There are fresh intrigues over who succeeds the late Ohanaeze Ndigbo president, Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu.
Stakeholders yesterday warned against any attempt at manipulating the process leading to the January 2025 election of a new President General of the apex Igbo group, reports The Nation.
A chieftain of the organisation, Chief Chekwas Okorie, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and a prominent cleric, Prophet Godfrey Gbujie said on no account should the next president come from any other state than Rivers.They, in separate statements, emphatically declared that no individual or group of people can stop the Rivers from producing the next leader of the group.
Ohanaeze has the principle of rotational presidency in alphabetical order among the member states with Abia, Anambra, Delta, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo states having taken their turns in that order.
The 2025 election is expected to produce a Rivers State native as president general, but there are insinuations that some forces are trying to truncate that.
Fielding questions from newsmen in Enugu, Okorie, who is a one-time national chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), insisted that there was no leadership or any crisis at all in Ohanaeze as regards whether Rivers State would produce the next Igbo leader next year.
He said: “We have looked at it, the time that Chief Iwuanyanwu’s tenure would have ended would be January. So, we couldn’t have done anything according to Igbo tradition until he had been buried. Is it between the time that he was buried a few weeks ago and January that we will be struggling for another Imo person to complete his remaining tenure?
“So, we decided not to go into that but to use the period to be able to join our brothers and sisters and our kindreds in Rivers State to produce the next President general of Ohanaeze Ndigbo. It is their turn. Nobody can tamper with that. If you try it, people like us will rise against it. If you try it, you destroy Igbo unity that we’ve taken so many years to build”.
The leadership of the group also got a caution from the ministerial leader of World Zionist Union in the Southeast, Prophet Godfrey Gbujie, who warned that any plot to stop Rivers from producing the next president of Ohanaeze would spell doom for the unity of the Igbo race.
In a letter addressed to the secretary general of Ohanaeze, Prophet Gbujie noted an ongoing conspiracy against the Igbo in Rivers State ahead of the January election.
“I plead with and pray you to ensure that you separate and distance yourself and the very Ohanaeze which is divinely bestowed and entrusted on your shoulders from ongoing conspiracy to deny our brothers and sisters from Rivers State their “one – in – 28 year chance producing a president general of Ohaneze Ndigbo next year, 2025,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Ime-obi caucus of Ohanaeze Ndigbo worldwide, will meet in two weeks’ time to deliberate on who completes the tenure of the late President of the group, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, who hailed from Imo state.
Speaking with reporters yesterday in Awka, the Vice President of Ohanaeze in charge of Southeast, Chief Damian Okeke-Ogene, debunked the insinuations that the death of Iwuanyanwu has caused crisis in the body.
“There is no form of crisis in Ohanaeze, what the people are seeing as crisis is the creation of social media, Ohanaeze is not relenting in promoting collective interest of Ndigbo”
“Let me start by thanking all Nigerians including various socio-cultural organizations in this country for their support, collaboration and encouragement throughout the preparation and burial of the late Ohaneze Ndigbo President Chief Emmanuel Iwanyanwu.
“We are waiting for the Imo State Chapter of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo to elect or appoint a replacement for the Ime-Obi which is the highest decision making body of the socio-cultural group to consider all possible approval for the completion of Imo State.”
IPOB alleges plot to alter group’s constitution
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has issued a stern warning to Ohanaeze Ndigbo, urging the organisation to adhere to its constitution regarding election of its leadership in January 2025.
IPOB’s Media and Publicity Secretary, Comrade Emma Powerful, said in a statement yesterday that some individuals within Ohanaeze Ndigbo are secretly working to alter the organisation’s constitution, aiming to exclude Igbos from other regions from contesting for the President General position.
IPOB viewed this move as catastrophic adding that Ohanaeze Ndigbo should prioritize uniting Ndigbo worldwide.
“No Igbo person is more important than the other. Ndigbo are one flesh and one blood but balkanized by the Nigerian government in order to divide and conquer us.
“It is the duty of the Imobi Ohanaeze, religious leaders, and first-class traditional rulers in Igboland to settle the differences between members or factions of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, not a non-Igbo person or group,” Powerful emphasised.
The organisation urged Ohanaeze Ndigbo to respect the zoning arrangement in its constitution, which stipulates that the next President General should emerge from Ndigbo in Rivers State.
