by Tony Adibe, Enugu
The Imeobi (inner caucus) of the apex Igbo socio-cultural organization Ohanaeze Ndigbo Imeobi on Saturday, at the National Secretariat in Enugu, diplomatically threw away a motion to to adopt President Goodluck Jonathan as the consensus candidate of Ndigbo for February presidential election.
Though Daily Trust learnt that the endorsement of Jonathan was not even on the agenda, frontline politician and publisher of Champion newspapers, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu moved the motion midway into the meeting, advising Ohanaeze to adopt Jonathan for the presidency.
Iwuanyanwu who is a member of PDP Board of Trustees informed the Imeobi that he came with a message from 90 percent of Igbos who were supporting the re-election of President Jonathan for a second term. He did not explain how and when he got 90 percent of Ndigbo who are supporting Jonathan re-election.
Rather he told the meeting that he should be given an answer so that he could report back to those who sent him.
His unexpected motion, nonetheless raised some dust in the meeting, forcing the Presidential General, Gary Igariwe to adjourn the meeting abruptly.
As a result of the complete rejection of the motion, the rather embarrassed and speechless Iwuanyanwu slowly walked, face-down out of the meeting, climbed into his Jeep and left the Ohanaeze Secretariat disappointed.
However, the meeting ended abruptly amidst a shouting and cursing between Ichie Austin Anazodo, Mr Osita Okechukwu and others against and those in support of the motion for the endorsement of the President. It was the second time the move to endorse President Jonathan failed in the Ohaneze meeting, as in earlier Imeobi meeting of November 9th, 2014 the motion suffered the same fate.
The argument of those opposed to the motion which Chief Iwuanyawu eloquently narrated was to enhance the unity of Ndigbo and their brothers in the old Eastern region, is because the politics of 2015 is far different from the scenario in 2011, when Jonathan was endorsed by the same Ohanaeze. That it will be suicidal for Ndigbo to endorse one candidate at the expense of the other, especially when Mr President failed in the major promises he made to Ndigbo and by extension to Nigerians.
Mr Osita Okechukwu, chieftain of APC in response said, “I concur with the Adoration Ground sermon of Fr. Ejike Mbaka that Jonathan has ruled for six years, that we need a change. The power sector has not worked because of corruption. The privatization of public companies has not yielded any fruit because of corruption. Jonathan has surrounded himself with very corrupt officers.”
Notable Igbo leaders like Chief Mbazulike Amechi, Dr Dozie Ikedife, Justice Eze Ozobu, and Professor Ben Nwabueze did not attend the meeting, which earlier started on a
Rancourous point as some members also opposed the attempt to extend the tenure of the National Executive to four years instead of two years.
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