Nnia Nwodo And The Sensitivity Test

OKECHUKWU MADUBUIFE

 

Since he took over the reins of the leadership of Ohanaeze Ndigbo two years ago, Nnia Nwodo has taken to controversy as ducks takes to water. And it is usually for the wrong reasons. 

 

For instance, Nnia is locked up in an endless war with the IPOB – a group whose non-violent agitation for self-determination has won over much of the conscious world. He should have borrowed a leaf from Afenifere’s sagely handling of the violent eruptions of the once dreaded Oodua People’s Congress in Lagos. Afenifere never threw their own away to the wolves. That is what elders do everywhere. But Nnia Nwodo’s Ohanaeze did the exact opposite.

 

And now, Nnia has broken all known and unknown rules on the fatherly role and non-partisanship of a socio-cultural group like Ohanaeze in party politics and has unilaterally endorsed the PDP candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar for president the coming elections. In doing this, Nnia Nwodo has failed the “sensitivity test.” How can the apex socio-cultural group of Ndigbo whimsically adopt a political candidate? What happens to Igbo sons and daughters that are in the race? What happens to other prominent Igbo leaders that are in other political parties who are bound to mobilize support for their party’s candidates? And finally, what happens to the only Igbo party, APGA, which has presented a presidential candidate for the first time in a long while? Did Nnia Nwodo consider all these sensitive issues before he sold Ohanaeze to the highest bidder?

 

And when Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State privately attempted to discuss these issues with him in the spirit of Igbo brotherhood, Nnia Nwodo tactlessly choose to go public with a private exchange between him and his brother, the governor. What did Nnia hope to achieve by putting out a one-sided statement that reported only what Governor Obiano said to him? How would the public know what he said in reply to Obiano then? Once again, Nnia failed the sensitivity test. He forgot that as the President General of Ohanaeze, his is the ceremonial leader of Ndigbo and should act in a manner that would confer dignity to his office. Spilling out the private conversation he had with the governor of the most prominent state in the South East with a view to ridicule him and incite Ndigbo against him is a tactical blunder that someone like Nnia Nwodo should not commit. It marks him out as temperamental and unreliable. People will be mindful of what they say in a conversation with him on any platform going forward.

 

Perhaps Nnia has forgotten too soon, the role that Governor Obiano played in April last year when Ndigbo wanted to take a position on Restructuring. Nnia had forgotten that other South East governor chickened out for fear of incurring the wrath of Abuja. But Governor Obiano boldly stepped out and offered to host the Igbo Summit on Restructuring in Awka. Today, Restructuring is the only serious promise that Atiku Abubakar has made to Nigerians in his race to Aso Rock. Yet Nnia Nwodo has the audacity to insinuate that Governor Obiano is not working in line with the popular wish of Ndigbo. Why does Nnia Nwodo willfully present himself as someone who is plagued with selective amnesia?

 

If Nnia is not stricken with selective amnesia, why did he stay away from the recent commissioning of the Nnamdi Azikiwe mausoleum in Onitsha? As the President General of Ohanaeze, Nnia ought to have been at any ceremony organized in honour of the Great Zik who is until today, the only known patron of Ohanaeze Ndigbo. Has he also forgotten that it was the great Zik who appointed his own father a minister in the First Republic? Has he forgotten that without Zik, the now famous Nwodo dynasty in Enugu would never have sprung up? Why did Nnia Nwodo choose to show such contempt to Zik? Would any Afenifere leader have done this to Awo?

 

It is sad that Nnia Nwodo has turned Ohanaeze Ndigbo into an appendage of the PDP. It is even sadder that in blind pursuit of his personal egoistic satisfaction, Nnia has lost all sensitivity and now acts in a manner that contradicts his own name. Indeed, this Nnia is not nna ya. John Nwodo Snr would never have acted this way!

 

 

 

Madubuife writes from Ojoto in Idemili South Local Government Area of Anambra State.