Nigerian politician and entrepreneur, Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, has been confirmed as the president-general of the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo.
Mr Iwuanyanwu was unanimously endorsed as the group’s president-general during a meeting of Ohanaeze Imeobi at Enugu’s Banquet Hall on Sunday.
Read Also: Lagos Govt Unveils Electric Buses For “Greener Public Transportation System”
Imeobi is the highest decision-making organ of the Ohanaeze.
The 80-year-old politician was earlier this month presented to Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State by a delegation of the Imo Elders Council as the consensus candidate to replace the immediate past president-general of the Igbo group, George Obiozor, whose death was announced in December.
But given that his emergence was not through an election, Ohanaeze Imeobi needed to ratify the position.
A member of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chinedu Ugwa, told the media that Mr Iwuanyanwu was confirmed Ohanaeze Ndigbo president-general because there was no dissenting voice against his emergence at the meeting.
Mr Ugwa, who participated in the meeting, said Mr Iwuanyanwu was confirmed as the president-general through voice voting.
He said;
A new president of Ohanaeze Ndigbo has been elected through the procedure of engaging the governors of the seven states that make up Ohanaeze. The endorsement was done after a recommendation by Elders of Imo State because nobody was coming to ask or query his emergence. So, it is in the form of an election.
In his inaugural speech, Mr Iwuanyanwu expressed delight over his endorsement as the president-general of the Igbo group, saying that “providence and the love of Igbos propelled” him to the position.
I thank you all for giving me the opportunity to lead Ndigbo at this time. With our collective efforts and support, Ndigbo will rise again.
I, therefore have a duty to valiantly defend the Igbo course and I promise Imeobi and all Igbo people that by the grace of God, I will not fail them.
Iwuanyanwu, while reeling out the priorities of his administration, said he would make “a special appeal” to President Muhammadu Buhari to release Nnamdi Kanu, the detained leader of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), before he (Buhari) exits office on 29 May.
“Nnamdi Kanu is very crucial for any discussion (on security) and it is not possible to negotiate any peace while Nnamdi Kanu is in prison,” he said, noting that the Court of Appeal, Abuja had struck out the terrorism charges filed against Mr Kanu.
