Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, the apex Igbo socio-cultural organization, is again embroiled in leadership crisis. The body currently has three president-generals, and by extension three factions with each faction laying claim to the highly respected office of the president-general. Prince Richard Ozobu, a chieftain of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, in this interview with SummitNews, says that the January 10 Ohanaeze national election which threw up Senator John Azuta Mbata, failed to pass the constitutional integrity test, and therefore, illegal, null and void. He insists that Chief Jackson Omenazu, emerged through due process, and therefore, is the authentic President-General of the organisation.
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What is your reaction to the election of Senator John Azuta Mbata, an indigene of Rivers state, having earlier presided over another election that threw up Chief Jackson Omenazu, from the same state as Ohanaeze PG?
What you called election on January 10, was a charade, unconstitutional, null and void. Whereas the election I conducted on January 6 as the chairman of Ohanaeze national electoral committee, was done in accordance with the provisions of Ohanaeze constitution, that of January 10 which allegedly produced Senator John Azuta Mbata as Ohanaeze President-General, was done in breach of the association’s constitution. For instance, you don’t hold Ohanaeze election in Government. House. I understand that the exercise on January 10 took place at Old Government Lodge, Enugu. You can hire a privately-owned property to conduct election, but certainly not in Government House. Again, the so called officers that emerged were selected by the governors of the various seven states that make up Ohanaeze. Under Ohanaeze constitution it is illegal for a governor to choose a candidate for an election, and go ahead to impose such candidate on degates. I was even told that one of the governors’ announced the suspension of some provisions of Ohanaeze constitution to enable the selected individuals emerge as consensus candidates. Where did that governor derive the power to suspend some sections of Ohanaeze constitution?
A motion was moved for the suspension of some sections of the constitution, and that motion was seconded, and sustained by the General Assembly of Ohanaeze preceding the election. Is anything wrong with that?
What you call General Assembly was a rented crowd. Let them produce the list of those who voted by the raising of hand to suspend some sections of the constitution, for us to check whether they are really qualified to attend the General Assembly as members. Do you know that the former Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mike Okoro, was expected to contest the position of PG. When he appeared before them for screening, he was told that there was a court order stopping him from contesting the election whereas no such court order existed anywhere. I also heard that the same High Court in Enugu which they alleged barred Okiro from contesting the election, gave an order that the January 10 election should not hold until the substantive matter on whether or not to disqualify Okiro is determined.
Can you tell us the genesis of the leadership crisis in Ohanaeze?
The leadership crisis we are witnessing today started during the tenure of Chief John Nnia Nwodo as president general. Nwodo breached the constitution of Ohanaeze by suspending the then Secretary General of the organisation Barrister Uche Okwukwu, who hails from Rivers state, and replaced him with the deputy Secretary General from Abia state. Where did Nwodo derive the power to either suspend or remove an elected officer of Ohanaeze? Under the Ohanaeze constitution, only the General Assembly has such power, and when an elected officer is either suspended or removed, the General Assembly immediately replaces such officer from somebody from the same state. But that did not happen in the case of Uche Okwukwu. And when you see anybody breaching the constitution of an organization in the way Nwodo did, you know he has an agenda.
You recall that when Nwodo who hails from Enugu state was being proposed for election as Ohanaeze PG, I said openly that he was not qualified for that position, having not attended Ohanaeze meetings for about ten years. You cannot play the game in which you don’t understand the rules. And so, Nwodo committed lots of constitutional breaches, and that is why we are where we are today.
And why do you think the leadership crisis has continued even after Nwodo had left office?
Following the unconstitutional suspension of Uche Okwukwu, and his replacement by an Abia man which is in contravention of Ohanaeze constitution the Nwodo administration became invalid, illegal. Yet that regime went ahead to conduct Ohanaeze national election in Owerri that produced Prof. George Obiozor executive. When we saw the direction Nwodo group was going, Okwukwu set up an electoral committee with my humble self as chairman of that committee. The election that followed produced Chief Chidi Ibeh as PG, and Isiguzoro as Secretary General. Okwukwu was elected as deputy President general.
You’ll recall that following what happened at the time, the South-East Governors came together to sue for peace in Ohanaeze. The governors approached the Bishops from South-East, and asked to make peace between the warring parties. Archbishop Obinna, was the chairman of the peace committee, while Bishop Okpoko of the Methodist Church, Umuahia was secretary of the committee, Archbishop Emmanuel Chukwuma, was deputy chairman. We had earlier filed a suit against the Obiozor-led executive, and all we asked the court to do was a declaration on which of the two parties followed the provisions of Ohanaeze constitution in electing its national officers. But when the Bishops stepped in, we suspended our court action.
You’ll also recall that the Archbishop Obinna committee in its report which is available for anyone to read, stated that due process was not followed in the Owerri election that threw up Obiozor , especially following the suspension of Okwukwu as Secretary General, and in the interest of peace, the committee recommended for the harmonisation of officers elected by the two parties. In the process Prof. Obiozor died, and remember that his deputy had died earlier, but unfortunately, the death of the deputy president was swept under the carpet. He was not replaced as provided for in our constitution.
But Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu from the same Imo state with Obiozor became PG of Ohanaeze following Obiozor death yet the leadership crisis did not abate. What happened?
Chief Iwuanyanwu, who is also late (May his soul rest in peace) appended his signature to the 2004 Ohanaeze constitution, and he knew the process provided for in the constitution for one to ascend to the position of PG. Iwuanyanwu knew that the constitution provides that whosoever becomes the PG of Ohanaeze must come by way of election. But he allowed the governors to raise his hands as successor to Obiozor. Governors are not allowed under Ohaneze constitution to produce officers of the association. Iwuanyanwu ought to have been elected by the General Assembly of Ohanaexe to replace Obiozor. You see, when people contravene the constitution of an organisation, they have an agenda different from that of the organisation they preside over. And as soon as he became PG, he started talking of setting up a committee to review Ohanaeze constitution. And I asked him: which constitution do you want to amend after becoming PG without following due process? Along the line he passed on, but you must remember that in the past three years, we have been demanding that the next Ohanaeze PG must come from Rivers state.
What is the way out especially since Senator Mbata, Chief Omenazu, and Barrister Okwukwu all hail from Rivers state?
Chief Omenazu remains the validly elected president-general of Ohanaeze. However, we can sit down to look at what had happened, and see how we can deal with the issues within the framework of Ohanaeze constitution in the interest of Igboland, But let us not give the impression openly, and in complete defiance of Ohanaeze constitution that only those who possess political and economic powers can dictate what happens in Ohanaeze.
