Ohaneze Ndigbo to S’East govs: Tackle security challenges or quit
By COSMAS OMEGOH
The Igbo apex socio-cultural group, Ohaneze Ndigbo, has warned governors in the South-east to tackle the spiraling security challenges in the region or vacate their positions.
The groups made the statement over the weekend at the wake keep organised in honour of its late patron, Chief John Nwezi at his residence in Lagos. Nzewi who was a former member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was allegedly kidnapped in Ihiala, Anambra State, during the senatorial re-run election in Anambra South. His captors allegedly collected a whopping N30 million ransom from his family but still killed him.
Speaking to Daily Sun, the spokesman of Ohaneze Ndigbo in Diaspora, Sonny Louis Okafor, said the security situation in Igboland at the moment had become a matter of concern that needed to be speedily addressed. He said it behoved on the governors of the region to arise from their slumber and tackle it head on. Failure to do this, he said they should quit their positions and allow genuine people who would address the problem to step into their shoes.
“The security situation in the whole of South-east now is alarming,” he said. “Ndigbo in Diaspora now hardly can travel to their homelands without fear of being kidnapped. Our brothers and sisters living outside in Europe, America and other parts of the country and elsewhere around the world now can’t go home either to embark on meaningful development projects or enjoy their homeland. Worse still, some of us are giving our daughters out in marriage in foreign land. This is an abomination. This is never heard of.
“Regrettably, our governors are keeping silent over this extremely dangerous trend as though they are enjoying the unfolding scenario. Look at the way and manner Chief John Nzewi was abducted and killed after his abductors collected N30 million ransom from his family. This is a sad story. If our governors know that they cannot tackle this growing tumour, let them resign honourably and allow others come in and face the challenge. Every month, our governors cart away huge sums of money as security vote yet crime and criminality are spiraling every passing hour. We can’t continue like this. This trend needs to be tackled with all the seriousness it deserves before it kills genuine development initiatives in Igboland.”
Source: Sun, 14th May 2012.
2015: Jonathan’s spanner in Ohanaeze’s works
APRIL 30, 2012 BY EMMANUEL OBE
EMMANUEL OBE examines the rotational presidency and chances of the South-East as political actors begin intrigues for the 2015 elections
The principle of rotational presidency was propounded at the 1995 Constitutional Conference by former Vice-President Alex Ekwueme, who in his minority report advocated restructuring the country into six geopolitical zone.
He spoke passionately about the need to evolve a spirit of accommodation if the country must move forward. He had said, “National integration can be fostered by deliberately evolving a policy of accommodation, compromise and give-and-take.”
Latching onto this new spirit of accommodation, Nigerians used the opportunity of the Fourth Republic to advocate power shift, which culminated in the three political parties that emerged then to field all their presidential candidates from the Sout-West. The region at that time needed to be appeased based on the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election won by Chief M.K. Abiola (now late) from the South-West.
The Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the elite umbrella body of the Igbo speaking people of Nigeria, expressing a strong feeling that the Igbo were yet to be appeased along this new line of political accommodation, had in October 2011 made it clear that the Igbo would not compromise their quest to produce the President in 2015.
According to the President General of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Dr. Raph Uwechue, “What is most important now is for the Igbo to take their turn in the presidency. The Igbo must take their turn before any ethnic region thinks of pursuing a second term. The cruel act to Ndigbo is in contrast to the support we have always given to other zones of the country.
“With the treatment the Igbo are getting in Nigeria, it is obvious that the Nigeria/Biafra war is not over. The only thing that can show it is over is for our brothers to help us achieve Igbo presidency. All hands must be on the deck to make it a reality,”
Uwechue was speaking at a public lecture at the Federal Polytechnic, Oko, Anambra State to mark the 79th birthday of Ekwueme.
The seriousness of this declaration can be taken from the position that Ohanaeze has in recent years restored its legitimacy and firm control of the corporate opinion of the Igbo. To further bolster the organisation’s authoritativeness, its present leadership is not bogged down by divisions or factions, which crippled the past leaderships.
However, this resolve of Ohanaeze has since run into trouble after the March 2 burial of Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, the Biafran leader, who before his passing had become the undisputable leader of the Igbo.
The leadership of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra has since told Ohanaeze point-blank that the realisation of or its support for the Igbo Presidency in 2015 will only depend on President Goodluck Jonathan’s decision not to run for a second term.
The movement, whose primary concern had been to get the Igbo to have their own sovereign state, has since played down this aspect of its campaign, and its antagonistic stance against the Federal Government.
And MASSOB is not a group in Igboland, whose position on corporate matters of the people can be taken lightly. MASSOB has obviously been carried away by the support the Jonathan administration gave for the burial of Ojukwu, who contrary to expectation was granted a state burial by the Federal Government in spite of his role in the Nigerian Civil War.
Jonathan had used the burial of Ojukwu to score a political point and restore his popularity with the Igbo at a time when the people had begun to wonder if their massive support for him in the 2011 election was not misplaced. This was because, one year after, Jonathan had not fulfilled his promise to the people to fix major infrastructure in the zone like roads, the Second Niger Bridge, power and the Niger Port at Onitsha.
Apart from the dividing position of MASSOB, the governors of the South-East states, who by virtue of their offices, are legitimate leaders of the zone, do not seem to be sharing the sentiments of Ohanaeze.
Though he has not spoken about the Igbo Presidency project, the body language of Mr. Peter Obi, the Chairman of the South-East Governors’ Forum, appears to indicate that the governors will go with Jonathan if he decides to run for a second term rather than support the quest for an Igbo Presidency that will antagonise Jonathan’s ambition.
Obi, who has since been named an honorary adviser to Jonathan on finance and appointed to Jonathan’s economic team, spends more of his time in Abuja attending to Jonathan’s affairs these days.
Besides, Jonathan penetrated the Igbo elite by offering them plum appointments. He has handed over the economic sector of the country to the Igbo as reflected in the appointment of Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as the Minister of Finance and Head of the Economic Management Team. Other top appointments in the economic sector include headships of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Nigerian Stock Exchange, ARCOM and a key appointment of a deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
These appointments are in addition of the appointment of an Igbo as the Chief Army Staff, Minister of Aviation, Health and Education.
Ohanaeze, which came against all odds in 2011 to declare support for Jonathan will be expecting Jonathan, who had declared that he would not go for a second term to reciprocate the gesture he received from the Igbo in April 2011.
Ohanaeze’s support for Jonathan even stood against the stance of some political elite from the zone led by Ekwueme, Nwobodo and Prof. Chukwuma Soludo. They had urged for what they considered the respect for the gentleman agreement the Peoples Democratic Party had in 1999 to rotate the Presidency between the North and the South.
With the support Ohanaeze got from the South-East Governors’ Forum, a lot of sentiments were played up to favour Jonathan’s aspiration based principally on the fact that Jonathan’s zone, the South-South had never had a shot at the Presidency since 1960 when Nigeria became independent and the fact that Bayesla State, Jonathan’s home state was an integral part of the former Eastern Region.
Jonathan eventually won, garnering more proportion of votes in the South-East than even in the South-South where he comes from.
The Igbo presidency has become a running political project in Nigeria since 2002, when the political elite from the South-East came together to demand that the zone be allowed to produce the President in 2003.
The mobilisation for the project was phenomenal, and it preyed on the perceived political marginalisation of the Igbo that manifested in poor infrastructure in the zone, dearth of Igbo personnel in top and sensitive political positions in the country and fewer political constituencies. Above all, the Igbo had come to the conclusion that allowing their own to become President would give them a psychological relief in the sense that they would now feel that they have been fully reintegrated into the Nigerian polity since the civil war ended.
The response of the political elite and even the ordinary Igbo to the project was quite high. This resulted in more than a score of top Igbo politicians signifying their intention to run for the Presidency.
The list of presidential aspirants included Ekwueme, who eventually lost the PDP primaries to Olusegun Obasanjo; Ojukwu; former Senate President Chuba Okadigbo and former Governor of old Anambra State Jim Nwobodo.
The only opponents of the Igbo presidency then were appointees of the Federal Government, who had to save their face with the Obasanjo administration.
Ohanaeze took over the project at the height of the agitations but failed to pick a consensus candidate from the pack. So, everyone left went his way to try his luck. The result was that they were roundly thrashed by Obasanjo. So, the realisation of the project was further postponed to 2007.
The campaign for Igbo presidency returned in 2007 when four of the five former governors of the South-East states had finished their tenures. They all threw their hats into ring for the Presidency. They were Orji Kalu (Abia), who founded the Progressive Peoples Alliance to execute his ambition; Sam Egwu (Ebonyi), Chimaroke Nnamani (Enugu) and Achike Udenwa (Imo). Apart from the governors, the All Progressives Grand Alliance presented Ojukwu again for the presidential election.
But what is on the ground to realise the Igbo Presidency? Are the Igbo serious and can they be united in this project? Joseph Okonkwo, a member of the PDP in Anambra State says the election year is still far away. “But the strategies to realise this aspiration must start now,” he said.
Okonkwo says the Igbo political leadership must get the other zones to back its aspiration, and then move on to get the political parties to field only candidates from the zone.
Senator Uche Chukwumerije has suggested what he called the guerrilla approach in which the Igbo must prove that they could create a crisis if they are not given the chance to produce the President. He cites what the Oodua Peoples Congress did in the South-West to attract the President, what the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta did to attract the post to the South-South and what Boko Haram is now doing to attract the office to the North again.
Source: Punch, 30th April 2012.
Ohanaeze Chides Sanusi over N100m Donation to Kano Boko Haram Victims
Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi
By Christopher Isiguzo
The apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has expressed anger over the N100 million donation made by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to victims of the recent Boko Haram bomb attacks in Kano State.
A report published in one of the national dailies Saturday disclosed that CBN Governor, Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, presented a N100 million cheque to the Kano State deputy governor, Dr Abdulahi Umar Ganduje during a condolence visit to the Kano State Government on Friday.
According to the report, Sanusi said the donation is part of CBN's contribution to the state government to alleviate the sufferings of direct victims of the violence and their families.
But, in a swift reaction, Ohanaeze National Publicity Secretary, Ralph Ndigwe, demanded an explanation from Sanusi on why CBN had not extended similar gestures to hundreds of Igbos who were victims of violent attacks in the north by the Boko Haram sect.
Ndigwe who made a statement in Enugu Saturday, warned that Ohanaeze would champion the removal of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as CBN governor if he failed to explain the rationale behind the donation to Kano victims only.
"We want Sanusi to tell us what CBN has done for hundreds of Igbos who were victims of Boko Haram violent attacks in various parts of the North.”
If Sanusi fails to give us an explanation for CBN's selective donation of N100 million to victims of Kano attack, we will not hesitate to push for his removal from office of CBN Governor" the Ohanaeze spokesman stated.
He said somebody occupying the exalted position of CBN governor should be a person who lives above parochial inclinations, adding that Sanusi's donation to Kano victims only, shows that he puts sectional interests above national interest even as Governor of the Apex Bank.
Source: This Day, 12th February 2012.
Ohanaeze queries CBN’s N100m donation to Boko Haram victims
By Tony Edike, Enugu
THE pan-Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Saturday, expressed anger over the N100 million donation reportedly made by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to victims of recent Boko Haram attacks in Kano State.
Some national dailies had reported, yesterday, that CBN governor, Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, presented a N100 million cheque to Kano State deputy governor, Dr Abdulahi Umar Ganduje, during a condolence visit to the Kano State Government on Friday.
The reports quoted Sanusi as saying that the donation was part of CBN’s contribution to the state government to alleviate the suffering of direct victims of the violence and their families.
But, reacting to the development, yesterday, National Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze, Mr. Ralph Ndigwe, demanded explanation from Sanusi on why CBN had not extended similar gestures to hundreds of Igbo who were victims of violent attacks by Boko Haram in the north.
Ndigwe threatened that Ohanaeze would champion the removal of Sanusi as CBN governor if he fails to explain the rationale behind the donation to Kano victims only.
”We want Sanusi to tell us what CBN has done for hundreds of Igbo who were victims of Boko Haram violent attacks in various parts of the north. If Sanusi fails to give us explanation for CBN’s selective donation of N100 million to victims of Kano attack, we will not hesitate to push for his removal from office as CBN governor”, the Ohanaeze spokesman stated.
He said somebody occupying the exalted position of CBN governor should be a person who lives above parochial inclinations, adding that Sanusi’s donation to Kano victims only shows that he puts sectional interests above national interest even as governor of the apex bank.
Source: Vanguard, 12th February 2012.
Ohanaeze Angry Over CBN’s Donation To Kano Boko Haram Victims
BY LAWRENCE NJOKU, ENUGU
APEX Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has expressed anger over the N100 million donation made by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to victims of the recent Boko Haram bomb attacks in Kano State.
A report published in one of the national dailies yesterday disclosed that CBN Governor, Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, presented a N100 million cheque to the Kano State Deputy Governor, Dr Abdulahi Umar Ganduje, during a condolence visit to the Kano State Government on Friday.
According to the report, Sanusi said the donation was part of CBN’s contribution to the state government to alleviate the sufferings of direct victims of the violence and their families.
In a swift reaction, Ohanaeze National Publicity Secretary, Ralph Ndigwe, demanded an explanation from Sanusi on why the banking regulator has not extended similar gestures to hundreds of Igbos, who were victims of violent attacks in the North by the Islamic sect.
Ndigwe, in a statement in Enugu, warned that Ohanaeze would champion the removal of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as CBN governor if he fails to explain the rationale behind the exclusive donation to Kano victims.
“We want Sanusi to tell us what CBN has done for hundreds of Igbos who were victims of the Boko Haram violent attacks in various parts of the North. If Sanusi fails to give us an explanation for CBN’s selective donation of N100 million to victims of Kano attack, we will not hesitate to push for his removal from office as CBN Governor”, he stated.
According to him, somebody occupying the exalted position of CBN governor should be a person who lives above parochial inclinations, adding that Sanusi’s donation to Kano victims only, shows that he puts sectional interests above national interest even as Governor of the apex bank.
Source: The Guardian, 12th February 2012.
Ohanaeze Commends Jonathan over Price Reduction
By Victor Efeizomor
President-General, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Mr. Raph Uwechue, has hailed the decision of President Goodluck Jonathan to reduce the pump price of fuel from the current N145 to N97 per litre, saying the action demonstrates the hallmark of a leader who has a listening ears.
Uwechue also called on the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and other Civil Society Organisations to suspend the ongoing strike action, in view of the Federal government decision, in order to mitigate the economic loss occasioning by the civil unrest, so that the country can move forward.
Uwechue, who spoke exclusively to THISDAY Monday in Asaba, said: “What the president has done is commendable, he has shown a spirit of compromise and we think that he has not met the total demands of Labour but he has shifted grounds, so my advice would be that Labour should go back to work while other details would be sorted out if there are more thing they want to be done, but not to continue with the strike which is destroying the economy.”
He stated that: “The president does not own the economy, it’s the population that owns it, and if you destroy it, it’s the population’s property you are destroying, not President Goodluck Jonathan private property.
“So we recognise Labour’s right to use strike but normally, strike is suppose to be the last resort, you don’t start with it, its when nothing else works, we are saying that if government has shifted its ground, our advice is that Labour should also shift it ground especially to resume work while they may continue to discuss further details of the needs.”
He described as “heinous crime” the killing of innocent and defenceless people by the Boko Haram sect in some parts of the North and called on the Federal government not only to step up security of lives and property in the country but to also bring to book those found to be behind the atrocious acts.
He further described as “rubbish” the call by Boko Haram sect on Christians, to leave the North , saying the country belongs to all of us, and that Nigeria is a joint venture and as such a Nigerian should be able to leave where he choose to leave.
Source: This Day, 17th January 2012.
Ohanaeze cautions on insecurity as northerners flee Enugu, others
FROM LAWRENCE NJOKU, ENUGU
A FRESH dimension may have been added to the parlous security situation in the country, as non-indigenes especially from the Northern parts of the country have begun fleeing the South-East in droves.
At Lokpanta on the Enugu-Port-Harcourt highway, Ugwuoba and Artisan village, all in Enugu State occupied by Hausa communities, several lorries were noticed over the weekend being boarded by fleeing northerners with their luggage.
The development came as the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, said yesterday that the recent call ascribed to Boko Haram elements on Christians and southerners to vacate the North had brought the security crisis of the country to a dangerous climax.
The massive movement of northerners from the South-East further heightened fears among the state residents as the issue has become a subject of discussion in various circles.
Although none of the fleeing northerners was ready to speak, the development, however, might not be unconnected with the 14 day ultimatum issued by an Igbo group, the Ogbunigwe Ndigbo, which had last week in a statement urged the non-indigenes to vacate South-East or risk being attacked.
The Guardian also gathered that the relocation of the northerners to their home states was as a result of the directive from Muslims for their members in the South-East to return to the North.
Responding to the threat by the Ogbinigwe Ndigbo, the General Officer Commanding the 82 Division of the Nigerian Army, Enugu, Maj.- Gen. Sunday Idoko, had restated the readiness of the Army to combat any uprising or reprisal from any group in the South-East.
He had asked residents to go about their normal duties, stressing that such threatening text messages if allowed to continue, could lead to serious breakdown of law and order. He pointed out that security challenges facing them could call for information gathering and sharing among security agencies.
Meanwhile, Ohanaeze Ndigbo in a statement signed by the President General, Ralph Uwaechue, recalled various bombings and killings targeted at Christians and Igbos, explaining that enough was enough.
Ohanaeze said: “When in 2011 the United Nations Building in Abuja was bombed with massive loss of lives, Ohanaeze Ndigbo condemned the dastardly act as they did and many others preceding it and asked the Federation Government to take effective steps to stem the tide.
However, in spite of the government’s efforts, the only change has been for worse.
“It is now clear that unpatriotic political and religious elements are bent on making our country ungovernable.
“Ohanaeze Ndigbo is convinced that enough is enough and while reiterating its urgent demand on the Federal Government to arrest this dangerous development capable of destroying this nation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo calls on the Moslem leaders of our country to take immediate steps to rein in their hawks to prevent irreparable damage to the delicate ethno-religious harmony that all well-meaning Nigerians are strenuously striving to maintain.”
Source: The Guardian, 9th January 2012.
New refineries: Ohanaeze condemns exclusion of South-east
By PETER ANOSIKE
Ohanaeze Ndigbo has condemned the exclusion of the southeast in the proposed refineries to be established by the federal government.
The Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, had told aviation correspondents that government would use the money realized from the removal of oil subsidy to rehabilitate the existing refineries and then build new ones in Bayelsa, Kogi and Lagos states.
president of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Lagos State chapter, Chief Oliver Akubueze, said that the exclusion of south-east from the states where the new refineries would be located is not fair.
According to him, Southeast should be considered for the location of the refineries, going by the fact that it is also oil producing geo political zone and has the least of federal presence among all the geo-political zones in the country.
He urged President Goodluck Jonathan to ensure that the neglect of the southeast, which has been the trademark of successive governments does not continue.
Akubueze said that southeast deserves one refinery among other numerous federal presence.
His words,” It is very disheartening to hear from the Minister of Information Labaran Maku, that how the revenue to be generated from the proposed removal of oil subsidy would be shared has been concluded without a mention of the southeast. I want to say that this is not acceptable to us. The time has gone when Ndigbo are relegated to the background. President Jonathan should make sure that Ndigbo is involved in the scheme of things in the country. What is the basis of selecting Bayelsa, Kogi and Lagos for the location of new refineries while no state in the southeast was selected. For how long would they continue to remind us that we were vanguished? Ndigbo has a very big stake in this country and we urge president Jonathan to make sure that there is equity in the distribution of federal government presence. What is good for the goose is also good for the gander. Nobody is more Nigerian than the other”.
On the proposed removal of oil subsidy, he advised government to make sure that the interest of the masses is protected in any programme it wants to come up with.
“The essence of government is the happiness of the greater number of the populace. Based on that, government should make sure that whatever decision it wants to take with regard to the removal of the oil subsidy is mass oriented. We don’t want policies that would be in the interest of only a few people.
The interest of the majority should always be protected. If government feels that removal of subsidy should be the best for the country then it should go on to convince the masses. For now, I think that it is only the elites that have understood it. Government should take the message of how removal of subsidy would change their lives for the better to the grass roots using the appropriate channels. “he said
Source: Sun, 22nd December 2011.
2015: Igbo’ll be President –Uwechue
From EMMANUEL UZOR, Onitsha
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Love him or hate him, Ambasador Ralph Uwechue, the President General of Ohaneze Ndi Igbo an apex social cultural group of Igbo extraction is a man who stands by his word. His role during the election of President Goodluck Jonathan elicited many controversies among Igbo race who questioned his interest in electing a man from the South South geopolitical zone of the country instead of supporting the emergence of Igbo man as the President of Nigeria.
In this report, EMMANUEL UZOR writes on the true situation of things among Ndi Igbo including the recent marriage between South East and South South ahead of 2015.
The true position
As the head of Ohaneze Ndigbo, the overall caretaker of Igbo interests worldwide, I am taking the opportunity of the solemnity of this occasion, firstly to nip in the bud, incipient but potentially dangerously divisive controversy involving some political highly placed Igbos vis-a vis the position of Igbo nation on the vexed question of South East Presidency.
The stand of the Igbo nation on the issue of South-East Presidency was made abundantly clear in the statement issued by Ohaneze Ndigbo on 15th October 2010, titled presidential election and zoning which stressed inter allia as follows. Ohaneze Ndigbo firmly believes in the reality and absolute equality of the six geo political zones and strongly holds the view that the topmost executive office in the land-Prime Minister or President which has eluded the two geo political zones of South East and South-South since the birth of our nation half a century ago should now go to them in turn of unbroken succession as a mater of national priority, before any other zone can justly claim the right to second or even third turn
Why Ndigbo voted President Jonathan
This said it all, the overwhelming Igbo support at the elections last April, was for a hitherto politically deprived South-South zone, with President Goodluck Jonathan, already on seat, as its providential pre-positioned flag bearer. On an issue of such national importance and of special interest to Ndigbo as securing the presidency for the South-East, the Igbo nation expects its politically active sons and daughters, no matter how highly placed to respect and comply with its clearly defined goal, as set out in that statement endorsed by Ohaneze Imeobi and approved by the General Assembly, which met at Enugu on 30th October 2010 and 6th November 2010 respectively.
Ethnic plurality
Nigeria , with over 300 ethnic and sub ethnic units, brought together by the force of British Imperialism to forge a modern nation, is still in the process of nation building, struggling to blend together and harmonize the various very rich but differing traditions, customs and cultures of people. The recognition of the significance of ethnicity was clear at the birth of an Independent Nigeria in 1960. The larger ethnic units of Hausa/Fulani-Igbo-Yoruba formed the basis of the three regions North-East-West. The conception of the six geopolitical zones is also based, with three zones accorded to the larger ethnic groups, to balance term out, three also to be conglomerate of the smaller ethnic units.
The lesson from this structural arrangement is that the ethnic units are recognized and acceptable as veritable building blocks in the on going construction work and nation building process in Nigeria . So in our socio-political economic intercourse, all geo political groups big or small must be allowed free play and equitable access to our country’s resources and strategic political command posts, including particularly the presidency. Sustained imbalance in sharing responsibilities and the ‘national cake’ could conceivably induce those units aggrieved a re-think of the value to them of much vaunted national unity.
The marginalization of Ndigbo
Today, there is a general feeling within the Igbo nation especially among the young up-coming generation, that as a people, Ndigbo are being deliberately sidelined particularly in the sphere of political leadership of the country. No Igbo person has so far been deemed suitable to be put at the helm of affairs, at the apex management position of Nigeria since Independence in 1960. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Nigeria ’s pioneer titular head of state, took a shot at the real thing-the executive presidency, in 1979 and in 1983. In spite of this nationally acknowledged role as the foremost crusader for our nation’s Independence, he scored abysmally in both electoral tests. Dr. Alex Ekwueme fared no better, even as he teamed up with a scion of Northern Oligarchy- Alhaji Shehu Shagari. Their joint ticket under the National Party of Nigeria, (NPN) won presidential slot in the successive elections of 1979 and 1983.
Somewhat like today Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, the National Party of Nigeria NPN was the dominant party at the time. Securing its presidential candidate’s nomination was as good as clinching presidential position. Dr. Ekwueme was poised to replace Shagari at the impending end of his second tenure as the party’s presidential flag bearer come next election. He was eminently qualified and was clearly favoured by Shagari himself for the presidential job ahead. He had to be stopped, hence the coup of 31st December 1983 carried out by a tiny crop of ambitious anti-Igbo and anti-Shagari military elements.
This event denied Ndigbo, perhaps the largest ethnic group in Nigeria , their federal character chance of producing an executive president and their constitutional right to exercise presidential powers for a possible eight year period of two terms. The callous and contemptuous treatment meted out to Ndigbo is in clear contrast with the compassionate concession, massively supported by Ndigbo, given to Yoruba South-West in 1999 to field the two Olus-Obasanjo and Falae, from three different political parties, the (PDP) and joint ticket of All Peoples Party, (APP) and Alliance for Democracy, (AD) respectively for the universally acknowledged South-West presidential slot missed by their kinsman, Chief M.K.O Abiola in 1993.
Source: Sun, 5th December 2011.
Ohanaeze Youths Blame Politicians Over Ezekwelu’s Travails At Tribunal
FROM UZOMA NZEAGWU, AWKA
THE Ohanaeze Youth Council has condemned activities of some political leaders in Anambra State, saying they were behind the removal of Tony Ezekwelu of APGA from the state House of Assembly by the election tribunal sitting in Awka.
The Justice Y. A. Adesanya-led tribunal had in a judgment delivered November, 10, 2011 in Awka, declared Ebele Obi of ACN winner in the April election, to represent Idemili South constituency in the state House of Assembly, thereby voiding the earlier announcement of Ezekwelu by INEC.
Reacting to the development in a press statement made available to The Guardian yesterday in Awka, the Secretary General and a member (BOT) Ohanaeze Youth Council, Uzochukwu C, Uzochukwu and Mazi Okwu Okwu respectively condemned what they termed mischievous activities of some politicians in Idemili South constituency, who swore not to see Ezekwelu get into such leadership position.
They viewed appeals from various quarters for active participation of youths in governance at all levels as insincere, arguing that society lacks mechanism that encourages and guarantees political empowerment of youths.
Though they did not mention names, they warned such politicians that Igbo youth would use all arsenals within their disposition to protect their mandate.
The group declared that the election in which INEC announced Ezekwelu winner was peaceful, fair and credible, regretting that efforts were being made to frustrate the APGA candidate out of the system.
Source: The Guardian, 20th November 2011.
2015: Igbo on the march again
By Augustine AVWODE
Even though 2015 is still 42 and a half months away, the quest of a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction is already gathering steam. The fire was stoked recently when the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the apex pan-Igbo cultural and socio-political group, in conjunction with the Igbo World Congress (IWC) held the Igbo Day celebrations in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital, between September 26 and 28, 2011.
Not unexpectedly, the event, boasting of the presence of notable Igbo sons and daughters at home and abroad, turned out to be a forum for the examination of the possibility of the emergence of an Igbo as president in 2015.
Though many people have argued to the contrary, the Igbo, one of the major tripodal ethnic groups upon which Nigeria stands, has only had a shot at the highest political office in Nigeria since independence, for barely six months, January to July 1966, under the late Major General J.T. U. Aguiyi-Ironsi, a purely military regime.
Those who disagree, however, claimed that the late Nnamdi Azikiwe, an Igbo, was Nigeria’s first president. Ever since then, the Igbo have been sidelined. Apart from these two, the most the Igbo have risen politically ever since then has been the office of the Vice President to which Dr. Alex Ekwueme was elected during the administration of Alhaji Shehu Shagari during the second republic from 1979 to 1983.
The second of its type was Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe when he was appointed the Chief of General Staff, and, therefore, the second in command during the early part of General Ibrahim Babangida’s administration. However, it was not for a long time.
At the Abakaliki event, Senator Uche Chukwumerije, (PDP Abia North), who headed the propaganda desk during the Biafra war and later held sway as Secretary of Information (Minister) of the Federation, passionately canvassed a path that he believed would ensure the realisation of presidency for the Igbo.
In a lecture he delivered titled “Wake up call: Path to Igbo self – Realisation”, Senator Chukwumerije posited that other major ethnic groups were able to make it because they took a rather unorthodox route to the presidency.
According to him: “It was the Niger Delta militancy that ensured that President Goodluck Jonathan became President of Nigeria, while the Boko Haram sect is being used by the North to achieve its presidency bid in 2015,” he said.
He also argued that the Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere, used the Oodua Peoples Congress, OPC, to achieve the presidency 12 years ago. “The Igbo should, therefore, incorporate the MASSOB into its system to ensure that an Igbo emerges as President of Nigeria,” he argued.
Yet, he acknowledged, even tacitly, the daunting challenge realising this dream poses. He stated that: “The dialectal pendulum of Nigeria’s power politics may swing the presidency to our side sooner or later, but such opportunities can only come if we unite as a group. My submission is that the Ohanaeze Ndigbo should take up its fatherly duty of devising means of constructive engagements with our youths to achieve this ultimate objective. As members of one large family, we must stop behaving like the proverbial victim of a bee sting who flees at a mere hum of a house fly.”
And with all the emphasis at his disposal, he submitted that “Igbo nation must produce the Presidency in 2015 and all hands must be on deck to achieve this noble task. To implement this, a 20-man committee should be constituted, including the five Eastern governors, to look into the challenge of getting Igbo presidency in 2015.”
That was in September and less than two months after that declaration to the admiration of many youth groups in the South East geo-political zone, another reputable voice upped the ante last week.
Dr Chukwuemeka Ezeife, one-time governor of Anambra State and erstwhile Political Adviser to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, declared in an interview he granted to newsmen that only Igbo can stop an Igbo from becoming president in 2015. A statement many think is heavily pregnant. It is at once a veiled threat to those who may be working on other alternatives as well as a clarion call to Igbo to unite, knowing full well that the issue of forging a united front has always been the major political Achilles heels for the Igbo in this regard.
According to him, realising the Igbo presidency dream “depends on every Igboman. Nobody from outside Igboland can take away the presidency from us in 2015, if we truly want it because we are comprehensively justified to fight for it. The God of justice must be with us. By the time Jonathan finishes his tenure, every zone should have supplied Nigeria with a president for at least five years, except the South East”.
Referring to the Gen Ironsi administration that was followed by a tragic 30-month war, Ezeife said: “What we had was a coup that lasted for six months and two million people buried with it. God knows about it, Nigerians know about it. Therefore, when I was the chairman of power sharing committee of the national political reform conference, the members of the committee agreed that there should be rotation by geopolitical zones for presidency. Since every zone has had it, except the South East, what reason can anybody give for the Igboman not to fight for it?”, was his question.
He made it clear that the Igbo would view a denial to produce the president in 2015 seriously. In his words “By virtue of rotation, we should demand and get the presidency. Refusing it, to us, means refusing us membership of Nigeria, and that is when they will play into the hands of those agitating for Biafra. For us advocating for one Nigeria, we are gradually finding it harder to continue our advocacy, if there is persistency in injustice and unfairness”.
Payback time
More than anything else, some Igbo leaders think that apart from the demand of fairness and justice, it is only proper to expect some reciprocal behaviour. During last year’s tussle for the presidency, a section of the South East, especially the elderly ones and the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, categorically threw their weight behind President Jonathan with the understanding that in 2015, he would support the zone to produce the president. In equal measure, the Igbo Political Forum (IPC), described as young political turks from the zone, threw its weight behind the North and was ready to back whoever emerged as the consensus candidate from the North on the understanding that in 2015, the South East would be supported to produce the next president. In the ensuing political clash, President Jonathan prevailed.
Divided house
The events that culminated in the emergence of President Jonathan as the presidential flag bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in December 2010 clearly suggest that as a zone, the South East and as a people, the Igbo, still have a lot of home work to do in the art of forging a united front and speaking with a common voice.
Ezeife narrated a moving drama that graphically illustrated this. Hear him: “I was the chairman of a think-tank formed by Senator Pius Anyim and myself, whose aim was to talk to the North and South-South, collect their aspirations, go to Owerri to talk to our people and get their mandate. Before then, the North had already invited us. We had been Vice to them already, and if they were ready to support us, we were ready to talk about it.
“We agreed before we left for Yar’Adua Centre that fateful August that the discussions would be preliminary and exploratory. In no way, were we going to issue a communiqué or make commitments to anybody. Along the line, some of our delegates started taking the position of the North. I was flabbergasted; I wanted to challenge things, but discovered that some people were pre-lobbied before we came.
“They started lobbying for Vice-Presidency, and barely one week after that meeting, names of people appeared as members of the Babangida campaign group. Our own chairman even gave way to the Northern chairman. No Igboman with any sense of history will prefer at that stage to support the North instead of the South-South. But, unfortunately, this communiqué was published, supporting the North. Some people quoted me as saying it was a political ambush. Those who knew my politics were shocked, and called me. I had to tell them the truth.
“So, at the Igbo summit in Enugu chaired by Mbazulike Amaechi, six days after, we endorsed Jonathan unconditionally. We did this in order to give our people a clear sign of where we were going. Gradually, all Igbo abandoned the position of the pre-Northerners and we dumped all our eggs in Jonathan’s basket”.
The fact is that long before now, and given the developments that took place in 2007, the South East has all along been eyeing 2015. That was before the untimely death of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua. His demise paved the way for what some people called “divine zoning”.
The South East region was, therefore, content with play the “beautiful bride” or if you like being the “king maker,” while making it clear that 2015 would be its own turn. It was little wonder, therefore, that all the presidential aspirants, particularly those of the PDP, courted the zone with all the attention it deserved.
This was reinforced by the suggestion that in 2015 the South East in the light of the party’s zoning arrangement, would produce the president and that Jonathan’s participation in the primaries was not because the party had jettisoned the zoning arrangement, but because of his constitutionally provided right to contest as a sitting president.
And while the Ohanaeze and other political stalwarts backed Jonathan, ahead of the 2011 elections, the Igbo Political Forum, IPF, (a group of Igbo elders that insists on zoning) weeks later, met in Enugu State, with the campaign directors of the four northern presidential candidates under the PDP and declared that they would support whoever emerged as the consensus candidate from the North. The candidates included former military president, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, rtd; former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar; former National Security Adviser, Gen. Aliyu Gusau, rtd; and former Governor of Kwara State, Bukola Saraki.
In explaining the position of the Igbo, Ohaneze’s president-general, Ambassador Ralph Uwechue, had argued that Jonathan had done more for the Igbo than anybody else to deserve their support, but importantly for him to support them in 2015: “Jonathan comes from the South-South, and Nigeria has six zones; and that if we reinforce the importance of the zones, other things would follow. And we insisted that the positions in the country should rotate among the six zones.
“Also, those we consulted told us that they had been watching what Jonathan has done since he took over, that action speaks louder than words. They said that since the late General Aguiyi Ironsi was killed in Ibadan that an Igbo is now the head of the Nigerian army, and it was Jonathan who did it. They also said that for 50 years, Ndigbo have been asking why the Enugu airport has not been given the full international status. The people who have suddenly discovered that they are lovers of Ndigbo, feeding the public with false pretence, ignored the Enugu airport because making it an international airport would boost Igbo economic activities and save our people from travelling to Lagos and Abuja before flying out of the country. Jonathan has done it for us.
“For the first time in the history of Nigeria, an Igboman has been appointed Minister of Internal Affairs. This is an important ministry. When Senator Ike Nwachukwu was the Foreign Minister, when he was to be appointed Minister of Internal Affairs, it was changed overnight. They didn’t trust an Igbo man enough to head that ministry; they didn’t want an Igbo man to be in charge of security. That was how Ike Nwachukwu became Foreign Minister twice.
“Talking about zoning, there are six zones in Nigeria, one has seven states, four have six states each, and only the Igbo South-East has five states. But some people say Nigeria is zoned between the North and South. That is not true. We must correct that wrong impression. We have six zones, and that was why the late Yar’Adua was president and Senator David Mark, also from the North is the president of the Senate. It means that in 2007, until Yar’Adua died, the North was completely in control of Nigeria politically with the two important political offices in the country, president of the country and the president of the Senate as were occupied by them.”
On the part of the IPF, it advanced that the South-East had agreed with the North over 2015. After the meeting in Enugu, former Minister of Health, Prof ABC Nwosu, said: “There are five points of disagreement. The first is that the meeting between the IPF and Northern Elders was a public meeting and the agreements have been widely publicized with the list of those in attendance. The Ohanaeze fangled argument on rotation to the South-East does not exist anywhere except in their imagination. If they reached an agreement with the INC, let them make it public.
“The second difference is that the Igbo presidency 2015 proposed by the IPF is predicated on a four-year completion tenure by the North of the presidency to terminate in 2015. The northern presidential candidates have gone public on this and IBB, at his declaration of interest, said he would do only four years, “So help me God.” President Jonathan, who declared three days later, kept silent on the matter of tenure and has remained silent on it ever since; and his campaign handlers have remained silent too. People like me would want the president-general of Ohanaeze to say something on tenure before he says anything on Igbo presidency in 2015, because the two are closely linked”.
This is the type of internal disagreement which many fear could once again wreak havoc on the esteemed ambition of the Igbo as a nation and South East as a zone.
Zoning policy and Igbo’s ambition
But while some people are of the view that internal disagreement may pose a problem to the 2015 bid, others also hold that the zoning arrangement in the PDP, being the dominant party, may also abort the dream.
The PDP zoning arrangement is such that while some people claim that it is between the North and the South, others say it should strictly be among the six geo-political zones. And whereas the South West has produced the president for two terms totalling eight years, the South-South currently has President Jonathan who had completed one year left of the late Yar’Adua tenure before beginning his own afresh on May 29, 2011.
By the time he completes his tenure in 2015, assuming he does just only one tenure, he would have grossed five years and the total, to those who sees zoning only in the light of South and North, would be 13 years while the North would have only the three years of the late Yar’Adua.
Whether such people would allow the presidency go to the South East, therefore, remains a critical factor. It must not be forgotten that the same set of people made it almost impossible for Jonathan to emerge as they claimed that the North still had five more years to complete the turn which Yar’Adua started. The fact that they lost the battle in 2011 means that they may not want to play the second fiddle in again in 2015.
Herein lies the import of the Igbo quest for the presidency in 2015. It certainly will be a titanic political tussle, yet if the Igbo would not divide their ranks, and remain resolute in their determination, knowing that the late Gen Ironsi, the last Igbo man to sit on the number one seat, did that 44 years ago as at today, and that it will be 48 years by 2015, they could still realise the dream.
Source: The Nation, 12th November 2011.
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