A socio-cultural group, the Nzuko Ozo Ndi Igbo Nigeria (NONIN), on Friday, announced Sen Osita Ngwu, the Deputy Minority Whip representing Enugu West senatorial district; Sen Enyinnaya Abaribe of Abia South, and Sen Ned Nwoko of Delta North senatorial districts as the Best Igbo Senators of the Year 2025.
Our correspondent reports that NONIN is led by Professor Ike Oluka, and composed of representatives of Õzõ title-holders across Igbo land. The announcement was contained in a release by Dr Chiedozie Ogbonnia, the Deputy National Leader of the body, which was made available to NEWSNGR in Enugu.
According to him, the recognition was part of the activities marking the 2025 edition of Iriji Nzuko Ozo Ndigbo Nigeria. He stated that a committee, headed by the former Director General of the Centre for Black Arts and African Civilisation (CBAAC), Ozo Ferdinand Anikwe, was set to assess the performances of the senators of Igbo extraction in the National Assembly.
The deputy national leader said the committee assessed the Igbo senators based on 10 performance indicators across key areas, such as relationship with the grass roots, humility in power, constituency projects, Igbo advocacy, parliamentary eloquence, and social skills.
He recalled that in May 2025, Sen Osita Ngwu had defended the Igbo interest when he described as unfair the treatment of the South-East geopolitical zone of the country by the federal government. Ngwu, according to him, had decried the neglect of the zone, especially in the area of resource allocation for infrastructure.
“Ngwu also connects with his constituency through Enugu West Academy, an institution that organizes tutorials for school leavers to ensure they gain admissions for choice courses in universities; football tournament; quiz for all the secondary schools in Enugu West senatorial zone; scholarships to indigent students; postgraduate scholarship programmes abroad; road rehabilitations; solar powered street lights, and vocation training centres for youths in Enugu West.”
The group stated that Sen Eyinnaya Abaribe had written his name in gold “as one of the most courageous and consistent advocates for Igbo interest”. It added, “Abaribe has insisted to President Bola Tinubu that releasing Mazi Nnamdi Kanu would put a stop to the issue of criminalities in the Southeast.”
For Sen Ned Nwoko, the group stated that the Delta-born lawmaker “has resurrected Chief Denis Osadebey, the former Premier of the Mid-Western Region, defunct”.
Quoting them, “In 1936, Chief Osadebey, from the present Anioma extraction, galvanized all the Igbo elements in Lagos in the formation of the Igbo Federal Union (IFU). And In 1939, Chief Osadebey was elected as the Secretary General of the Union. In 1943, the members of the group in Lagos, led by Chief Osadebay, launched an aggressive campaign to unite all Igbo unions throughout Nigeria to strengthen the Ibo Federal Union.
“The footprints and achievements of the Igbo social movement under the leadership of Chief Osadebey, Chief Z C Obi, amongst others, are still cherished by the Igbo.”
The group praised Nwoko’s efforts “to recover what the Igbo nation appears to have lost since over 60 years ago”. It added, “But what is more important is the courage and steadfastness with which Nwoko has aligned himself to the ethno-cultural and historical reality of the Anioma, an acronym formed from Aniocha, Ndokwa, Ika, and Oshimili by Chief Osadebey in 1951.
“Nwoko decries the double standards, identity crises and ethnic ambivalence that have pervaded the Igbo of the South-South extraction of Nigeria, since shortly before the Nigerian Biafran war. “
NONIN assured Nwoko that his efforts would never be in vain.
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