Punchng:

It’ll be stupid for Igbos to endorse Jonathan —
Okechukwu

Mr. Osita Okechukwu, a member of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo,
tells IHUOMA CHIEDOZIE why the organisation should not
endorse President Goodluck Jonathan
A motion for Jonathan’s endorsement as the Igbo
candidate in the 2015 presidential election was scuttled
at the Ime-Obi (leadership caucus) meeting of Ohanaeze
Ndigbo on January 3. As one of those who kicked
against the motion, why do you think Jonathan should
not be endorsed?
Actually, it was on the 9th of November 2014 that they first
mooted the idea to endorse President Jonathan. In that Ime-
Obi, which is like a caucus meeting of the Ohanaeze, we said
Ohanaeze was like a polygamous father with many children
and many wives. A polygamous father has to consult more
than a father that is married to only one wife. Ohanaeze is a
father that is running many households: we have the
Peoples Democratic Party, we have the All Progressives
Congress, we have the United Progressive Party that even
has an Igbo as the presidential candidate in Chief Chekwas
Okorie; we have other political parties that also have Igbo
people. We said it didn’t make any political sense,
strategically, to endorse President Jonathan.
We had to insist on a counter motion. In the shouting match
that ensued, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu’s motion could
not be passed and it wasn’t even seconded. It will be stupid
for the Igbo nation to endorse President Jonathan because
as it stands today, nobody knows who will win. It is not like
in 2011 when General Muhammadu Buhari was running with
the Congress for Progressive Change which did not have
much spread nationwide. Today, the APC now has broad
movement and followership in all the nooks and crannies of
the country, just like the PDP. So we said it didn’t make
sense to support one party.
Is this why you want Ohanaeze to withdraw its support
for Jonathan?
Again, there is the checklist of expectations by the Igbo,
which President Jonathan, in the course of the campaign
before the 2011 general elections, agreed to fulfill. We talked
of revamping the Enugu coal, but six years down the line
President Jonathan has not done so. They even promised
the Enugu coal will be used for a coal-fired power plant to
supply at least 1000 mega watts of electricity. That had not
been done. We had expected that six years after Jonathan
became President the power plant would have started; it
could have helped the Igbo and other Nigerians. Even the
international airport he claimed to have built cannot actually
be called an international airport because the British
Airways, Lufthansa, can’t come there. If there is a hub driven
by coal, with the ancillary industries that will follow the
production of coal, it will energise the place. He failed.
We talk of the second Niger Bridge. That is because
President Jonathan, in February 2013, after visiting Imo
State where he had received politicians who defected to the
PDP, hopped into Onitsha to see the Obi of Onitsha, Igwe
Alfred Achebe. Luckily for the Igbo people, the Obi went
through his diary and remembered that Jonathan promised
the Second Niger Bridge and queried him there. President
Jonathan was on the defensive. We said, with all the
unprecedented oil money, why did it not occur to the
president to remember the second Niger Bridge earlier?
But some have commended Jonathan for favouring the
South-East with political appointments.
Yes, he gave us secretary to the government of the
federation; he gave us minister of finance, and other
ministers but we are saying those ones are supposed to be
constitutional matters —the constitution says if you become
the president, you must appoint at least one minister from
every state of the federation. The issue of doing us a favour
does not arise and the fact that we have our son, Dr. Pius
Anyim, as the SGF, and Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as the
minister of finance does not confer any advantage on us. We
are not saying that the individual families have not been
improved but we are not talking about families, we are
talking about the generality of the Igbo race. We do not see
any benefit from the Jonathan regime to warrant
endorsement, and we felt it could be suicidal, given the fact
that General Muhammadu Buhari and the APC were lurking
in the wings, nobody could weigh who would win the
presidential election. Why should we endorse one and leave
the other? That was how we shut down the motion.
But an Ohanaeze chief has boasted that Ohanaeze will
eventually endorse Jonathan.
Unless they do so by sitting in their houses and issuing a
press statement. Ohanaeze’s constitution is very clear —
even if the Ime-Obi had endorsed him, going by the
constitution of Ohanaeze, it requires the ratification of the
General Assembly that includes every Igbo person. It will
require the General Assembly for endorsement.
What plans does Buhari have for the Igbos, has he
reached out to Ohanaeze Ndigbo?
On the 7th of November, Buhari wrote to the Ohanaeze,
saying he would like to have a discussion with us because he
was consulting various groups and he felt the Ohanaeze was
very important for him to consult. In the last paragraph of
the letter, he said he would not claim to know everything
that was of importance to the Igbo, that after the discussion,
he would know what to say. Before the elections, he will
have time to discuss with Ohanaeze.

In the last paragraph of the letter, he said he would not claim to know everything that was of importance to the Igbo, that after the discussion, he would know what to say. Before the elections, he will have time to discuss with Ohanaeze.

mikeansy:
GEJ till 2019

Buhari will never win a South East state