Azuta-Mbata will unite all Igbo outside South-East –Adiele

From Jude Chinedu, Enugu The newly elected President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief John Azuta-Mbata has been described as a unifier who will bridge the gap between Ndigbo in South-East and their kinsmen in Rivers, Delta and other states in Nigeria. The National Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Youth Wing, Mazi Chika Adiele who made this [...]The post Azuta-Mbata will unite all Igbo outside South-East –Adiele appeared first on The Sun Nigeria.

featured-image

From Jude Chinedu, Enugu The newly elected President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief John Azuta-Mbata has been described as a unifier who will bridge the gap between Ndigbo in South-East and their kinsmen in Rivers, Delta and other states in Nigeria. The National Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Youth Wing, Mazi Chika Adiele who made this known during an interview with said that Mbata’s emergence marked a new vista of development and cohesion among Ndigbo. He spoke on other issues.

Excerpts: Ohanaeze recently had an election that brought in a new President- General in the person of Senator John Azuta-Mbata. What is your take on the outcome of that election? We held the election on 10th of January 2025 and that election was a historic one in the sense that the Ohanaeze presidential positions are rotational. It goes through the seven states of Igbo speaking states.



It is the first time someone from the Igbo speaking people in Rivers State is taking the position in the history of Ohanaeze Ndigbo. As God would have it, we elected a very amazing young man who has distinguished himself in public service, in the person of distinguished Senator John Azuta-Mbata from Eneka in Obiakpo Local Government Area of Rivers State. John Mbata was a two-time Senator and a very distinguished fellow.

He is the chairman of Monel Construction Company MCC and a very proud Igbo son from Rivers State. This is actually a paradigm shift in the sense that his experience as a public servant will come to bear. Therefore, I believe that the mantle of leadership that fell on Mbata will actually bring a new opportunity in repositioning Ndigbo for greater opportunities and greater exploits.

I know that there is a challenge there. Because being an Ikwere man, the Ikwere people are politically in denial of their Igboness just because of political expediency. But thankfully Mbata is a bridge builder who is ready to work and build bridges across all the Igbo speaking areas of Nigeria, not just in Rivers but in Kogi, Benue, Cross River, Delta and all that.

So, his duty is cut out for him. We have confidence that John Azuta-Mbata will do well. If the Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Wing should set an agenda for Azuta-Mbata, what would it be? One of the most critical jobs he needs to do now is to get all the leadership segments of the Igbo nation together to be on one page.

You know today, one of the jobs the youths want him to undertake is the release of Nnamdi Kanu. He must take that seriously. I think that will be a golden shift for him.

If indeed he will champion that course, it will be a great thing for him. That is the major thing. The next is that the youth wing of Ohanaeze is confident that he is going to reposition the youths.

Igbo youths have suffered in the hands of our leaders. You know, lack of jobs, incentives and empowerment. Today we have pockets of insecurity in the South- East which is not very good for us.

When you look at these things critically you will see that the majority of the non-state actors are the youths. Therefore, we plead that he gets us on a roundtable discussion so that we can proffer solutions on how he will be able to pull the youths out of the bushes and bring us to the centre so we can salvage Alaigbo. That is one of our missions for him.

Speaking about challenges faced by youths in Ohanaeze, are you worried that there are other groups that lay claim to Ohanaeze youths. Is that also a problem that you would want tackled? It is a problem. The issue is lack of cohesion and lack of identity.

That is what we believe our distinguished President- General will bring to the table. Because these are the things we are saying that an idle mind is a devil’s workshop. When someone is meaningfully engaged, I don’t think that person will put the house that we are supposed to build together in disarray.

Therefore, these are the people causing this division. He should bring everybody to the round table so that we can discuss. Whether you like it or not, there is no need for division.

There is no need for dissenting voices. After all, Ohanaeze Ndigbo is one indivisible body and we have the women wing and the youth wing. We therefore call on the President- General through the office of the acting youth leader, Mazi Chuks Okpalaezeukwu to bring everybody to the round table so that we can discuss so that, if need be, reprimand anybody who is recalcitrant.

There is no need for us to have proliferation of youth wings and all that when we have only one Ohanaeze Ndigbo. For us, we want him to bring peace and there is nothing dialogue cannot solve. There are also some other persons who are claiming the position of Ohanaeze Ndigbo President-General.

Some other persons have accused the electoral committee which conducted the January 10 election of not following the guidelines in the constitution. What do you have to say about this? Like I told you, the issue of these people who I don’t want to mention their names because as far as I am concerned, they are not in the picture. But what I want him to do is that as a leader, he must be able to build bridges and consult widely.

A leader must be able to bring everybody together and reach out. If there is any misgivings, he can reach out to them and bring them to the roundtable. There is nothing peace cannot do.

So, I believe that dialogue is the way forward. The youth wing wants the President to hit the ground running. Not just Uche Okwukwu.

Just recently, Ogbako Ikwere just issued a press release banning him from being their member. We say to him that he should not be afraid but should stand firm. Because the Ogbako Ikwere or Ikwere ethnic group is just a sub ethnicity in Igbo land.

I don’t think a little organisation should just push him around. He should just reach out to them. But as for these people who are trying to distract him, they can’t measure up because Ohanaeze Ndigbo which you know is made up of eminent personalities and we all belong under the umbrella of Mazi Senator John Azuta-Mbata.

That is where everybody belongs. So, everyone claiming to belong to any other group in purely on his or her own. So let him reach out to whoever that feel aggrieved.

It is normal in politics. It is normal in any election. But let him try to reach out.

But outside that, the youth wing will not fold our hands and watch anybody rubbish our President-General. We can’t allow such a thing to continue. We are giving him a seven-day ultimatum to reach out to them and talk to them.

After that, if they refuse to understand these things, the youth wing will wade in. The youth wing is the militant arm of Ohanaeze Ndigbo. We are ready, very ready to work and support our President- General to succeed.

During the election, almost all the governors of the South- East were present. How do you think the new leader can collaborate with government to achieve his dreams for Ndigbo? Really the issue of governors is difficult to say but let the truth be told, we want the president to be firm, not to be subservient to the whims and caprices of the governors. The governors are the political leaders but he must understand that he is the leader of all the governors, the ministers and whoever.

He should not be subservient to the governors. As soon as he allows the governors to dictate his pace of work then there is a problem. For us, let him develop his programme and the governors can buy into his programmes and not to dictate.

Even the governors are not helping matters. The South -East governors have not been doing well for the youths. The youths are completely on their own.

They are not doing anything to help us. So why should the president dance to their whims and caprices? Go to other youth groups like the Ijaw Youth Council, thier governors are supporting them and empowering them. But our governors are not doing enough.

Therefore, we will not buy into anything that the governors are going to do just because they are governors. Whatever the president wants to do for we youths, he should go ahead and do it. But for the governors, we have our reservation.

Is there a way to bridge this gap? The only way is for the president to reach out to other well- meaning individuals because, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo cannot be run without resources. I know that one of the key elements of involving governors is because of resources. But I can tell you that Ndigbo have successful people.

The president should reach out to those people outside the governors. I tell you this for free, when Iwuanyanwu was there, he mobilised resources. Seventy per cent of the resources Iwuanyanwu mobilised were not from the governors.

And he ran a very successful Ohanaeze until death came. Therefore, he should reach out. He should convene an all-encompassing assembly involving all the Igbo intelligential and businessmen.

Let them come to the round table. If it is possible, let every Igbo man come together and contribute a token of N100 a month. We have over 20 million Igbo youths.

N100 can do a lot. For us in the youth wing, we are collating a data base for the youth. We are going to be tasking our fellow youths even if it is N100 every month.

Therefore, if a governor feels like he has something to support he can do that but not to come and dictate the pace of the programme. How should he relate with the new youths of Ohanaeze? The President -General knows the youth wing under the leadership of Mazi Chukwuma Okpalaezeukwu. Let him convene a meeting and then we give him a guideline on how to go about it.

Doing anything without us will backfire. We know our youths and we know how to relate with them. We want to help him.

When Iwuanyanwu was there and other successive president generals, we helped them and they were very successful in their administrations..