Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Azuta-Mbata and the naysayers
By Ikechukwu Amaechi
In the three weeks before January 11, 2025 when I returned Lagos, I was in Mbaise, my ancestral home, to bury my mother-in-law, Ezinne Eunice Egowure Okahia. During that period, a lot happened, the most consequential being the election of Senator John Azuta-Mbata as the President-General of the apex Igbo socio-cultural organization, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, despite the vile machinations of some wet blankets. We will come back to that shortly.
Suffice it to say that contrary to the fears of many that the Southeast would typify the Hobbesian state of nature where “man’s life was solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short,” Alaigbo was bubbly. Getting there was the problem. Those who travelled by air, paying exorbitant airfares that seemed to have been reservedly exclusively for Ndigbo, still endured flight delays and sometimes outright cancellations.
But it was even worse for those who travelled by road as I did. The journey on the approximately 543 km stretch from Lagos to Owerri was nightmarish, much of the highway, especially the Benin City Bypass in Edo State, having become a death trap. If nothing is done to rehabilitate the Bypass before the rains return, it will be a disaster. Am I optimistic that something will be done? Not at all as long as the Federal Government remains distracted with its ₦15.6 trillion Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway.
Then the humiliation by policemen and soldiers. Most of the checkpoints on the roads are nothing other than extortion centres. The soldiers in particular act with impunity, whimsically blocking major roads and orchestrating needless gridlock. There is the particular case of the military checkpoint at Eziama-Obiato on the ever-busy Onitsha-Owerri Road where soldiers act with reckless abandon. They block the road at night until about 6.30am. It does not matter to them that there could be emergencies. In the daytime, motorists are not allowed to drive past the barricade with passengers on board. They disembark and trek to meet the driver. It is all an attempt to humiliate the people.
But the Second Niger Bridge was a beauty to behold, a testament to the positive impact quality infrastructure could have on the lives and economy of a people. Much of the homeland was peaceful, a pleasant reminder of what was before the storm started. There was record homecoming particularly those living in the Diaspora and a palpable resurgence of the well-known Igbo values of hospitality, family, community, life, and respect for elders. The fabled Igbo communalism spirit (onye aghala nwanne ya) was in full display. The few that had shared with the many that didn’t have.
In all, except for the condemnable incidents of violence in Anambra and Imo, particularly the tragic killing of no fewer than 18 people in several communities in Orsu LGA, Imo State, on January 5; the murder of Father Tobias Okonkwo, a Catholic priest, at lhiala on December 26; abduction of Vincentia Maria Nwankwo and Grace Mariette Okoli, reverend sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Mother of Christ, in Orumba North LGA, Anambra State, on January 7, there seemed to have been a consciousness among the people that the indiscriminate violence and sundry acts of criminality were counter-productive.
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It behoves the Igbo elite not only to denounce these atrocious acts but also ensure that going forward, the Southeast doesn’t relapse to the axiomatic Hobbesian state. While there may be some forces from outside involved in these heinous crimes, the truth is that majority of the culprits are Igbo youths, a reality that calls for introspection.
And that takes me back to the historic election of Senator Azuta-Mbata, who represented Rivers East in the Senate between 1999 and 2007, a bonafide Igbo of Ikwerre extraction as the President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide on January 10. Ndigbo will continue to confound those who spew the disunity heterodoxy. Azuta-Mbata’s election, once again, punctures that hackneyed stereotyping of Ndigbo because it is a measure of the unity of purpose and clarity of vision of the people.
When the plot of those who thought money could buy them the Ohanaeze presidency failed as it should, they resorted to puerile blackmail and name-calling, sponsoring protests on the harebrained ground that Ikwerres are not Igbo. But how can a man whose name is Chibuike, Nwaike, Uchendu, Chukwuemeka, etc. make such a laughable claim? Going by the etymology meaning of language, which is the study of the origin of words, the Ikwerre dialect is even more relatable to what some people refer to as Central Igbo, which is the most widely understood dialect of the Igbo language, than the Nsukka, Ohafia or Izza dialects, for instance.
In a video, one Eze Godspower Onuekwa, who claims to be the President-General of Ogbakor Ikwerre Cultural Organisation, threatened fire and brimstone. “It is now rumoured that Ohanaeze Ndigbo intends to make an Ikwerre man the President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo… Any person, no matter how highly placed, who may decide to accept this offer eventually becomes an enemy to the Ikwerre people,” he declared.
Who says? Onuekwa cannot claim to be a more accomplished Ikwerre than Azuta-Mbata. So, on what basis will he declare him or anyone else who proclaims his Igbo heritage a quisling? In any case, if Onuekwa and his co-travellers think it is their right to claim a phantom Bini heritage, why deny others who think otherwise the same right?
When that childish gambit failed, they came up with the claim that zoning the Ohanaeze presidency to Rivers State is an expansionist Igbo ploy.
How? Ohanaeze is an umbrella organisation of all Igbos worldwide. While it is true that majority of them live in the five Southeast states, a significant number also live in other states outside the Southeast. So, does an Igbo man from Rivers being in the leadership cadre of Ohanaeze translate to annexation? Will Rivers become the sixth Southeast State because an Ikwerre is the President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo?
If there is nothing wrong with a Yoruba from Kogi or Kwara identifying with Afenifere, why should the case of Ndigbo be different? Are there no Ijaw that are bonafide Lagosians? Does the fact of state of origin make them less Ijaw? Are Ijaws from Delta, Edo, Rivers, Ondo not members of the Ijaw National Congress (INC)?
The irony is that all the losers who are making noise were waiting in the wings to see if Ndigbo in the Southeast would breach the Ohanaeze Constitution on rotational presidency by denying Rivers its turn to produce the President-General. They would have used it as one more evidence in their war of attrition against Ndigbo, their bête noire. They failed.
Now, the job of Senator Azuta-Mbata is clearly cut out. Article 2:3 of the Ohanaeze constitution, says the organization is to to serve as a focal point of reference, of direction and of collective leadership in matters affecting the interest, solidarity and general welfare of the Igbo; to promote, develop and advance Igbo language and culture, to promote honour, dignity and self-respect among Ndigbo and encourage their achievement orientation in various aspects of life, to assist and encourage the formation of Igbo self-help, mutual assistance wherever Ndigbo may reside and to promote peaceful coexistence with other ethnic nationalities in Nigeria.
The protests are mere distractions. The idea is to addle the new Ohanaeze leaders so that they can take their eyes off the ball. Ohanaeze Ndigbo is a child of necessity. As Professor Ben Nwabueze, one of the founders, remarked in a January 15, 2001 article in the TELL magazine titled, Igbo Kwenu, the idea of a pan-Igbo organization is to: “To lift ourselves from our present marginalized position and realize our group interest in the fierce competition and struggle among the antagonistic ethnic nationalities comprised in Nigeria imperatively requires an effective, credible organization, without this, we will remain rudderless, forever drifting aimlessly with no sense of purpose or direction. In such an organization, lies our only hope of salvaging ourselves from the abyss into which we have sunk. Our defeat in the civil war and the consequent loss of much of our possessions certainly has something to do with it. But with an organization of this nature, the defeat and loss can be made good.”
It is this realization that brought the best of Igbo patriots – Dr. Akanu Ibiam, Justice Daddy Onyeama, Chief Jerome Udorji, Prof J. U. Agwu, Dr. Michael Okpara, Dr. Pius Okigbo, Chief Mathias Ugochukwu and Chief Dennis Osadabey – together in 1976 to establish Ohanaeze Ndigbo, with Dr. Ibiam as the first President.
Since then, other illustrious Igbo sons – Chief Ugochukwu, Prof Nwabueze, Justice Eze Ozobu, Prof Joe Irukwu, Dr. Dozie Ikedife, Ambassador Ralph Uwachue, Chief Gary Igariwey, Chief Nnia Nwodo, Prof George Obiozor and Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu – have held sway. It is into their shoes that Senator Azuta-Mbata stepped in on January 10. He has the pedigree to excel and 2025 may well be the beginning of the much-awaited Igbo renaissance.
