•Picks performing senators at Iri Ji feast

From Daniel Ezindu, Enugu

Nzuko Ozo Ndi Igbo Nigeria (NONIN), a body of Ozo title holders, has rekindled its commitment to cultural renaissance in Igboland with the successful hosting of this year’s Iri Ji (New Yam) festival.

Highpoint of the event was the recognition of the Senate Deputy Minority Whip, Osita Ngwu, Enugu West; Enyinnaya Abaribe (Abia South) and Ned Nwoko (Delta North). Ngwu was conferred with an award of Service to Humanity and Igbo Nation at Enugu Sports Club, Golf Section, Enugu, on Sunday, September 21, 2025.

The group constituted a committee that assessed the performances of senators of Igbo extraction in the National Assembly.

The committee, headed by a renowned scholar and former director-general of the Centre for Black Arts and African Civilisation (CBAAC), Ozo Ferdinand Anikwe, assessed the Igbo senators based on 10 performance indicators across key areas such as relationship with the grassroots, humility in power, constituency projects, Igbo advocacy, parliamentary eloquence, and social skills, among others.

Leader of Nzuko Ozo Ndigbo Nigeria, Professor Ike Oluka, explained that in sociocultural group formations, or a group based political system, legislators are the products of their social and cultural dynamics and as such, quality representation is measured not only by patriotism to the nation but the appropriate response to the expectations of the corporate in-group: “In other words, according to Chief Obafemi Awolowo, one must be a good Yoruba before being a good Nigerian. Put differently, quality representation implies embodying the sensitiveness, consciousness and responsiveness to the in-group.”

In May 2025, Ngwu, strongly defended the Igbo interest when he described as “unfair, the treatment of the South East geopolitical zone of the country by the federal government.” In plenary, Ngwu decried the neglect of the zone, especially, in the area of resource llocation for infrastructure: “With due respect to Senator Wamako who said lion’s share to the South-West…when will the South East ever have a lion’s share in any particular project?”

He reminded the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, that, “If this is an omission, it is an expensive omission. The South East cannot continually be treated the way Nigeria is treating the South East.”

Ngwu lamented that no dam project in the South-East received a kobo as allocation by the current government: “Let me give you an instance; out of the dams that were listed here in the South East, Ivo Dam was last funded about 12 years ago, with a N5 billion spent on it, and it has been abandoned by Nigeria for the last 12 years.”

He bemoaned that he wrote three letters to the Federal Ministry of Water Resources without any positive result: “We have done everything possible to see if they can bring up Ivo Dam and here, a zone is allocated N66 billion, and the entire South East at zero.”

Regarding Abaribe, the group said the vocal senator has written his name with gold in the minds of the Igbo as one of the most courageous and consistent advocates for Igbo interest. Without pretensions, Abaribe has insisted to President Bola Tinubu that releasing Mazi Nnamdi Kanu would put a stop to the issue of criminality in the South East.

Nzuko Ozo Ndigbo also stated that Abaribe has remained steadfast in his relationship with his constituents, while his humility was unequalled.

In addition, the group said Nwoko, with his pan-Igbo activities, has resurrected the former Premier of the defunct Mid-Western Region, Chief Dennis Osadebay.

In 1936, Chief Dennis Chukude Osadebay, of Anioma extraction, galvanized all Igbo elements in Lagos in the formation of the Igbo Federal Union (IFU). And, in 1939, he was elected secretary-general of the union. In 1943, the members of the group in Lagos, led by Osadebay, launched an aggressive campaign to unite all Igbo unions throughout Nigeria to strengthen the Ibo Federal Union. The footprints and achievements of the Igbo social movement under the leadership of Osadebay and Chief Z.C. Obi, among others, are still cherished by the Igbo.

NONIN acknowledged the obstacles confronting Nwoko in his bid to recover what the Igbo nation appears to have lost for over 60 years, but noted that “what is more important is the courage and steadfastness with which Nwoko has aligned himself to the ethno-cultural and historical reality of the Anioma, an acronym formed from Aniocha, Ndokwa, Ika and Oshimili, by Chief Osadebay in 1951.  Nwoko, like many of us, decries the double standards, identity crises and ethnic ambivalence that have pervaded the Igbo of the South-South extraction of Nigeria, since shortly before the Nigeria-Biafra war. To be sure, all the Anioma indigenes may not have Igbo roots. There is hardly any society that is ethno-genetically homogenous. The smaller groups or migrants are assimilated within the compass of the majority and, thus, rightly defined by its dominant character, eg the British, Yoruba, Hausa, Fulani, etc. NONIN encourages and supports Nwoko, and assures him that his efforts will never be in vain.”

Some other dignitaries including former Chairman of Ezeagu Local Government Area of Enugu State, Festus Uzor, and a philanthropist, Chief Afam Agana and Chinedu Ugbo, were bestowed with awards at the ceremony. Chinedu Ugbo.

Chairman of the event, Chief Pete Edochie, used the opportunity to urge Igbo leaders to set aside one week as the Iri Ji festival because of the significance of new yam in Igbo land.

The Enugu State Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Ugochi Madueke, who spoke in a fluent Igbo advised that the Igbo must not allow their culture to die. She argued that, in the Igbo language and culture, are embedded profound and transcendental proverbs, values and wisdom which are necessary tools for Igbo nationalism.

Other dignitaries at the event include the Chairman of the Enugu State Council of Traditional Rulers, Igwe Samuel Asadu (the Ogadagigi), and the traditional ruler of Edem Ani Ogwugwu Ancient Kingdom; Igwe Aloysius Ogbonna, the Uba-Ojene of Ogugu and the Akajiofor of Ntuegbenese, represented by Chief Augustine Okoli; eminent member Professors, technocrats and businessmen.

Also in attendance were the National Leader of NONIN, Prince Emeka Onyesoh, and the Deputy National Leader and immediate past National Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Chief Alex Ogbonnia.