Azuta-Mbata: Towards a lush green era in Ohanaeze Ndigbo

Senator John Azuta-Mbata’s election as president general of Ohanaeze Ndigbo has strategically resolved the political controversy surrounding the identity of Ikwerre people in Rivers State. However, the future of the group and his desire to restore its lost glory will depend on the level of support he receives from his kinsmen, LAWRENCE NJOKU reports.

The former senator representing Rivers East senatorial zone, Senator John Azuta-Mbata, who emerged as the new president general of the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, on Friday, January 10, 2025 has a lot of challenges at hand.

The first from Ikwerre in Rivers State to head the organisation has not hidden his desires and intentions to reposition Ohanaeze Ndigbo and ultimately the Igbo nation.

His election also confirmed that the cultural organisation is not exclusive to the five states in the Southeast but extended to Rivers and Delta States in the South-South.

Moments after being announced as the consensus president general, Mbata assured that he would do everything to revalitise the organisation and elevate it to the next level. He promised to unite the Igbo and address pressing issues.

Those conversant with trends in Igboland would readily affirm that it is becoming increasingly difficult for its people to speak with one voice.  The situation of the Ndigbo is compounded by the disenchantment and disharmony among their religious, traditional, and political leaders.

Ohanaeze Ndigbo, which was borne out of the need to forge unity among Ndigbo and play the fatherly role has also became a victim of this deep animosity and interests. Several years of leadership crises have factionalised the group and in fact, gotten to the extent that whoever wears red cap has become Igbo leader and can speak for Ndigbo.

The problem in the apex group has buttressed the slogan that Igbo has no king. To underscore this, several Igbo youths have set up various groups in the name of Ohanaeze Ndigbo and speak at cross purposes in the guise of representing alaigbo and readily yield their services to any person or group as much as there is money. They undermine leaders of the mother organisation.

This aside, a visit to the Ohanaeze Secretariat in Enugu would confirm how factionalisation and disenchantment has eaten deeply into the organisation.  With old and dilapidated buildings that are either without roofs or broken doors and windows, one would readily affirm that Ohanaeze Ndigbo is yet to work, despite many years of existence.

Aside from the old brick building roofed with asbestos sheets, inherited from the old Eastern government when the organisation took off in 1979, other efforts by past administrations to enhance infrastructure at the secretariat have failed.

A former president general, late Prof. Joe Irukwu, single-handedly put up a mini hall in the secretariat that is currently begging for attention. Also, former Governor Rochas Okorocha attempted to set up a more conducive secretariat for the organisation when he was at the helm of affairs in Imo State.

However, the wind blew away the roof of the building a few months after the roofing was completed; a development attributed to poor quality in the delivery of the project. Presently, the weather beaten building, which has become an eyesore stands in the secretariat premises without cover.

The factionalisation in the organisation has grown. From a factional group that was created in 2021 as a result of the alleged manipulation in the constitution that gave birth to the Prof. George Obiozor led executive, another faction has been added bringing the number to three, now contending authenticity of the leadership of the organisation.

A group led by Chief Chidi Ibeh, which emerged in 2021, after the national election in Owerri, Imo State had a few days to the January 10, 2025 election that brought Azuta-Mbata into office, announced Chief Jackson Omenazu, as its president general. Omenazu, prior to the development had led the Rivers State Elders’ Forum of Ohanaeze Ndigbo. He attempted to become the deputy president general under Obiozor and Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, to replace late Chief Joel Kroham from Rivers State, who died in 2022, to no avail.

On the day Azuta-Mbata emerged, another report filtered in that Chief Uche Okwukwu, a former secretary general of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, allegedly emerged as president general from an election held in an undisclosed venue in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. The trio of Azuta-Mbata, Omenazu and Okwukwu are from Rivers State, which the constitution of Ohanaeze Ndigbo empowered to produce the president of the body from January 10, this year. This is a case Azuta-Mbata must resolve.

But a closer look at the calibre of those who gathered at Enugu on January 10 and elected Azuta-Mbata would convince anyone where Ndigbo stands on the leadership of the apex organisation. Aside from the governors, Hope Uzodimma (Imo State), Charles Soludo (Anambra State), Alex Otti (Abia State) and host Peter Mbah (Enugu State), there were former and serving ministers, National Assembly members, as well as religious and traditional rulers among several other eminent Igbos.

It was, however, in a similar manner that they gathered in Owerri in 2021 and elected Obiozor. Unfortunately, a few days after his election, some of the leaders, especially a former governor, retreated and backed the activities of the Ibeh led group using his state as the launch pad.

While Azuta-Mbata would need to contend with the above issues, there are also candidates who bought forms to contest various positions in the election but did not have opportunity to do so due to the consensus option adopted by the governors.

The Chief Ejiofor Onyia-led electoral committee had assured all and sundry that it was going to adopt option A4, whereby voters were expected to line behind their candidates in a most transparent manner to determine the winner. The assurance encouraged many to purchase forms.

However, the governors with other Igbo leaders who rose from a meeting before the commencement of the exercise agreed to suspend provisions of the constitution and opted for consensus option to the chagrin of the candidates.

One of the aggrieved candidates, Chuks Ibegbu, who claimed that he purchased N400,000 form for deputy president general and underwent the screening, insisted  he never knew anything about the consensus arrangement as it had never been the practice in the Igbo organisation.

“I am going to challenge the outcome of the process in court. If they knew there would be no election, why would they ask us to buy the form? This arrangement is not known to Ohanaeze Ndigbo, and in the event where it should be adopted, all those who should be part of the process should be brought into the picture,” Ibegbu, a former deputy Publicity Secretary of the organisation told The Guardian.

There were many who, however, praised the effort to realise the transition, especially with the plethora of deaths that marked the immediate past executive where two presidents general and a deputy president general died in office.

Azuta-Mbata would also need to address discontents from his Ikwerre ethnic nationality in Rivers State that have condemned his emergence and insisted that they would not be dragged into his personal interest.

They said that the position of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, which he contested and won is not in the collective interest of the Ikwerre people and, hence, does not have their backing.

Azuta-Mbata would need to work hard to change these ugly narratives among other contending arguments that the organisation has lost potency and has become a toy in the hands of politicians who use it at their whims and caprices.

The President of Njiko Igbo Forum (NIF), Rev. Okechukwu Obioha, stated that the soul of Ohanaeze Ndigbo has been decimated, blaming the development on the intrusion of active politicians into the affairs and leadership of the group. He wondered how Azuta-Mbata could restore the integrity of Ohanaeze Ndigbo with being “the compromised candidates of the governors of the Southeast region,” adding that, “he was never a member of the organisation and never featured in the campaigns for the elevated office.”

Recall that the former Inspector General of Police (IGP), Sir Mike Okiro, campaigned and favoured to occupy the plum position until a crisis of identity set in and consumed his ambition. Okiro who was mired in the controversy of being an Imo or Rivers State indigene had announced his withdrawal from the race on the eve of the exercise citing alleged court order. The development paved the way for Azuta-Mbata.

Obioha, however, expressed concerns that various contentions that have emerged over Ohanaeze Ndigbo would take the organisation to the “gallows”, stressing that, “with three persons claiming president general; two of them are die hard in the mission to drag Ohanaeze Ndigbo to the oblivion, one is set for a compromised settlement.”

He added: “All the battle now for the soul of Ohanaeze Ndigbo is for the 2027 presidential election and nothing more. One group led by a Southeast governor is set on a mission to galvanise and mobilize Ndigbo for Northern presidency with ambition to serve as a Vice President in 2027. The other is out to stop him and his Ohanaeze group and badly too, retain President Bola Tinubu in 2027. The thought of a Southeast presidency in 2027, is not in their consideration.”

Azuta-Mbata may not have known how entrenched these issues are, but with his vast experience in governance and public  service, he is expected to guide the Ohanaeze in tackling critical issues affecting the Igbo, especially restoring their voice and contributing to security and socio-economic development.

However, he has pledged to place cohesion and innovation in the front burner and would soon unveil a comprehensive programme on his administration.

In unanimity, the governors and political leaders at the event pledged their support for the success of the Azuta-Mbata-led administration. The Igbo are waiting and see how this support will reunite and restore the glory of Ohanaeze Ndigbo.