By: Emmanuel Obe
I do not yet know the meaning of Mbata and Azuta, the two principal names of the new President-General of Oha-na-Eze Ndigbo, the apex sociocultural elite organization of the Igbo-speaking peoples of the lower Niger region of Nigeria. But John, his first name, has some scriptural historical significance, and the Igbo, who are mainly Christians, would know this if they relate that name to John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus Christ, the savior of mankind. This means that Senator John Azuta Mbata might not be the messiah the Igbo are looking for in Nigeria, but he might just as well be the one to prepare the way for the new order they seek.
Until very recently when he was roused from his political retirement by Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State to join him in commissioning projects, Senator Mbata was very quiet and almost forgotten. The pomp with which he was elected in 1999 to represent Rivers East in the Nigerian Senate died down since 2007, when he did not go back to the senate. The circumstances surrounding his second tenure in the Senate were not very pleasant. The government of President Olusegun Obasanjo had indicted him and a few other senators that served on the Education Committee of the Senate for allegedly collecting money from the then Minister of Education, Prof. Fabian Osuji, to approve the education budget. He and the other senators, including the then Senate President, Adolphus Wabara, were charged to court for that indictment. It took many years before the charges were quashed by the Court of Appeal.
Senator Mbata appears to be a lucky fellow, one of those people whose paths were paved by their family. Elder Sam Mbata, his father, an ethical businessman, was well known in Port Harcourt and indeed across Nigeria and the world where he ran his businesses. He was indeed one of the potent forces behind the Full Gospel Businessmen Fellowship International in Nigeria, a Christian organisation that made a success of taking the gospel of Jesus Christ to businessmen at a time that businessmen were generally seen to be sinners who placed profit ahead of godliness. And because a lot of top businessmen did not have the time to attend regular church services, where they were even loathed, their fellowships were taken to them in hotels and places like that.
When John Azuta Mbata stepped into politics in the late 1980s during the transition period of the Ibrahim Babangida regime, he did not need to do much work. He had a pedigree that had cleared the way for him. Bearing the Mbata surname was enough to open doors for him. That gave him the stepping stone he needed to fly higher in politics and position himself as the political leader of Obio/Akpor Local Government Area in 1998 when the transition to civil rule began. In 1999, he was easily nominated as the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the Rivers East Senatorial seat. He won and represented the zone in the Senate from 1999 to 2007.
He remained quiet after 2007 through the years of Rotimi Amaechi and Nyesom Wike as governors. Wike did honour him by naming a public building after him. But it was not until last year when the present Governor, Siminalayi Fubara was embracing new political elders that his name started popping up again. His company, Monier Construction Company Limited (MCC) was awarded the N19 billion contract for the reconstruction of the Rivers State House of Assembly that was blown up in October, 2023 when members of the House of Assembly loyal to Wike attempted to start impeachment proceedings against Fubara.
Most recently, Mbata has been accompanying Fubara on road project inaugurations. One of the roads was named after him, and supporters of the governor had used his story with Wike to counter Wike’s claim that he made Fubara governor. It was Mbata they said that presented Wike as the candidate of the PDP in 1998 for the Chairmanship of Obio/Akpor Local Government, yet they claim he had refused to take his counsel.
Gradually, Mbata became Fubara’s man Friday in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area. Then suddenly, the lot fell on Rivers State to produce the next President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo. It was a tricky situation because the Ikwerre ethnic group, to which Mbata belongs generally, rejected being Igbo, and Ikwerre people who joined Ohanaeze Ndigbo did so on their own personal basis. As Ohanaeze tradition has established, governors of the states that produce the President-General usually endorse the nominee for the position.
When two days to the election of the President-General Mbata’s name began to fly as a candidate, especially after a court disqualified the candidacy of former Police Inspector General, Mike Okiro, it was clear that everything had been done from Government House to make the way smooth for Mbata. It was therefore not a surprise when on Friday, January 10th, 2025 the leadership of Ohanaeze Ndigbo in Enugu presented Senator Mbata as the consensus candidate.
The wisdom of why and how the presidency of Ohanaeze was zoned to Rivers State at this time cannot be questioned. Ohanaeze as a body bound by its own rules reserves that right. But one thing that this recent election of the president general of Ohanaeze from Rivers State may face is the unresolved issue of whether the Ikwerre and other groups like Ekpeye, Etche and Ogba that reject being Igbo can now accept or be accepted to be Igbo.
The contentious issues go beyond cultural, anthropological and linguistic factors. Indeed, these groups even share more of these factors with the Igbo than with any other sociocultural groups. But the fact, as it is in many public conflicts in the world today, is that the fight is more political than sociocultural. And unless these issues and fears are addressed, the dirty war will continue.
Before now, no serious effort had been made to attend to these issues and fears. All combatants had stood their ground. This is where the story of Ohanaeze Ndigbo has entered a new phase and the face of Senator John Azuta Mbata is needed to give this body and indeed the politics of Nigeria that is ensconced in ethnocentrism a new birth.
The senator should not fear. The passive acceptance of the Ikwerre of his new post is an indication of support and expectation that he would use this goodwill to address the issues they have with their Igbo kith and kin, after all, the entire humanity is one brotherhood. The massive support by the governments of the five South-East states and the current leadership of Ohanaeze can also be leveraged. Rivers State Government and even President Bola Tinubu have issued supports and congratulations. A huge responsibility rests on Senator Mbata’s shoulders to usher in a new era of a politics that eschews base sentiments and seeks to build friendship, understanding and harmony.
Emmanuel Obe, the Street Journalist
