Prince Richard Ozobu, one of the two claimants to the secretary-general seat of Ohanaeze, apex Igbo organization, dramatically recently stepped down for his rival, Chief Nduka Eya (as shown on the picture left).Eya and Ozobu had been enmeshed in a protracted dispute over who was the authentic candidate for the secretary-general position which Ohanaeze zoned to Enugu state preparatory to the inauguration of its National Executive Committee (NEC) in Awka, Anambra state, early this year. Ohanaeze, as it were, constitutionally rotates its offices among its member(ship) Igbo states of Anambra, Abia, Ebonyi, Enugu, Imo states, as well as Igbo speaking people of Anioma in Delta state.
The Enugu Ohanaeze secretary-general dispute had polarized Ndigbo elite, as well as brought Barrister Sullivan Chime, the state governor, to some degree of bad publicity following his (the governor’s) alleged partisan posture in the duel.
Chime was accused of supporting Ozobu’s candidature against Eya’s. Eya had, ostensibly, opposed Chime’s emergence as governor of the state, a situation believed to have informed his preference for Ozobu.
But all this is now history with Ozobu’s stepping aside for Eya, a seasoned technocrat and former commissioner in the old Anambra state under several military regimes. Also, one time Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), septuagenarian Eya recently celebrated his 70 years of age.
Ozobu, in a release over the weekend, claims he was stepping aside for Eya in the greater interest of peace and unity of Ndigbo, as well as the necessity to shield Governor Chime from unnecessary distraction and childish name-calling over the dispute.
KlinReports is, however, not interested in the undercurrents that led to Ozobu throwing in the towel for Eya, but in the eventual peaceful resolution of the imbroglio.
At least, it is clear, from this development, that Enugu state is no longer holding Ndigbo hostage, or so it seemed before now. No matter the reason (s) being adduced by Prince Ozobu for his sportsmanship behavior, KlinReports believes that it was Governor Chime who resolved this crisis. Klinreports had, in its earlier publication, pointed out that Chime held the ace to this fracas. If Chime did not give his consent, Ozobu would have stuck to his gun, and the crisis would have smoldered!
KlinReports, therefore, commends Governor Chime for halting this macabre dance involving the two prominent indigenes of his state, Ozobu and Eya.
For Chime to effectively prevail on Ozobu, his candidate and Enugu West zone kinsman, to step down for Eya (from Enugu North) portrays him as peace loving enough as to suggest that, with time, he would find time to make up with all other political enemies he must have, wittingly or unwittingly, amassed in the course of his emergence (and consolidation of hold on power) as governor of the state, including, of course, his political godfather, childhood friend and predecessor, Senator Chimaroke Nnamani.
