OHANAEZE: THE IGBO NATION SHOULD PULL CLOSER

In two different cities, Enugu and Port Harcourt, Ohaneze Ndigbo, the pan-Igbo socio-cultural organization supposedly held the same election and produced two presidents. Clearly, one of them is a meddlesome interloper. But who? And in whose interest is it that the apex Igbo socio-cultural organization in the country is sundered?

In an age of division, especially with the Igbo again politically marginalized in the country, it is the worst time possible for a division, any kind of division.

To its eternal credit, Ohanaeze has been a beacon of consistency for so long now. When there have been issues that have affected the Igbo, and there have been many over the years, in the wider context of the chaos Nigeria sometimes characteristically churns out daily, Ohanaeze has not exactly been  confrontational. Skillfully, it has always traded the fleeting rush of confrontation for discretion and prudence which would always serve it best, employing the deft mental dexterity inherent in every Igbo entrepreneur who has had to trade to survive.

With two factions emerging band clearly determined to go head-to-head as indicated by the two factional presidents in separate interviews, each claiming legitimacy, feigning ignorance of the other, and indicating they will be no push over, is the group which is so strategic to the Igbo and which until now has resisted the forces of destabilization and division about to fracture? If that happens, it will be catastrophic.

As things stand in Nigeria, the Igbo are only managing to cling on by their fingernails. While it is true, that economically, they have managed to keep the wolves out of the door thanks to their unmatched business finesse, politically, they have remained very much on the fringes with their defiant independence over the years making it very difficult to enter into the kind of compromise politics thrives on.

Given this atmosphere of barely concealed and congealed hostility, can the Igbo afford to be divided? Can they afford to have their ranks decimated by division?

Finally, the forces of division have succeeded in fatally fracturing the pan-Igbo organization. The most immediate consequence will be the loss of clarity and credibility. Further down the line, a loss of hope will be an even more serious consequence.

For the Igbo in Nigeria, it is time to pull closer. Considered vanquished after the civil war, they have always had to fight for all they have with space on the table increasingly denied them. Through these fights many of them dirty and bloody, Ohanaeze has been a consistent voice and a constant thorn in the flesh of those who threaten the interest of the Igbo in Nigeria.

Far from being an Igbo socio-cultural organization, Ohanaeze has always defended the unity of Nigeria, defying again and again the parochial expectations of those who reduce the work of cultural organizations to the bare-bones of provincialism. It is noteworthy that during the end bad governance protests of August 2024, while traditional pro-Nigerian centers went up in flames, the Southeast, restrained by Ohanaeze, refused to jump on the back of the infant government.

Those who seek to fracture Ohanaeze and silence it are enemies of not just the Igbo but the country as a whole. They must be stopped. At all costs.

Kene Obiezu,

keneobiezu@gmail.com

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