Chief (Mrs) Celina Ugwuoke Adibua, the immediate past Vice President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, in this interview with CHUKS NWEZE, argues that the Igbo speaking people of Rivers state must not be forced to join the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo....CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING.>>
This was a fallout of the controversial election of the body which produced Senator John Azuta Mbata as the president general
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Ohanaeze Ndigbo recently elected its President General, Senator John Mbata from Rivers state. What were the issues surrounding the election?
Thank you for this question because it has been trending everywhere. I have to say that this is good for Ohanaeze because we were coming from a very worrisome time where we had our first president general from Imo state, the deputy PG dead in one session, and then another president general, selected or appointed died within the same four years.
This has never been seen in the history of Ohanaeze or even in the history of any elective position in Nigeria like in government and so on. So, we managed to bury all these people but they put us in a tight situation where we were now scrambling to bring another person to replace the last president general which was Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu.
We had to elect another president general to serve out the remaining 27 days from Iwuanyanwu’s death and burial.
So, I can beat my chest and say that we have done well in this transition moment that we only prepared within the last 27 days.
What have you to say about the election of Senator Mbata as the President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo from Rivers state?
It is a thing of joy for all of us that we found somebody from Rivers state like Senator Mbata. I say this because it had been our mind to go round the people who were interested in Ohanaeze that came out from Rivers state and we did not seem to know anybody forthcoming but somehow, somewhere, Senator Mbata, the person of his calibre came to vie for the position.
And from what we know about him, because I was in the screening committee, he sounded the best of all the five people that vied for the position and it was not difficult to pinpoint him as the person suited for the position.
Some people were saying that it was the South East governors that imposed the new Ohanaeze leadership. What do you say?
All I have to say is that as a woman, as a parent, if I have six or four children and someone came in and snatched my handbag off me, my children will like to come out to pursue him.
But I’ll say, you come back, come and sit down. You go because I know the capability of everybody in that place. So, the best person for this time around, from what we had in the screening committee is Mbata and we are happy that he was the one chosen, whatever the method used.
Before the election, some people from the South East were against the choice of Rivers state producing the president general of Ohanaeze Ndigbo. Is Rivers state part of Igbo?
Why not? Rivers state has been a collection of Igbos and anywhere Igbos are, they are part and parcel of Ohanaeze. But we take it that they have two or three local governments constituted by Igbo people and they are so vibrant like Mbata.
If we saw one person, he will be able to gather others and shut some mouths that because of the fear of what happened to Igbo people during the civil war, they don’t want to proclaim their Igboness.
So, this is a welcome situation and we are happy that there was somebody like Mbata who came to take the position. We are really happy.
Are you aware that some Ikwere indigenes are not happy that Mbata accepted to head Ohanaeze. Since his emergence, he has allegedly been faced with subtle threats. What’s your take on this?
Well, we in Ohanaeze think that he will do that job very well and he will know how to pacify his people who are saying that they are not Igbo.
They have a reason for saying that they are not Igbo. They are Igbo but they don’t want to claim Igbo because once you are Igbo, you cannot get the position of Inspector General of Police.
Once you are Igbo, you cannot get any position that you deserve in government and because of that, that’s why many youths, even IPOB go into agitation and many Igbos are changing their names from Ugwu, Eze to Daniel or any other thing, this is just to fit into the Nigerian system and for better jobs. You have to change your name if you are going to get any posh job. This is how people are struggling to fit in.
Are you are aware that there were other people laying claim to the Ohanaeze leadership, especially the position of the president general? Can they simply be waved off as inconsequential impostors?
I am aware of that. I am even aware that when Iwuanyanwu was the PG, there were some people somewhere saying that they were president general, secretary general, etc.
They are doing that because they want to belong. They were not there on January 10th when the election was held. They went and formed their own. Let them form their own but let them give their own another name.
Let them not use the name of Ohanaeze because it does not belong to them. Let them say, Igbo Association of Port Harcourt or Igbo this, they are welcome, but to come and use Ohanaeze Ndigbo, who elected them?
How many were they at their election because Ohanaeze president general must be elected by a whole group of Igbos, both inside Igboland and in Diaspora – whether in Delta, Rivers, they will bring in their own delegates to vote. In effect, we had more delegates, 30, 30 brought from the five South East states and 10, 10 from the other states. That is what we constituted.
You have been a stalwart of Ohanaeze. What do you think Ndigbo have benefitted or are benefiting from the organisation?
What have we benefitted? That you are standing here and asking me questions and I answer truthfully, for the first time, of course, I would have told you that my name is Celina David instead of Celina Ugwuoke Adibua so that you won’t know that I am Igbo.
I appreciate the courage of Mbata to say I am Igbo and my father Igbo and my great grand father Igbo even my brother, Wike, Igbo. He said that in front of us. He had the courage to say and tell Nigerians that he is Igbo.
That Ikwerre people are Igbo. You can stay anywhere but you are Igbo. If you claim not to be Igbo because of inequity that bedevils Nigeria, we can’t make everybody Igbo at gunpoint. No.
When Igbos are doing something right and it is being accepted, the only way they can be accepted in Rivers is when they have somebody towering like Mbata come and say, I am Igbo.
If we have a vice president, a minister of Igbo extraction, they will be proud, but when Nigerians are shaming Igbo, Igbos don’t want to tolerate shame, instead they answer other names.
The factions being witnessed in Ohanaeze, how do handle them?
Sorry, the what?
The factions in Ohanaeze? How do you think they can be sorted out?
Do you have any factions? We want unity, yes. We want everybody that is outside to come. We can’t just go to sleep and let them take over. They don’t even know what Ohanaeze is all about.
If they know, they won’t go and form factions. Maybe they have their own Constitution. I don’t know but if it is this Constitution I am following that they are following, then they have derailed.
And what do you do to people that have derailed? We’ll look for them but if they don’t want to join, we can’t force them.
It is just like a church, you don’t force anybody to come and join your church instead you start operating, if they like, they can come and join.
Would you say the administration of President Tinubu, has been fair to Ndigbo?
Of course, he hasn’t been fair, and he knows it. Why must I be the one to say it? Of course, he is not fair and he knows it and I understand it is a calculated attempt to pull down the Igbo so that they won’t rise again and fight civil war again because in the other civil war, we defeated them. We put them at bay.
They didn’t defeat us. I hope you know that? So, we are trying to be ourselves. So, that’s it.READ FULL STORY HERE>>>CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING>>>
