By Enyeribe Ejiogu, Romanus Ugwu, Adesuwa Tsan (Abuja), Noah Ebije (Kaduna)
Former Vice President of Nigeria and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2023 election, Atiku Abubakar, congratulated Senator John Azuta-Mbata on his election as the President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, the apex socio-cultural organisation for the Igbo people of Nigeria.
Atiku, the Waziri of Adamawa, who also felicitated with other members of the new executive expected to pilot the affairs of Ohaneze Ndigbo, commended the peaceful and credible conduct of the election held in Enugu State on Friday.
While acknowledging the exemplary leadership of the South East Governors’ Forum in ensuring a free and fair election coupled with a smooth transition, he particularly noted that lessons could be learnt from the alliance forged by participants despite their political diversity.
Agreeing with the assertion of Ohanaeze Ndigbo that Mbata’s victory marked a significant moment for the organization and signaled “a new era of progress, unity, and development,” he observed that the members of the Mbata-led executive are no strangers to the divisions that have plagued the Nigerian nation, and charged them to not only work assiduously at uniting Ndigbo around shared values, but also work in tandem with other similar socio-cultural organisations in enthroning a new regime of unity.
Atiku underscored the imperative of the promotion of tolerance and inter-communal relations to engender peace, which he said is a requisite for stability and development.
“The promotion of unity and peace is inevitable in the fostering of a united front to combat the sorry state of our socio-economic conditions and improve the well-being of Nigerians,” he said, adding that Mbata’s experience as a lawmaker and administrator, together with the collective exposures of the new executive, put them in good stead to deliver on their mandate.
Governor of Enugu State, Dr. Peter Mbah, while congratulating Mbata expressed happiness over the peaceful process and the outcome of the Friday election, which he described as a collective victory for Ndigbo globally and reminded the new leadership of the pan-Igbo organisation that the Igbo nation was full of expectations, given their individual pedigrees.
The governor spoke when he received members of the new National Executive Committee of Ohanaeze led by the new President-General, Senator John Azuta-Mbata, in his office at the weekend.
His words: “I would like to start by heartily congratulating you all, on behalf of the Government and the people of Enugu State, on your election to lead this very important organisation. I can only imagine the weight of expectations that must be on your shoulders now.
“This is not a personal triumph. We see it as a collective victory for Ndigbo. It is also a demonstration that we now have a solid succession pattern in Ohanaeze. The election was rancour-free, and I also take this opportunity to commend my brother governors who decided not to be passive, knowing how important this body is to the affairs of Ndigbo.
“We know you; we know your pedigrees and we also know that both your leadership experience and your intellectual pedigree preceded you. So, we have no doubt that the task ahead is one that you have the capacity to discharge. It is indeed an onerous task and it begins now, knowing all the existential threats we are all exposed to as Ndigbo.
“I did describe, in my metaphor of the arrow, how strong we will be if we are able to constitute ourselves as a quiver or a whole rather than just a single arrow. The same thing will go for the broom metaphor. You know you can easily snap a broomstick, but a bunch will almost be impossible to snap. So, I think my charge will be for us to forge a united front as a people in resolving all these challenges.
“We are stronger together. Ohanaeze Ndigbo represents the soul of our people. It is a very important organisation, which is why we are very happy with the profiles of people that have been elected to its headship.
“We are full of expectations and we pray God to imbue you with the wisdom of Solomon and great health to successfully pilot the affairs of the entire Ndigbo.”
In it congratulatory message, the South East Caucus in the Senate praised the closing of ranks that enabled Mbata, who is from the Igbo-speaking part of Rivers State to win by consensus and emerge as the 13th President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, during the process supervised by Ohanaeze Electoral Committee, headed by Chief Ejiofor Onyia as chairman, following the old executive committee led by Nze Ozichukwu Chukwu by the Ohanaeze General Assembly, held in Enugu on Fridaay.
In a statement in Abuja, yesterday, the leader of the Caucus, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, said Mbata’s election “marks a milestone in the history of the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation,” adding that caucus has “firm confidence in Senator Mbata’s pedigree and leadership qualities” which he said are solid enough to steer Ohaneze to achieve the much desired unity and development in Igboland and command the ability to also reach out to similar associations outside Igboland to enhance good relationship for the unity of Nigeria.
Sen. Abaribe further said: “We as a caucus have the confidence that Ohanaeze as constituted under the leadership of Sen Mbata would weave the entire Igbo race cohesively together in unity, peace and make Ohanaeze a veritable rallying point for Ndigbo wherever they may be.
“Such trajectory we believe would no doubt encourage, instil confidence and reinvigorate the ability of our people to pursue their individual and collective goals to achieve sustainable development for the overall benefit of Igboland and Nigeria.”
Similarly, the All Progressives Congress (APC) extolled Mbata and expressed confidence that he would provide “mature purposeful and patriotic leadership in the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation.”
APC National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, in a statement yesterday in Abuja, maintained that Mbata would deploy his wealth of experience in piloting the affairs of the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation.
Morka assured the new leadership of the party’s readiness to explore areas of partnership towards advancing development, shared prosperity, unity, peace and progress of our great country.
“With a stellar public service record, particularly as a two-term Senator who championed the welfare and interest of his constituents and legislated for good and effective governance in the country, we are confident that Senator Azuta-Mbata will bring to bear his wealth of experience in providing a mature, purposeful and patriotic leadership for Ohanézè Ndígbo. The APC wishes Senator Azuta-Mbata and the entire executive of Ohanézè Ndígbo a successful and remarkable tenure in the fulfilment of the organisation’s important mandate,” the statement read.
The Convener of Arewa Think Tank, Muhammad Alhaji Yakubu, in a statement to congratulate Azuta-Mbata, pledged to support and partner with the Ohanaeze Ndigbo for the development and growth of all regions in the country.
The statement read in part: “We at Arewa Think want to also congratulate the entire Igbo people on the successful leadership transition and we enjoin the new leaders to uphold the principles of their predecessors for peaceful coexistence across the country.
“This is a new dawn for Ndi Igbo and it gladdens our hearts the harmonious manner, quality of organisation, and the conduct of the election without any form of rancour.
“We recognise the critical role of socio-cultural organisations in nation-building; hence, our commitment to promoting dialogue among our ethnic nationalities to make Nigeria a peaceful nation.
“We wish the newly elected Ohanaeze Ndigbo President success as he takes on this onerous yet noble and lofty task in piloting the affairs of Ndigbo worldwide.
“We also wish to praise the governors of South-east states who came together and resolved to strengthen Ohanaeze Ndigbo and to give strong support to it to make it worthy of the dreams of the original founders and to discourage all forms of rascality, bad behaviour and conduct among the elected members of Ohanaeze.
“On our part as a group from the Northern Nigeria we will continue to encourage those things that bring us together and shun those things that divide us as a people of one united country under President Bola Tinubu.
“As one united country, the people must work in unity and love to move all parts of the country forward irrespective of ethno religious differences because we have no other country to call it our own other than Nigeria.”