Ohakim noted that Iwuanyanwu was the first Igbo who went into newspaper publishing on a scale that put him in direct competition with the traditionalists in the industry.
By Jeffrey Agbo
Former governor of Imo State, Ikedi Ohakim, has joined the nation in mourning the President-General of Igbo socio-cultural group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu.
Iwuanyanwu, founder of Champion Newspaper, died on Thursday after a brief illness. He was aged 82.
In a lengthy statement made available to TheNiche on Friday, Ohakim said Iwuanyanwu had been in national and international limelight, bestriding politics, business, sports among others for over four decades but the last few years of his life were the most significant.
Explaining why he made the assertion, Ohakim said, “Chief Iwuanyanwu lived the last stage of his life serving his own people –Ndigbo – after playing a dominant role in national politics and as an entrepreneur of international repute. It is a rare thing, something everybody hankers for: to return home at the twilight of life to be and serve ones people.
“Many in his caliber get stuck while seeking for more recognition and relevance outside. Although a national icon, Chief Iwuanyanwu got wisdom and harkened to the call by his kinsmen to lead them at a most auspicious time both in their collective existence as a people and in their relationship with fellow compatriots across the country.
“As it is, what Ndigbo lost in Chief Iwuanyanwu’s unsuccessful bid to become the president of Nigeria they seem to have gained in the brief period he headed the Igbo nation’s apex socio-cultural body – the OhenezeNdigbo. His road map as President-General of the body was headed for an unprecedented transformation of Igboland. Under his leadership of the body, Ndigbo saw, for the first time, a pan-Igbo Blue Print that would have brought together every facet of the Igbo race – from Owerri to Anioma, from Ikwere land to Ikot Abasi, from Ohaozara to Orokam, all over Igbo land. He mapped out a strategy for a deliberate pursuit of a development programme in all the sectors – agriculture, education, health, power, road infrastructure, security etc. For each sector, he set up committees headed by individuals with cognate experience in the area.
“The period was marked by a frenzy of activities that bellied his huge frame and put to rest earlier insinuations in some quarters that he was either too old for the job or did not possess the necessary physical fitness for it. And he carried this alacrity to the very last days before his death.He traversed all over Nigeria calming frayed nerves whenever hostilities arose between Ndigbo and their hosts. But more importantly, he set up a programme for the Igbo living outside Igbo land to look back home while admonishing them to live peacefully with hosts meanwhile.”
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Giving an example of Iwuanyanwu’s patriotism, the former governor said, “A practical opportunity for such a patriotic role came sometime last year when, following the heightening economic hardship in the country, some people decided to call out Nigerians to go to the streets in protest. Chief Iwuanyanwu demonstrated the patriot in him when he called on Ndigbo not to take part in the protest and they listened. It is on record that not a single protest took place in any of the core Igbo speaking states of Abia, Enugu, Ebonyi, Anambra and Imo, to the benefit of the entire nation.”
Ohakim noted that Iwuanyanwu was the first Igbo who went into newspaper publishing on a scale that put him in direct competition with the traditionalists in the industry.
He said, “To the surprise of many and perhaps to the chagrin of some of his kinsmen, the first chief executive officer of the publishing outfit was a Yourba, Prince Henry Odukomaiya. The choice of a Yoruba for that top position at once made a good business sense and immediately marked the newspaper out as a national asset, acting as a bridge between the Igbo and other ethnic groups in Nigeria especially the Yourba. As a matter of fact, Odukamaiya, a brilliant journalist, nationalist and now an elder statesmen, was once reported as saying that the reason he accepted the offer to serve as the pioneer Managing Director and Editor-In-Chief of the newspaper was because it offered him an opportunity to have a close relationship with the Igbo. He was further reported as saying that he had craved for that because the perennial rivalry between the Igbo and the Yoruba had created a wrong notion of whom the Igbo really are among his Yoruba kinsmen; and limited the potentials of a mutually beneficial relationship between the two.”
He also mentioned the businessman’s contributions to sports and politics both nationally, regionally and in Imo State.
The former governor added, “The Ahaejiagamba Ndigbo worked till the very end. His last official outing was just a few weeks before his hospitalization and during which he inaugurated the Ohanaeze Committee for the restructuring of Nigeria with me as a member and headed by former governor of Enugu state, Dr Okwesilieze Nwodo. A few days later, I had a private meeting with him in his house in Abuja and he showed no sign of any thing that could have led to the type of thing we witnessed on Thursday, July 25 2024. Death, where is thy sting? Nigeria and Africa has lost a colossus. My entire family commiserates with his family, the government and people of Imo State, Ndigbo and millions of fellow compatriots across the country. Ahaejiagamba Ndigbo, gaa ijegi nke oma.”
