Edo United Club of Sacramento – History
The influx of Edo indigenes from the San Francisco Bay areas to the Sacramento regions in the late 90’s informed the need for an Association for people with like minds from the great Edo State of Nigeria. Suffice to say that the idea was floated at various levels, cliques, social events and so on. As the idea gained momentum, Mr. William Iyasere and my honorable self, Mr. Victor Omorogieva met at his residence to draw a list of all Edo indigenes in the area, and then attempted elimination method as to who will join or not. Alas, we were wrong about some indigenes. Late in the year 2000 at the residence of Mr. Godfrey Okoro, with Mr. Kingsley Obaseki, Mr. Ken Ogunsuyi, Pastor Monday Igbinigie, Mr. Douglas Osunde, Mr. William Iyasere, Mr. Victor Omorogieva, Deacon Lawrence Ogunsuyi in attendance for a social event, we decided to forge ahead. With people traveling home for the holidays and returning possibly late into January 2001, we decided the best time to kick off the association would be March, 2001.
So in March, 2001, we held the very first meeting at the residence of Mr. William Iyasere – 8664 Trimmer Way, Sacramento, CA. Mr. Kingsley Obaseki directed the conduct of our inaugural meeting, while yours truly, Mr. Victor Omorogieva volunteered as Secretary. Sorry I do not have the exact date of this meeting as the records are not readily available to me. However, I do remember the following individuals at that meeting:
- William Iyasere
- Kingsley Obaseki
- Lawrence Ogunsuyi (RIP)
- Ken Ogunsuyi
- Godfrey Okoro
- Victor Omorogieva
- Monday Igbinigie
- Douglas Osunde
- Nosa Ihegie
- Tony Idemudia
This is by no means inclusive as I am doing this from memory. There were other members not mentioned, but we will update as we progress.
The one and only agenda item we had at the time was drafting a Constitution. It took us two years to draft our Constitution! Oh yes, two years and we had fun with it. Members at the time were eager to be at the next meeting and on time to debate issues on the constitution drafting. The issue of what happened when we lose a member or a member loses his parents and so on was never in the picture. For the record, forming the association was never influenced by benefits.
After two or so meetings, we initially named the association – Edo Association of Sacramento. While trying to obtain a 501c status, the office of the Secretary of States told us that Edo Association already exists in California, and that we need their permission to use the name or outright change our name. So the name Edo United Club of Sacramento was adopted.