‘No leadership tussle in Ohanaeze Ndigbo’

By Alex Enebeli

The Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide has dismissed speculation of leadership tussle among its members following the recent death of its former President-General, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu.

“There is no leadership row or tussle in Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide at present and there is not likely to be one in the near future,” Dr Alex Ogbonnia, National Publicity Secretary of the Igbo socio-cultural group, said in a statement on Friday in Enugu

Ogbonnia therefore stressed that such speculation by a section of the media was untrue.

He said the group’s National Executive Committee (NEC), comprising erudite scholars, technocrats and veterans of diverse fields, was already seamlessly carrying out the functions of the umbrella body of the organisation.

“This is being done seamlessly on a daily basis by the appropriate structures under the administrative competence of the Secretary General, Amb. Okey Emuchay.

“Iwuanyanwu passed quietly on July 25
and it is very ill-advised and strange for an Igbo to begin to claim the position of the president general of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, even when the burial committee for Iwuanyanwu is yet to be constituted.

“There is a letter in circulation that Dr Jackson Omenazu was nominated or selected to replace late Joel Kroham, who until his death was the Deputy President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo.

“However, such a letter was not made available to the NEC of Ohanaeze Ndigbo,” he said.

Ogbonnia added that it would be insensitive and inconceivable for the NEC to adopt a replacement of Kroham based on a mere letter from Rivers State.

This, he said, was especially so where many of them were very ambivalent and “skeptical about their Igboness”.

He stressed that Omenazu had all the right to pursue his interest as the president general of Ohanaeze Ndigbo come January, 2025 without bringing Ohanaeze Ndigbo to disrepute. (NAN)