Fresh Crisis Looms in Ohanaeze Over Tenure Extension, 2011.

Byline: Clifford Ndujihe

With a Flurry of Endorsements By the Ime Obi (Inner Caucus), Ohanaeze General Assembly, Ohanaeze Youth Council, OYC and Aka-Ikenga, the Amb. Raph Uwechue-led National Executive Committee of the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, will enjoy a two-year term extension.

In other words, their term of office will no longer terminate this month. It will expire in December 2012, seven months after a new government would have been sworn-in.

However, that is not where the matter ends. In fact, the move is eliciting fresh discordant tunes that could put Ohanaeze on the cliff-hanger, if improperly handled.

Claiming that the tenure extension was brokered in breach of laid down rules and that some stakeholders were deliberately sidelined in order to push through the agenda, some Igbo leaders, at the weekend, threatened to return to the law courts over the issue.

The development is coming as the dusts raised by Ohanaeze's endorsement of President Goodluck Jonathan for the 2011 polls were yet to settle and just as some groups urged Ndigbo to anchor their support for any presidential flagbearer on measurable programmes to address the challenges of the Igbos.

How tenure extension was brokered

In a chat with Vanguard penultimate week, Uwechue denied nursing tenure extension ambition, saying that the move was a collective one.

His words: 'Ohanaeze Ndigbo is an organisation that is dynamic. At the moment, the president_general and the executive committee have a two_year tenure but since the time of Prof Joe Irukwu six years ago, it had been pointed out that no executive can do anything worthwhile in two years.

Three or four_year tenure was suggested. So the Dr Dozie Ikedife exco set up a constitution review committee headed by Prof Elo …