds?
The facts are contested. Members clashed over claims that President Chinyere Nwoga secretly established the Greater Port Harcourt Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture. Former president Billy Harry says executive members learned of it only after the national chamber had granted its approval. Dr Nwoga replies that the constitution does not bar a sitting president from belonging to another chamber. These are allegations and a defence, not findings, and she is entitled to a fair hearing.
Her defence, however, addresses her conduct, not the approval. The national body, the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), recognised a new chamber in a city served since 1957 by an established one. That decision involved an application, a review and a ruling. Did NACCIMA ask whether PHCCIMA had been consulted? Did it ask whether the new body’s founders held office in the old one? Was PHCCIMA’s executive told before the ruling or after?
If NACCIMA asked these questions and was satisfied, it should publish its reasoning. If it did not, PHCCIMA members have grounds to doubt what its approvals are worth. BusinessDay has described Dr Nwoga as also holding office in the national body. That is not evidence of wrongdoing, but it is a reason for the process to be open to inspection.
Time makes this urgent. Dr Nwoga’s two-year tenure ends in November, and Financial Secretary Emmanuel Obunda, who moved for her suspension, alleges she intends to lead the new chamber afterwards. No evidence for that has been made public, and she has not answered it in any formal process. But if the dispute outlasts her term, she will leave office with the allegations unresolved, and members will be left with two chambers and no explanation.
Port Harcourt’s businesses cannot afford that. A chamber is valuable because it gives traders one credible voice on power supply, taxes and insecurity, and two rival chambers dilute it. Three steps would help:
NACCIMA should publish the basis on which it approved the new chamber. PHCCIMA’s executive should appoint an independent panel and give it a deadline before the November handover. Dr Nwoga should cooperate fully, which is the surest way to clear her name.
An institution founded in 1957 is not safe because it is old. It is safe when its members can see how decisions are made. In Port Harcourt, that begins with an answer to one question: who approved the second chamber?
