By GBENGA AYODELE
There is this pervasive serenity and magnetic peaceful aura around High Chief Mike Nwaukoni, the Executive Chairman of Migfo Group Nigeria Limited, that assures one on a first encounter that you are before a man of peaceful and fatherly disposition, the stuff a benevolent community elder and leader is made of.
Onowu Mike Nwaukoni, the multi billionaire business tycoon and the Iyase of Ogwashi-Uku, is, indeed, a true community elder and leader who has, over the decades, demonstrated, in words and deeds, that high offices, traditional and modern, are meant to positively impact on the lives of a people over which one superintends.
Not only that, this business tycoon of vast business empire has also shown that it is suicidal to mistake a tiger’s gentle, easy-going preference for an act of cowardice.
A man of peaceable conduct, but a dogged fighter, those who have dared him to a fight with mistaken belief that his quiet mien is synonymous with weakness, have had disgraceful tales of defeats to tell.
Take the issue of his high office of Iyase traditional title. By Ogwashi-Uku tradition, the Iyase is the Prime Minister of the Kingdom and second in command to the Obi.
In recognition of his sterling qualities and philanthropic activities to the kingdom, he was installed as the Iyase by the Agidiase clan, whose progenitor was credited with founding the Kingdom and the clan with exclusive preserve to install an Iyase.
And all was well until 2008 when Prof. Ben Okonjo, the late Obi of Ogwashi-Uku was said to have emerged as the Obi of the Kingdom after an intensely acrimonious jostle for the Obiship by members of the Umu Obi Obahai Ruling House of which the Professor was a member. So acrimonious was the fight for the throne that it divided the Royal House into irreconcilable factions.
On his ascending the throne even amidst ongoing litigations and divided Royal House, Prof Obi wanted the peace-loving and quiet business tycoon to come over to his side to give him his full support. The Iyase demurred, and urged the Professor to first reconcile with his siblings and cousins and other members of the Royal Household before he can throw his weight behind him.
For taking this position, which he considered an unfriendly gesture, the new Obi declared a total war on the Iyase. But then, the Obi, as it turned out, overestimated his fire power and under rated the fighting skills of the easy-going tiger called Onowu Nwaukoni.
The Obi went ahead and, contrary to the tradition, picked a certain Collins Afuwa, who was described as ordinarily a gentleman, to be the Iyase in place of Onowu Mike Nwaukoni. The battle line was drawn and the fight began.
To give legal teeth to his Iyaseship and at the prompting of the Obi, Afuwa proceeded to court urging it to recognise him as the authentic Iyase. At the lower court, he got his wish, but the legal fireworks had just started. A never say die Onowu Mike Nwaukoni, appealed the case at the higher court and won his title back. But Afuwa went ahead to appeal the judgement. The legal battles eventually climaxed at the Supreme Court, where Iyase Mike Nwaukoni was declared as the authentic Iyase.
But Prof Okonjo was not going to give up. He commenced his own battle after Afuwa. He went to the High Court to ask it to declare that Onowu Nwaukoni was not the authentic Iyase. He lost. He proceeded to the Appeal Court, and he was given a bloody nose. He then proceeded to the Supreme Court. The case was still pending at the Supreme Court when he transited in September 2023.
But the Okonjo family would not give up, even after the transition of their patriarch. The late Obi’s third son, Prince Chukwude Okonjo, who was said to have succeeded his father in a most controversial manner just like the way his own father ascended the throne, reawakened the case at the Supreme Court. But again, the easy going tiger, Nwaukoni, gave them a devastating knockout.
It is interesting to note that throughout all the years of these battles, you never saw the peace-loving, but rugged Onowu making noise in the media or making controversial statements that could endanger the peace of his community. He remains a quiet and impactful philanthropist, making remarkable contributions to the development of the Kingdom that loves him so much as to honour him with the high title of Iyase.
Indeed, this writer discovered in the course of working on this story that, all the Principal Chiefs, known as The Idimes, are totally aligned with Iyase Nwaukoni whose peaceful disposition, tireless quest for the unity of the Kingdom and philanthropic commitment to the entire people of Ogwashi-uku is without doubt unprecedented. Above all, they recognise that he is the one and only Iyase known to the people and recognised by them. These Principal Chiefs include Onihe, Odafe, Ihonor, Igwoba, Odafe, Alamuzo, Isagba, Ihaza and Ozoma.
Although, for fear of persecution, some of these Chiefs do not associate overtly with the Iyase, they however give unambiguous expression to the fact that Onowu Nwaukoni remains the undisputed Iyase. Only a fearless few like the Ihonor who refused to be intimidated has openly proclaimed and identified with the Iyase.
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Even the gentleman, Afuwa, who took the Iyase to court has allegedly denounced his Iyaseship on realising the truth and now quietly but strongly supports the Iyase in his quest to ensure that Ogwashi-uku Kingdom has a bonafide monarch and that peace reigns in the town.
It could not have been otherwise. The people of the Kingdom readily point at imperishable and iconic contributions of the Iyase to the development of the Kingdom.
They recall that after almost a decade of darkness in the Kingdom, Iyase Mike Nwaukoni singlehandedly restored electricity to the Kingdom, a project that cost him millions of naira when naira was still as strong as an agile horse.
The town hall project is also one that the people of the community will not forget in a hurry. He made the single highest donation to the project.
A community elder recounted to this writer how the Iyase continues to pay the school fees of over 1,000 children of the community from primary to university level. Not only that, the elder stated, the indigenes of all the quarters that make up the Kingdom are gainfully employed in the Onowu’s vast business empire.
The elder’s parting shot is instructive. He said: “Whoever fights Iyase fights the entire Kingdom, whoever seeks to disgrace Iyase will witness disgrace. That is why we are not bothered about his present travails. We don’t have a doubt he will emerge victorious and his traducers will be humiliated again.”
You could tell these are some powerful words. You could call them prayer for the Iyase.
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