‘Aim to be the Face of a New Aro Kingdom’ – Eze Aro Charges AAUSA New Exco

By Dr Azubike Okoro, Ugwuaro

As the 29th edition of the AAUSA convention was coming to a close, to conclude his very engaging and productive visit and attendance of the parley which held in San Francisco, USA, His Eminence, Eze Dr Eberechukwu Oji, dedicated his last few hours to a parting message during a late evening interaction with the newly elected AAUSA executives. The objective was to guide them on the ways to make positive impact in leadership, thus further Aro development meaningfully.

Determined not to miss any opportunity to preach the gospel of Aro renaissance, Eze Aro held a late evening meeting with the new exco. In Eze Aro’s team were a few members of the royal entourage while Mazi Stephen Obi Achi, the newly elected executive president, AAUSA led his new exco members. Both groups were fully introduced before His Eminence opened the discussion, which focussed essentially on ensuring that AAUSA thoroughly understood the vision and mission of the throne in the 21st century, policies and strategies of the palace and their linkages with Aro Renaissance, a good understanding and expectations of Umuaro, as individuals and groups, to ensure the realization of corporate Aro interests and the governance objectives of the Aro throne.

According to Eze Aro, the leadership priorities of the palace which all Umuaro are expected align themselves with, must be clearly understood, and the key performance indicators for their realization, must not be in doubt at any point in time. At this point in our development trajectory, there are two cardinal objectives which every Aro must reconcile himself or herself with, namely:

Aro must be number one in every sphere of life – in Arochukwu local government area, in Abia state, in Nigeria, Africa, and globally. The attainment of this objective must be measured by us and from our own perspectives because our aim is to be second to none. We are Aro, a special people created by the Supreme Being who also gave us our unique identity of ‘’Umu Chukwu’’, thus a people born freely, who should be second to none, a heritage that came directly from the Almighty God.

In the light of the aforementioned, Aro must endeavour to be very industrious and prosperous, ensuring that we sustain the glorious history and heritage that separates us from other people. Indeed, if Aro is not industrious, how can we have a distinctive civilization that makes us unique as a people?

While continuing with his guidance discussions, His Eminence informed the new leadership that the aforementioned objectives make two sacred responsibilities imperative and AAUSA must not be found wanting on any. In fact, AAUSA should see them as eternal obligations, namely;

a) To expand on the civilization that we inherited from our forebears as every succeeding culture must feature improvements on what existed earlier.
b) To ensure that we hand over a more glorious civilization to succeeding generations

His Eminence expressed happiness with the success of his visit, especially with the activities and progress that were recorded by AAUSA in the effort to attain these noble goals. According to him, in the past few days of the convention, a lot happened and the media is awash with the news and happenings generated at the convention. This is history being created by no other group but by ourselves as Umuaro and they will subsequently become history that will be handed over to the up-coming generations. He alluded to the pre-convention activities, particularly the visit and lecture at the center for African History of the University of California, Berkeley and courtesy visit to the Mayor of San Francisco, both of which were greatly appreciated and widely received by the audience. In the light of above, His Eminence reminded the new exco that they came into office at a special time when the kingdom needs them to redouble their efforts to ensure that the kingdom rediscovers itself and aim for global recognition.

Accordingly, he charged them as follows – ‘set very ambitious targets for yourselves. Mobilize more Umuaro who are not yet part of your organization. Humble your selves by adopting the leadership philosophy of our revered monarch, Eze Kanu Oji – a kind of servant leadership – work hard to bring every Aro together, home and diaspora by tearing down the wall of division, Aro is one all over’ Again, he encouraged them to aggressively mobilize massive resources for development purpose. ‘We must not shy away from that objective because money is cardinal to development. If people have confidence in you, they won’t hesitate to entrust resources to those in leadership.

The old order won’t work if we want to achieve our set targets. We have to operate at the level that our colleagues in other kingdoms are operating. The value is immense and incalculable. We build diplomatic relationships for the sake of the days of trouble. When the time comes, the status of the throne would matter most. Indeed, as they saying goes, you prepare for war in the days of peace’’, he concluded.

Speaking in the same vein, a member of the royal entourage, Mazi Kanu Ivi, advised the new exco to raise the bar in leadership to align themselves with the governance priorities of the Eze Aro, who he described as ‘Ugo Chukwu nyere Aro’. ‘I have seen three different Aro monarchs’, according to him but ‘this is the first time I am seeing strategic planning and thinking of this nature’.

This Eze, he noted, has very important initiatives, and he is working together with Umuaro in various abodes. Mazi Ivi also alluded to his long standing association with AAUSA, culminating in his attendance of about five conventions out of a total of about eight from inception. He equally noted the tremendous role he played to bring back peace when crisis engulfed the association and noted that the presence of Aro diaspora was not very prominent in the current convention. Accordingly, he encouraged the new exco to work hard to ensure that all Aro communities irrespective of abode are integrated into their fold.

Furthermore, Mazi Emma Nwadeyi, Ugwuaro, referenced his long standing quality relationship with the new exco, particularly the executive president who he described as being always ‘intentionally strategic’. He encouraged him to sustain his exemplary Aro-centric focus and continue to deepen the existing cordial relationship with the palace and AAUSA group to ensure that development opportunities are harnessed for the welfare of Aro in diverse abodes. Dr Azubike Okoro, Ugwuaro and head, palace media team noted that poor and ineffective communication is the bane of most leadership and also attributed it to the failure of most development initiatives. The leadership goals and deliverables set by the palace are huge but progress would be made if there is effective coordination and communication. He therefore, invited the new exco to take special interest in the unique communication frameworks developed by Eze Aro, ‘From Aro Palace’ and ‘Ububo Eze Aro n’ Umu Aro’, to advance his laudable goals. Thereafter, the newly elected executive president, Mazi Stephen Obi Achi spoke on behalf of his team, thanked His Eminence and the royal entourage for commendable guidance and appreciative comments. He promised to be exceptional in his administration to ensure that Aro’s development is not compromised.

Moreover, he assured His Eminence that his exco will continue working hard to push forward the frontiers of quality leadership, especially in this renaissance era.

Finally, he strongly promised never to lose sight of the leadership values espoused by Eze Aro and those established by the elders, assuring to uphold and to be guided by ‘Ako bu ije’ during his tenure.

At the end of the parley, His Eminence, Eze Dr Eberechukwu Oji, Eze Aro of Arochukwu kingdom prayed and blessed the new exco members and invited the guidance of Almighty God and Aro ancestors to dwell with them throughout their tenure.