AKỌ BỤ IJE: IGBO DUCHESS OF SUSSEX AND THE WISDOM OF HAVING A ‘YOUTHFUL’ VIRILE EZE ARỌ

Ada Mazi HRH Meghan Merkle surprisingly revealed her Nigerian roots duust ended three day visit to Nigeria with her husband, Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex

The British royals were personally invited on the trip by Nigeria’s chief of defence staff, General Christopher Musa, in celebration of the 10th anniversary of The Invictus Games, founded by Prince Harr in 2014 as a sports competition for injured service men and women.

As such, they didn’t come on an official capacity on behalf of the royal family or the UK. During their 3 day visit, among other things, they experienced the work of Nigeria Unconquered, a charitable foundation dedicated to aiding wounded, injured, or sick service members in Abuja.

Meghan seemed to have stolen the show with her ‘reconnection’ with her Nigerian roots.

Meghan is not just Nigerian, she is IGBO. Hence, she is Ada Mazi!

There were so many pictures of that visit. However, one picture STOOD OUT! It was that of the Duchess of Sussex with three distinguished Nigerian Royals; HRM, Engr Eberechukwu Oji, Eze Arọ, of the Ancient Arochukwu Kingdom, HRM, Igwe Alfred Nnaemeka Achebe, the Obi Of Onistha, and The Olu Of Warri, Ogiame Atuwase III. These revered monarchs left their palaces and gathered in Lagos to welcome their daughter and sister back home to Nigeria in grand style.

Akọ bụ Ije, the motto of the Arọ nation, comes to mind on sighting the Eze Arọ standing beside the Duchess in aristocratic splendour. Before now, Eze Aros were old men, who were rarely known or seen outside Arochukwu. However, in their wisdom, the Aro royalty decided to re-invent themselves, by setting aside tradition and opting for younger princes in the search for a new monarch after the demise of the late Eze Aro, Mazi Vincent Ogbonnaya Okoro, CFR.

Akọ bụ Ije (Akọ bụ isi ije) can be translated as Intelligence is key to success in the journey of life. This maxim is the central theme of Aro society. Aro, as renowned travellers -Ndi Ije and traders -Ndi ahịa, relied so much on intelligent interpretation of times and situations, to thrive and survive in the jungle of the Pre-Colonial Eastern Nigeria.

The issue is that having a younger monarch with a global worldview has tremendous merits. The Eze Aro, Pastor Eberechukwu Eni, a chartered engineer and Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers is an accomplished technocrat and a global player. He is also the Chief Executive Officer of ND Western Limited, a frontline company in the oil and gas industry.

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.

Indeed, his intimidating resume and urbane mien makes to stand comfortably with the Obi of Onitsha and the Olu of Warri, two monarchs with outstanding resumes seeped in age old aristocracy.

While welcoming Ada Mazi Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex to Nigeria, we commmend the Arọ nation for re-inventing itself through a virile and versatile monarch, Eze Arọ Eberechukwu Eni Ọjị. N’ezie, Arọ Oke Igbo, Akọ bụ ije!

Ako bu ije Meghan’s journey back to her roots is filled with akọ, she said Im Nigerian, not Igbo