After unleashing a barrage of attacks on its parent body, the Ohanaeze Youth Council led by Okechukwu Isiguzoro has been finally shoved aside. The youth arm of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, now has a new leadership. In a well-attended election held at the headquarters of the Igbo umbrella body, Arthur Obiora beat two other contenders to clinch the position of the youth president.
The keenly contested and peaceful ballot started with accreditation of delegates from the seven Igbo-speaking states of Abia, Anambra, Delta, Ebonyi, Enugu, Imo and Rivers.
Obiora from Anambra polled a total of 147 votes out of 187. The election has put paid to the press war declared by the Ikechukwu Isiguzoro-led youth wing, which was dissolved two years ago by the Ime Obi of Ohanaeze Ndigbo during the tenure of Chief Enwo Igariwey.
The leadership of Ohanaeze Ndigbo under the leadership of Chief John Nnia Nwodo sustained that dissolution hence Isiguzoro declared media war on the parent body.
In the ensuing face-off, the dissolved youth wing “suspended” and later “sacked” the President General of the umbrella organisation, Chief Nnia Nwodo. It declared Prince Eze Ozobu the new president-general of Ohanaeze. But Ozobu distanced himself from the appointment.
Media aide to the Ohanaeze leader, Emeka Attamah described the episode as funny. He said: “I wonder where that boy (Isiguzoro) derived the powers to challenge his father. I wonder who is sponsoring him. Can you imagine where a disowned child is sacking the father from the house.”
Attama, however, said with the election concluded, the positions of the Youth wing which had been vacant since 2016 have now been filled.
“This has put to paid once and for all the issue of leadership of the Youth wing of Ohanaeze Ndigbo. Ohanaeze Ndigbo charge them that the principle of be thy neighbour’s keeper should be adhered to and urged them to always work in concert with the parent body of Ohanaeze for the progress and development of Igbo land,” said Attama.
And in a statement issued before the election by the national publicity secretary of Ohanaeze, Achi Okpaga the apex Igbo body said that the recent exposure of the crimes committed by the defunct Okechukwu Isiguzoro leadership of the Youth Wing of the organization by the immediate past President General, Prof. Enwo Igariwey, has exposed and punctured the balloon of lies being flown by the nonexistent leadership.
Okpaga said that the refusal by the President General, Chief Nnia Nwodo, to join issues with the recalcitrant young man and his co-travellers gave the offending youngsters the freedom to engage unchallenged in their media war.
Okpaga stated that the timely “exposure of the shenanigans and unsubstantiated claims of the illegal leadership has brought to the foreground a number of issues.
The first is that it is evident that the said Isiguzoro has no locus standi to lay claim to the leadership of the youth wing of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, neither does he have the powers, constitutional or otherwise, to summon, discipline or sack the President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, and, therefore, all he has been saying are empty threats and lies.
The second is that the crimes for which the leadership of the said body was disbanded have been exposed as Prof. Igariwey said it was for “financial recklessness, extortion, misrepresentation and unruly behaviour” which he said dragged the image of the parent body to the mud.”
He further stated: “According to Prof. Igariwey, during his regime as President General, the then youth wing led by Isiguzoro operated as if “there were two parallel bodies taking decisions and making unguided utterances in the media without the permission or consent of the parent body and efforts made to bring him to order fell on deaf ears”.
Evidently, Mr Isiguzoro is an upstart and has inordinate crave for power which having eluded him, he is now struggling to have by hook or crook by moving around collecting money from governments and individuals under false pretense.
Thirdly, most purported signatories to the phantom sack of Chief Nwodo, such as Mr Adibe, have denied knowledge and signing of any such letter, thereby exposing the criminal-mindedness of the initiator and purveyor of such a letter.”
Okpaga observed that it befuddles the mind that a body that was sacked by the Ime-Obi, the highest decision-making body of Ohanaeze Ndigbo and during the regime of his predecessor in office, will now attempt to terrorise him nearly two years after their sack.
He lamented that the fact that journalists are aware of the illegality of the so-called Isiguzoro leadership of Ohanaeze Youth Wing and still publish their senseless tirades raises a lot of questions, adding that a similar affront against the parent body of Afenifere or Area Consultative Forum would have been visited with severe sanctions by elders of the region.
Okpaga regretted that Governors and traditional rulers of Igbo-speaking states were allowing such a hallowed institution and the symbol of Igbo unity to be so denigrated.
