…As Crisis Trails Consensus Candidate, Electoral Committee
The Ohaneze Ndigbo general elections scheduled for January 11 this year may be under threat of postponement or suspension unless the Ohaneze leaders and election handlers are able to clear some hurdles, controversies and outright protests that have bedeviled the election process, as well as allegations and counter allegations that have trailed the exercise, with the incumbent and outgoing President General, Chief Nnia Nwodo at the receiving end of accusations of subterranean moves to hand over the control of the apex Igbo organization to the South East governors.
Nwodo’s accusers take a cue from last month’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting Ohaneze at which State governors were alleged to have nominated two members each out of the three persons per state into the 40-man electoral committee appointed to handle the January 11th elections, an action many observers perceive as a way to politicize the election process.
The implication of this is that the governors will have substantial influence in the electoral committee and as such, there is a possibility of the committee giving the governors an upper hand in the appointment election delegates from their respective states, who are likely to be members of the governor’s party. That would also imply that any Ohaneze member who is not in the governor’s party would have no chance of being a delegate to the election.
The ultimate result will be that the new Ohaneze leadership will be under the control of the governor or party with the highest number of delegates at the election who decides who wins as President-General and Secretary General of Ohaneze.
One of the Ohaneze stakeholders was worried that this development will destroy the Ohaneze Ndigbo and may even mar the integrity of the election as many people may boycott the election and see it as a sham. Again, given the emergence of Ohaneze splinter groups in recent times, the process currently being adopted for the January election portends a great danger for the continued existence of Ohaneze Ndigbo as one body and one mouth in Nigeria which will also jeopardize the prospects of Igbo presidency in 2023.
A variant of Ohanaeze Youth Council (OYC) headed by one Comrade Igboayaka O. Igboayaka as the National President also protested against what he described as a ‘lopsided’ constitution of Ohanaeze Electoral Committee for the election, and accused Nnia Nwodo of compromising the committee by unconstitutionally allowing the South-East governors to nominate two of the three persons per state to make up the national electoral committee, observing that the constitution of the electoral committee used to be the prerogative of the State Ohaneze executives.
Igboayaka insisted that Ohanaeze Ndigbo cannot be turned into a political clique for the governors, and warned that any attempt to sell Ohanaeze to the governors or political parties will be resisted by Igbo youths both at home and in the Diaspora. He therefore warned Nnia Nwodo to follow due process and respect Ohaneze’s constitution in the interest of the Igbo nation.
Nwodo, who was also fingered for allegedly attending a meeting at the house of Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu in Imo State where Prof. George Obiozor was said to have been chosen as his successor by a consensus, dismissed the suggestions that he was hatching a plan to manipulate the Ohaneze electoral process, describing the news making the rounds in the social media to this effect as “preposterous and height of mischief to think that somebody would be handpicked to become president of the body without an election”. He vowed to ensure that
Ndigbo choose the next leader of Ohanaeze through a free, fair and credible election in January.
Nwodo maintained that he couldn’t have been at a meeting of Imo State Leaders Thought for the purpose of choosing a candidate for President General when he wasn’t invited and Ohanaeze didn’t organise it.
Nwodo’s statement read: “The attention of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide has been drawn to a spurious, mendacious and malicious news item making the rounds that a candidate has been chosen to occupy the post of the President General of the apex Igbo socio-cultural organization, which by rotation, is now the turn of Imo state.
“The said vexatious piece would have been ignored for the chaff it is but for the fact that it impinges on the solid and time-tested tradition of Ohanaeze Ndigbo in choosing its leadership and the integrity of its present President General, Chief John Nnia Nwodo.
“The truth of the matter is that posts in Ohanaeze Ndigbo are rotational and positions zoned to States. It is the responsibility of States to choose their candidates which they may prune down for their convenience.
“Ohanaeze Ndigbo has the responsibility of organising elections for all those who indicate interest and buy forms for the election. It is therefore, preposterous and the height of mischief for anybody to write or in any way infer that Chief Nwodo went for an Imo State stakeholders meeting in Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyawu’s office.”
“Moreover, the decision at the meeting will not stop Ohanaeze from conducting the forth-coming election. It is wrong for people to listen to an illegitimate, sponsored and disgruntled group of people masquerading as the Youth Wing of Ohanaeze. As a matter of fact, Chief Nwodo has not visited Chief Iwuanyanwu since the latter’s birthday celebration last year. They only met recently at a meeting with the governors of the Southeast over other matters. It is wrong for people to listen to an illegitimate, sponsored and disgruntled group of people masquerading as the Youth Wing of Ohanaeze”.
Nwodo also reacted to the letter purportedly written by Miyetti Allah to Nwodo in which they applauded the choice of Prof. George Obiozor as Nwodo’s successor, implying that Nwodo had a hand in making this happen. Nwodo vehemently denied receiving such a letter which he dismissed as “fake, fallacious and handiwork of detractors”, declaring that Ohanaeze leadership was not for sale.
The said letter ostensibly by Myetti Allah congratulated Chief Nwodo for his able leadership of the apex Igbo socio-cultural body and enjoined him to ensure that Professor George Obiozor from Imo State emerges as his successor as it is the turn of the state to produce the next President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo.
The Myetti Allah claimed in the letter that their discussions with Governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodinma, indicated that Obiozor as President General of Ohaneze, would guarantee the interest of the Fulani. They said that as a reciprocation of Chief Nwodo’s role in the choice of Obiozor, they had sent Nwodo’s name to the presidency for an appointment.
In yet another development, a newly registered Igbo Group by name Ohanaeze Ndigbo General Assembly, petitioned the Directorate of State Services, DSS, asking it to stop the scheduled Ohanaeze’s election. The group which was recently registered by the Corporal Affairs Commission, also asked for the arrest of Ohaneze President, Chief Nnia Nwodo and some other people.
Counsel for the group, Amobi Nzelu, wants the security agencies, including the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, to arrest the outgoing President General of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Nnia Nwodo, along with the principal officers of the organisation, past and present, for allegedly running the organisation illegally.
In the alleged petition to the DSS, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo General Assembly claimed that it was the authentic body permitted by law to run the affairs of Ndigbo as a socio-cultural group.
The petition read in part, “For more than two decades, people of Igbo extraction branded themselves as ‘Ohanaeze Ndigbo’ and this group or association at various times have been led by prominent people in some of the states that constitute Igbo-speaking areas.
“However, it has been discovered that the said ‘Ohanaeze Ndigbo’ now being led by Chief Nnia Nwodo was not duly registered in accordance with the extant provisions of the law nor was any Article and Memorandum of Association defining or circumscribing their functions filed and registered on their behalf with the relevant authorities.”
The petition added, “Stop Ohanaeze Ndigbo being led by Chief John Nnia Nwodo from conducting any election whatsoever into the offices of the illegal association in any of the states of the federation since the association is an illegal body.
“Investigate the accounts and activities of Ohanaeze Ndigbo being led by Chief John Nnia Nwodo and all monies collected from individuals, governors and highly exposed political personalities.
“Arrest, interrogate and prosecute the principal officers of the said Ohanaeze Ndigbo present and past, for running an illegal association. Disband the said Ohanaeze Ndigbo being led by Chief John Nnia Nwodo as being illegal.”
At the end of the day, political observers believe that ongoing development in Ohanaeze Ndigbo, including the election process, notes has the colouring of the 2023 politics in the country and believe that there are serious efforts by external forces geared towards creating disunity in Igboland aimed at frustrating Igbo presidency aspiration as well as political control of the soul of Igboland.
By ECHO News Team and Agency News
THE ECHO 