Peace and joy have once again descended on the ancient Kingdom of Arochukwu, Abia State as the indigenes have finally gotten their heart desire on their revered stool of royalty.
After a rigorous and meticulous process, the Government of Abia State, has also rolled out its full powers in recognition and documentation of an illustrious Arochukwu son, Eberechukwu Eni Kanu Oji as the man to reign over the kingdom.
A pastor and a business mogul, Eberechukwu Eni Kanu Oji, a grandson of the late Mazi Kanu Orji who led the Aros for 73 years on the throne, emerged on October 18, 2023, at a selection event in the kingdom.
Culturally, a selection process by a committee of seven elders culminated in the emergence of the new Eze. Checks show that one of the candidates had stepped down in favour of Pastor Eberechukwu Eni, a chartered engineer and Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, before the voting process, and after the screening of all interested candidates, two persons, including Mazi Godwin Kanu Idei and Pastor Eberechukwu Eni emerged for election.
During the final voting process, Pastor Eberechukwu Eni received more votes, while Mr. Godwin Kanu Idei got only two votes. Guided by the result, Pastor Eberechukwu Eni was declared the new Eze designate of Aro Kingdom.
The new Eze, Pastor Eberechukwu Eni had also invited members of the Oror community, Arochukwu who are solely responsible for choosing new Ezes to a meeting. One of the highlights of the meeting was to secure the necessary buy-in of the people and appeal to all and sundry to give him the needed support during the days before he is formally presented to the entire Aro Kingdom as the new Eze Aro.
The essence of it will also involve their accompanying him to Utughugwu, the Royal Community of Arochukwu, for a formal presentation of him to them, before he is taken around to Eze Agwu’s palace ahead of the final crowning at Ibom Isii.
The emergence of the Eze Aro-designate had however thrown up concerns since Pastor Eberechukwu Eni’s father, Pastor Joshua Kanu Orji is still alive. This has led to debates about what to call Pastor Eberechukwu Eni – “Nwamazi” or “Mazi?”
The last Eze Aro, the Late Eze Aro, Mazi Vincent Ogbonnaya Okoro, CFR, ascended the famous ancient throne of Aro Kingdom in 1995. He was, in 1988, chosen to ascend the throne of his forefathers but was not officially crowned the Eze Aro until 31st May, 1995, about 7 years in waiting. He died 25 years after at the age of 89 in 2021.
Eze Okoro was preceded by Eze Mazi Kanu Oji who was born in 1900 and died in 1987.
He reigned from 1914 – 1987, ruled for 73 years continuously, and remains Nigeria’s longest monarch to ever reign in history. Late Mazi Kanu Oji was crowned Eze Aro in 1914 at the age of 14, but he could not take full control of the throne until he attained a full age of 21. That was in 1921, exactly 7 years after his coronation. It was then that he performed his first important public function as Eze Aro as he chaired, for the first time, a vital meeting of Aro Traditional Leaders Council.
The emergence of Eberechukwu Eni Kanu Oji, 102 years later surely marks a major turning point in the history of the foremost ancient Igbo Kingdom.
Apart from being a Pastor and an Engineer, the Eze Aro-designate is also the Chief Executive Officer of ND Western Limited, a frontline oil and gas industry player.
A peek into his professional profile shows that he is a high-profile corporate chief executive officer with high-level strategic leadership capabilities and a high-performing, high-capacity strategic business executive with more than 25years deep technical, leadership and broad functional expertise in Upstream and midstream Asset management, Operations management, major project commissioning with a track record of transformational business improvement and delivery in Nigeria, Netherlands, Kazakhstan, United Kingdom, United States,Singapore, Australia, Continental Europe and other Shell Operating Units across the World.
He is a business executive with hands-on and effective experience with running Oil and Gas businesses and Operations in the Niger Delta, with strong relationships, network and experience with managing all government regulatory agencies in the Oil & Gas industry and demonstrable capability in managing local communities to ensure smooth operations.
The Eze Aro is a skilled strategist who develops compelling visions and translates business strategic goals to workable tactical plans and solutions to improve safety performance and maximize production, availability, reliability and utilization to consistently deliver stretch business delivery goals.
He is also a technical authority in Global Production Excellence as TA1 and Regional Discipline Lead (RDL) for Maintenance, Reliability and Turnaround (MRTA) and Operations and is highly respected globally with extensive experience in the Front-end of Projects through to Operations phase and proven track record of consistently developing high performing teams aligned to deliver above expectations and producing solid bottom-line results.
His areas of expertise include chief executive and strategic leadership, end-to-end from concept to delivery of multi-billion dollars projects in the oil and gas industry, Health Safety and Environment and Process Safety Management, assessed HSSE “Competent” by Shell Group HSE, Strategic Planning, Business planning& Leadership, Community Relations Management, Regulatory Compliance Management, Asset Management, leadership& Improvement delivery, Liquefied Natural Gas Operations, Cash-flow, Funding and Financing Strategy development.