Senator John Azuta-Mbata has been elected as the President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide.
Azuta-Mbata, a former Senator representing Rivers East at the National Assembly, was elected at the stakeholders meeting of the Igbo Socio-Cultural organization at the old Government Lodge, Enugu, the Enugu State capital on Friday.
Before this time, confusion had set in owing to parallel elections of President-Generals of the body.
Related posts
- Ohanaeze Ndigbo PG Prof Obiozor Bows to death
- PANDEF, Afenifere, Ohanaeze, Middle Belt Leaders, Northern Elders Pessimistic Over 2019 Elections
- Ohanaeze Ndigbo Bombs Buhari, Accuses Him Of Patronising Corrupt Politicians
In the first election conducted by a factional body in Ohanaeze, on January 5 in Port Harcourt, Jackson Omenazu, an Ikwerre man from Rivers State, was announced as the group’s President-General.
But with prominent members of the group rejecting the January 5 election, another election was conducted on Friday where Barr. Uche Okwukwu, a former Secretary-General of the organisation was announced as the new President-General.
However, the Enugu election was witnessed by five governors of the South-East, leaders of thoughts, political stakeholders from the Igbo extraction. Governors Peter Mbah of Enugu State, Hope Uzodimma of Imo State, Charles Soludo of Anambra State, and the Deputy Governor of Ebonyi State, Patricia Obila, as well as Senators Chris Ngige, Ben Obi, Victor Umeh and other Igbo dignitaries, Senator John Azuta-Mbata who represented Rivers East in the National Assembly from 1999 to 2007, was announced as the new President-General of the apex Igbo group.
Azuta-Mbata hails from the same Senatorial District of Nyesom Wike, the Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Abuja and immediate past Governor of Rivers State.
The election makes Azuta-Mbata the 13th President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, succeeding Fidelis Chukwu, who completed the tenure of Imo State.
Chukwu was named the named leader of the group during the Ime-Obi meeting held in Enugu in December. His appointment followed the death of Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu who took over after the death of George Obiozor in 2023.
Fidelis Chukwu’s completion of Imo State’s tenure to lead the pan-Igbo group opened the door for Rivers State which has now produced Azuta-Mbata to lead Ohanaeze for the next four years.
Azuta-Mbata, who was immediately sworn in after the election, assured the Igbo people of his commitment to an all-inclusive leadership that will foster unity and growth among all Igbos.
The chairman of the South-East Governors’ Forum, Governor Hope Uzodimma, also assured the Ohanaeze Ndigbo that the South-East governors will support the leadership for a fruitful regional growth and economic integration.
Azuta-Mbata, who was born in January 1960, earned a Master’s in Public Administration from the University of Ibadan.
At the start of the Nigerian Fourth Republic in 1999, Azuta-Mbata was elected Senator for the Rivers East constituency of Rivers State. He ran on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
He was re-elected in 2003 during which he held key positions on Senate committees, including Defense, Finance & Appropriation (as vice-chairman), and Works & Housing.
The Ohanaeze Ndigbo, established in 1976 as a non-political party, initially comprising the five Igbo States (Imo, Anambra, Enugu, Ebonyi and Abia).
Later, Ohanaeze leadership rotates among the seven Igbo-speaking States, the five states of the South East as well as Delta and Rivers States.
The group explained that the rotation aligns with Article 11 of the Ohanaeze Ndi-Igbo Constitution, ensuring the office of the president-general is shared among seven member states.
A communiqué from a stakeholders’ meeting held on Monday, November 18, 2024 in Port Harcourt, signed by Livingstone Wechie, Convener of Ogbakor Ndi-Igbo na Rivers alias Rivers State Igbo Stakeholders, in conjunction with the National Coordinator of Anyi-Anyi, Mr Anthony Okolo, stressed that Rivers State Igbos have consistently supported other states in producing the president-general and national officers.
“We strongly believe that a strict adherence to the constitution will bring about a harmonious, peaceful and prosperous Ohanaeze now and in the future… We so appeal. May God help us all,” Wechie said.
Brief Igbo affinity with Ikwerre
Rivers State is indigenous to Igbo speaking people such as Etche, Obigbo, Ndoni, Ogba, Ikwerre, Egbema, Omuma and others. It is believed that 65% of Rivers State speak a dialect of of Igbo as their ancestral language.
The Ikwerre are generally considered by a great majority of scholars as a sub-group of the Igbo people of South-eastern Nigeria. Several theories exist over their origin. One is favoured by the Igbo people and another is widely accepted by the Ikwerre people themselves.
According to one of these theories of Ikwerre origin claims by some Igbo scholars suggests that they would be descendants from an Igbo migration from Awka and Orlu areas towards the south. Igbo scholars take the Ikwerre as part of the Southern Igbo.
Amadi, an Ikwerre scholar, says that the Igbo origin theory has support even among the Ikwerre themselves, with Ikwerre as descendants of a migration of Arochukwu Igbo, and Okpo Nwagidi being the leader of the Ikwerre tribe.
Before the civil war, there had been dissident voices that claimed that Ikwerre could have migrated from Owerri, Ohaji, Ngwa, and Etche areas of Igboland. But when Port Harcourt was conquered by Nigeria during the Biafran War and the Igbo people from other parts of Igboland fled the territory, a UN report says that the Ikwerre decided to claim that the Ikwerre were non-Igbo for convenience.
The Ikwerre are recognized officially as a separate group in the 1979 Nigerian Constitution.
It was about that time that names of places and those of some individuals began to change to reflect a new era in the Ikwerre history. Examples are:
Umu changed to Rumu,
Mu na chi changed to Manuchi,
Nwike changed to Wike,
ObiAkpo changed to ObiakpO,
Chidimma changed to Chiburuoma,
Nwa changed to Nwo.
Ezenwa changed to Ezenwo.
Nwakpa/Nwekpa changed to Wekpa etc.
Meanwhile, from Elechi Amadi, in his earlier narrative related that before these repudiaitons a community called Chiolu had a king known as “Eze Diala” and another community had a king called “Eze Okehi”. All these names were Igbo, not any other nation.
Many scholars believed that some Ikwerre people migrated from Ika a subgroup of Igbos in Delta State, while some migrated from Ngwa, Arochukwu and Ohaji/Egbema. In the article, The Age of Innocence presented at the 1981 Ahiajioku Lecture by A. F. Afigbo, it was recognised that, “The Ikwerre of the present Rivers State were made to underline this point after the collapse of Biafra by the simple process of prefixing a capital “R” to the names of their towns.”
In this way. Ụmụkurushi became Rumukurushi, Ụmụigbo became Rumuigbo and so on in the hope, rather than the belief, that this would make other Nigerians forget they are or ever were Igbo.’
