Iwuanyanwu: Ohanaeze rejects call for acting President General

The Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide has berated some Igbo leaders who are clamouring for an acting president general to replace the late Ohanaeze leader, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu.

It described the move as anti-Igbo culture.

The call, it was gathered, arose from the death of both Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu and his Deputy President General, Chief Joel Kroham, from Rivers State.

Reacting to the call, the apex Igbo socio-cultural group, through its National Publicity Secretary, Alex Ogbonnia, described the call even before Iwuanyanwu was buried as against the Igbo culture.

In a press statement Ogbonnia stated that it was unbelievable that while Nigerians of all persuasions have shown uncompromising commitment for the burial, some Igbo people were busy holding meetings on the enthronement of an Acting President General.

He further stated that Ohanaeze Ndigbo reserves comments on the activities of such actors, especially where most of them are titled men who are well-versed in the nuances of Igbo cosmology.

“It appears that, to exhibit their sincere patriotism for the Igbo, the proponents of immediate enthronement of a leader in an acting capacity may have overlooked the fundamentals of Igbo norms, culture and tradition,” he said.

Speaking on the leadership of the cultural organization, its Secretary-General, Ambassador Okey Emuchay, assured the igbo race that the ship of Ohanaeze is in safe hands, under the capable leadership of its National Executive Committee, NEC.

“For the avoidance of doubts, the National Executive Committee of Ohanaeze Ndigbo (NEC) comprises men and women who are accomplished in academia, jurisprudence, public administration, politics, medicare, community service, commerce and industry, etc under the administrative competence.

“The funeral rites of the late Igbo leader are very much at hand and an escalated contest for the Ohanaeze leadership is not only a major distraction but highly illogical, uncultural and an indelible slur on the Igbo nation.

“We, therefore, urge our brothers and sisters to join hands in the burial rites of the Igbo leader, with the reassurances that the appropriate mechanism for an Ohanaeze leadership will be applied shortly after the befitting funeral rites to the Igbo leader on November 1, 2024,” he added.