The Ohanaeze Ndigbo is mired in controversy over the election of an Ikwere man as its President General, an action that has factionalized the socio-cultural organization into splinter groups
By Jude Nzennaya, Port Harcourt
Ezenwo Nyesom Wike is the current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The two-time former governor of Rivers State, bears three official names which denote him as an Igbo man. Wike is an Ikwere man by birth, a small tribe of Igbo dialect-speaking people found in Rivers State, South south Nigeria.
Wike, though Igbo by birth, has on some occasions denied his Igbo root, claiming he is a Niger Delta by tribe. Wike is not alone in this ignominious denial, so are numerous others from Ikwere in Rivers State.
On Friday, January 10, 2025, an Ikwere man, Senator John Azuta-Mbata, was elected the new President General of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo in a contentious manner that has since left the Igbo group factionalized.
Aside from the controversies that surrounded Azuta-Mbata’s emergence as the President General of the apex Igbo socio-cultural organization, the core Igbo speaking citizens of Rivers State where the President General was zoned, have since been protesting that if the Ikweres had variously denied their Igbo root, why would one of them be imposed on the Ohanaeze Ndigbo as its President General?
Those who are opposed to Azuta-Mbata’s election readily point out his political profile and antecedents which are riddled with anti-people’s posture among others. For example, in 2006 when former President Olusegun Obasanjo allegedly sought a third term as president for which his supporters in the Senate pushed for Constitution amendment to accommodate, Senator Azuta-Mbata was caught in the middle of the web.
During the election at the Senate for and against Constitution amendment, 34 senators voted in support, 31 voted against while 12 senators remained undecided. However, it was only Senator Azuta-Mbata who remained opinion less during the debate, an indication that he was in support of the third term gambit.
One of the factional Presidents General of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo is Dim Uche Nnamdi Okwukwu whose followers voted in on Thursday, January 9, 2025 in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. Okwukwu who hails from Isiokpo in the oil-rich state, apart from picking holes in the process of emergence of Azuta-Mbata, insists that the later was not qualified to be elected leader of the Igbo group.
Okwukwu claimed that his emergence as President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo aligned with the tradition of the organization.
Dismissing the election of Azuta-Mbata as a charade and illegality, Okwukwu argued that in 2017 when the Ohanaeze Ndigbo President General slot was zoned to Enugu State, the election of that year was held in Enugu. Likewise in 2021 when it was zoned to Imo State, the election held in Owerri the capital city. Okwukwu, therefore, wondered why the election should be taken to Enugu when it became the turn of Rivers State to produce the President General, instead of Port Harcourt.
His camp alleged that Azuta-Mbata was not qualified to be elected the President General of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, but was foisted on the organization by the governors of the South east states.
Since then, a crisis of confidence has been threatening the leadership of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide.
Since the election of Azuta-Mbata, three other persons, from the Ikwerre ethnic nationality, from three different factions, have been elected Presidents-General of the umbrella body of the Igbos in Nigeria and in the Diaspora.
On January 5, 2025, at a convention in Port Harcourt, a faction of Ohanaeze Ndigbo declared Mr. Jackson Omenazu as the elected President-General while another faction held a parallel convention still in Port Harcourt, and elected Okwukwu as President-General.
The election of Mr. Okwukwu, a lawyer and human rights activist, was backed by members of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB). He was also a former Secretary-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo.
On the same last Friday, January 10, at the Old Government Lodge, Enugu, the capital of Enugu state, a third convention was held where Senator Azuka-Mbata was also declared elected by hundreds of delegates, comprising political office holders and prominent Igbo citizens.
Some of those who graced the Enugu convention were Governors Peter Mbah, Enugu State; Hope Uzodinma, Imo State; Charles Soludo, Anambra State and Mrs. Patricia Obila, the deputy governor of Ebonyi State. Others were Senators Chris Ngige, Ben Obi and Victor Umeh among numerous other dignitaries were also present at the Enugu gathering.
Although IPOB officials have dismissed the other two elections that produced both the Senator and Mr. Omenazu as nullity and inconsequential, visits and messages of congratulations have been pouring into Senator Azuta-Mbata’s private residence along the Choba/NTA Road in Port Harcourt.
Since his contentious election, Senator Azuta-Mbata who represented Rivers East Senatorial Districts in the Senate is expected to succeed Nze Ozichukwu Fidelis Chukwu, who recently completed the tenure of late Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu as the President-General of their umbrella body.
But in its reaction, the IPOB said it was not a party to the imposition of any leadership on Ndigbo, threatening to mobilise the people against the re-election bid or political appointments of those behind the sale-out.
The IPOB has also congratulated its sponsored candidate, Okwukwu on his well deserved victory, and warned the South East governors not to subvert the clear choice of the people.
Following the reported zoning of the next President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo to the Ikwerre ethnic group in Rivers state, there have been several divisive arguments by the Ikwerre people themselves over whether they are Igbo either in language or cultural heritage. King Godspower Onuekwa, President-General of Ogbakor Ikwerre addressed the media in Port Harcourt shortly after Azuta-Mbata election whereupon he vehemently opposed the move by Ohanaeze Ndigbo to drag the Ikwerre community into its fold.
According to Onuekwa, it is clear that socially, culturally and traditionally, the Ikwerre people are neither Igbo nor Biafra, but rather a distinct and unique ethnic group spread into four local government areas of Port Harcourt, Ikwerre, Emohua and Obio-Akpor of Rivers state.
