Lord Mayor Solomon Ogbonna Aguene, President General Ohaneze Ndigbo Lagos State.ln this interview with Emmanuel lkpeama,he sheds more light on the state of lgbos in Lagos,his achievements and the way forward for Ndigbo in Lagos 2025.
Excerpts:
Can you introduce yourself sir.
My name is Lord Mayor Solomon Ogbonna Aguene, President General Ohaneze Ndigbo Lagos State.
As President General Ohaneze Ndigbo Lagos State, what are your expectations and that of Ndigbo in this year 2025.
Our expectations this year especially myself is to start with God,guide everything l do with prayers, knowing fully well that God is the ultimate,not hoping on man and ensure that all the doings and dealings with individuals are from the directive of God almighty.
Also,l want to use this opportunity to urge Ndigbo to pray endlessly and believing God for his goodness and mercy. I am also appealing to them to continually be law abiding this year,be their brothers keeper and go away from gossip and ill fighting that is trying to be part of Ndigbo lifestyle, sometimes it gives me concern as to why we fight ourselves in different associations and aspects of life.
Notwithstanding,in all of this,l will say that Ndigbo are the most honest people in this world especially when it comes to business,they are highly enterprising, little wonder they are doing well in their various businesses.
Leading Ohaneze Ndigbo in Lagos comes with great responsibilities. What has been your core philosophy as a leader.
As Ohaneze Ndigbo leader,my philosophy is to unite Ndigbo in Lagos and this has been my motto which l will achieve before my tenure elapse by bringing all groups together under one umbrella.
How do you balance preserving traditions while adapting to the modern challenge faced by lgbos in Lagos.
Well, the Ndigbo’s,it has been a kind of tradition for them, facing challenges since after the Civil war which they completely lost most of their achievements, since then so many people have been struggling just to feed themselves because of the situation we found ourselves and this has given an edge of working hard to achieve what we least expected.
So l want Ndigbo to be grateful to God almighty, looking at their developmental strides they have achieved so far, they should keep thanking God for his mercies and if they were not strong enough, they would have been like the smallest village in Cotonu .
Notwithstanding the hurdles and challenges, the lgbos have remained stronger.
What has been the most decision you had to make as a leader and what did you learn from it .
My decision was that l wanted to silence all the Cabals inside Ohaneze Ndigbo,all those that are using the name of Ndigbo to trade. Yes this was my hardest decision and at the end l came out victorious and l have made sure that over 70% of those people who can tell you that without them you cannot stand,today it is no longer so as l have been able to silence them all.
What is the biggest misconception about Ohaneze Ndigbo.
You know everyone has his/her own decisions of thinking,we have different feelings and to me Ohaneze Ndigbo is a Socio Cultural Organization that has no allocation, you can only pilot the affairs as a leader based on your contact and capacity as a successful business man.
In a rapidly changing world,how do we keep the younger lgbos generation connected to their roots while embracing modernization.
Well this is just what you have to do as an individual, family by family by advising them and letting them know the challenges behind someone who wants to grow faster than God decision in his/her life, trying to pin them down by making them to understand that all those modern things they are seeing today,they will see a better tomorrow if they are patient.
There has been ongoing debate about political marginalization of lgbos in Lagos. Do you believe this is real or exaggerated.
To me, looking at the contributions of Ndigbo in Lagos State,l expect the lgbos to be occupying some major offices or positions but the reverse is the case, which means there is an atom of truth in it, that is all l can say.
What are your plans for Ohaneze Ndigbo this year 2025.
Thank you for this wonderful question,we have a lot of programs lined up for the upliftment of Ndigbo in Lagos State which include empowerment, celebrating Igbo day, Cultural day, lgbo yam festival and others that l would not like to unfold now but this year promises to be great.
Your advice to Ndigbo.
First, let them be law abiding and be mindful of what comes out from their mouth, what to say and what not to say, there are things we don’t need to say because of our safety so that we can stay here in Lagos,so Ndigbo should be mindful of utterances this 2025. Thank you
