In Igbo-Eze North, Peter Mbah Uses an Ofala to Back the Palace

AJI-ESSODO, ENUGU — Governor Peter Mbah spent a January weekend not in a ministry boardroom but at the Ofala of His Royal Majesty Igwe Simeon Osisi Itodo, Eze Oha I of Esodo Ancient Kingdom in Igbo-Eze North. The Whistler reported the visit on 4 January 2026. Deputy Governor Barr. Ifeanyi Ossai was with him.

Why a governor sits at Ofala

Mbah said his administration would continue to preserve traditional institutions. He also unveiled a biography of the Igwe during a triple celebration that included a coronation anniversary. The choreography is familiar in the East: the elected man comes to the titled man, and both agree, in public, that the town is older than the party.

That is not empty pageantry. In Enugu, as in Anambra and Imo, land, youth restiveness, and burial disputes still pass through palaces before they reach a magistrate. A government that pretends otherwise spends twice the money and convinces nobody.

The risk

Politicians have always loved a red-cap photograph. The useful Ofala is the one after which a feeder road is graded, a school roof is replaced, or a palace court is not used to bury a land case. Mbah has also spoken, in earlier harvest seasons, of Iri Ji as a tourism and agriculture asset. The East has heard those sentences before.

This paper will watch the palaces and the budgets. Culture that cannot touch a road is costume.