Dr. Ikedi Ohakim And Prof. Chinwe Obaji have agreed to serve as co-chairmen of the forthcoming OFO Educational Foundation Conference on the 1929 Aba Market Women’s Riot.
OFO Foundation made the announcement on Saturday, November 1, 2025, in a press release made available to Diaspora Digital Media (DDM).
The conference will commemorate the 96th anniversary of the 1929 Aba Market Women’s Riot.
The event will take place on December 18 and 19, 2025, at Rockview Hotel, Owerri, Imo State.
The Foundation disclosed that the former Imo State governor has accepted the invitation.
Nigeria’s first female Minister of Education, Professor Obaji, has also accepted the invitation.
The statement reads in part: “The OFO Educational Foundation has announced that the former Governor of Imo State, His Excellency Dr. Ikedi Ohakim, and Nigeria’s first female Minister of Education, Professor Chinwe Obaji, have accepted to Co-chair the International Conference on the historic and consequential Eastern Nigerian Women’s Revolt of 1929.
“The conference, which will commemorate the 96th anniversary of what is also known as the Aba Market Women’s Riot in Eurocentric circles, will take place on Thursday 18 and Friday 19 of December, 2025, at Rockview Hotel Owerri.”
The Founder of OFO Educational Foundation, Dr. Ugorji Okechukwu Ugorji, briefed journalists in Owerri on Friday over the event.
Dr. Ugorji said that he is organizing the conference in collaboration with the African American Studies Program of Marquette University, Wisconsin, USA.
According to him, the conference has Professor Chima Korieh as the co-organizer.
Other universities in Nigeria and abroad will be added as co-sponsors of the conference as they respond to invitations to participate, he added.
Significance of the event
From November 1929 to January 1930, women in virtually all major towns in Eastern Nigeria came together.
They protested their limited roles in the colonial government and the taxation levied on them by the same colonial government.
The results of the Aba Market Women’s Riot, among others, was the elimination of the following:
- Warrant Chief System,
- the withdrawal of the illegitimate tax, and,
- increased respect and role of women in leadership.
It also resulted in inspirations for future generations of women and men alike.
“We want to remember this historic event and remind the younger generation about the roles women played in the struggles against the colonial experience,” Ugorji said.
Ugorji pointed out that another aim of the conference is to celebrate the heroic women.
He emphasised that the courageous women organized and carried out Africa’s first revolt against colonialism.
He said: “We will present these women as role models in the universal human struggle for equality, equity and justice.
“We hope that the generations of today and tomorrow will be inspired,” he opined.
The organizers of the conference also seek to advance the ideals these African women fought for in 1929.
Several of them paid with their lives as the British colonial forces shot at them.
“Our hope is that the conference would result in additional and reinvigorated organized efforts to facilitate women’s presence and input in leadership in all professions and activities,” Ugorji said.
The conference
The two-day Aba Market Women’s Riot conference will start on Thursday, December 18th, with an Opening Plenary Session.
It will feature keynote speeches, goodwill messages, creative arts performances, and panel discussions.
Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State and the Iyaloja General of Lagos, Mrs. Folasade Tinubu-Ojo, were invited as the Special Guests of Honour.
Mrs. Chioma Uzodimma, Imo State First Lady, was invited as the “Mother of the Day” and a keynote speaker.
The second day of the conference will feature academic paper presentations from scholars around the world.
A “call for papers” published by the OFO Educational Foundation and Marquette University of has already generated tremendous interest and submissions.
Attendance at the conference will be free to the general public.
Several women leaders in the state have declared their readiness to mobilize thousands of women and men to the conference.
Ugorji assured that a list of speakers and performers will be published later.
Meanwhile, additional information about the conference is available on the OFO Educational Foundation’s website.
