SweetiliciousD:


Whether 5 or 4 cannot jettison the fact that Igbos spans beyond "core" Igbo states. Fulani junta can throw "political bone" at you and watch you deny your fellow brother. Lol

Take it or leave it, Igbo spans beyond South Eastern states.

Of course everyone knows that Igboland transcends SE and includes parts of SS and Benue state. However, if one of your siblings denies you, disgraces both you and your parents at every giving opportunity, teams up with your enemies to attack you, common sense dictates that such sibling should be totally disowned and ostracized.

Stop identifying with those that don't identify with you, that's a shameful and disgusting way of life.

GenPutin:
Igboid as an Igbo man like you,aside ameachi it is only emefiele that our last hope, because emefiele is an Igbo man.APC will not zone to southeast.In the PDP if it comes south,It'll go to okowa.It will be giving to Atiku or he may even be a VP to Atiku.

We can strike a deal with his Ika brethren, they're better than the ikwerre.

Since when has Emefiele and Ika people become Igbo?
The only Igbos I know in Delta are the Enu-ani (Aniocha/Oshimili).
If Ika and Emefiele say they are Igbo, let Onu Ika release a public communique proclaiming their Igbo identity and have it published in atleast four major newspapers.
This is something Ohanaeze ought to have done long ago to stop all these mushroom groups denigrating Ndiigbo while trying to have their cake and eat it.

Buhari got accused of Marginalizing Ndiigbo from his appointments in 2016. Buhari came out and claimed that he has many Igbos in his cabinet and mentioned Emefiele and Ibe Kachiukwu.
Ibe Kachiukwu comes from Onicha Ugbo in Enu-ani whose king proudly proclaims the Igbo identity of the town, so we can understand Kachiukwu being called Igbo, because he is Igbo and we know where his allegiance lies.https://www.nairaland.com/3805117/history-enu-ani-igbo-people-onicha-ugbo

But Emefiele comes from Agbor, a place where it's people and King take pleasure in insulting and denying being Igbo.
Yet when Buhari said that Agbor son Emefiele is representing Igbo quota in his cabinet, Agbor people and King, including the Igbophobic Onu Ika all kept quiet.
None of them came out to tell Buhari that they are not Igbo. Because at that moment, claiming Igbo offered them an opportunity.

And of course, because Ohanaeze Ndiigbo have not done their homework earlier, they too couldn't come out to deny Agbor and Emefiele as we should have.
So in the end, Agbor people remain Igbophobic while still managing to reap benefits of being Igbo. And the loser in this con game are the Igbos whose quota gets snatched by a people who openly bash us at will.

This is my grouse with Ohanaeze Ndiigbo their incompetence have shortchanged all Igbo clans whose loyalty lie with Ndiigbo, because it has allowed Igbophobic Opportunists grab things that could have otherwise been reserved for Igbos. By now, Ohanaeze should have demanded that all Igbo speaking communities outside SE who want to be part of Igbo nation "MUST" release a public communique to be published in all Newspapers proclaiming their Igbo identity and signed by their Ezes and their town union presidents and apex organizations ( Onu Ika, Ogbakor Ikwerre, etc).
Any town that couldn't comply to this, should be promptly excommunicated from Igbo nation.
This way we can get a well defined boundary of REAL IGBOLAND, ie those whose allegiance we can count on and not Opportunists. And whenever anyone from these places whose allegiance is not to us try to play the Opportunism game, we can actually come down on such persons hard and disgrace the hell out of them.
https://www.nairaland.com/6251727/why-ohanaeze-ndiigbo-must-restructure

Igboid:


It is well within our means and power to reject Amaechi and Ikwerre People.
Buhari can foist Amaechi as Nigerian president.
But as far as we spell it out that Amaechi and Ikwerre are not Igbos and follow it up with actions by openly denouncing them.
We would have saved ourselves from backlash of whatever wrong Amaechi adminstration will do and would have also ensured that we can continue to legitimately remind Nigerians and the world that there has not been a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction.

And moreover the way I see it.
Amaechi stands Zero chance of emerging president if the PDP field a Northern candidate.

Because Amaechi emergence would anger Tinubu camp who would in anger not work for Amaechi success.
Amaechi will not win SW, and we in SE will not support him too.
In SS, he as an Ikwerre man was pivotal in ousting an Ijaw president, so it will be interesting to see what Ijaws make of his attempt to be president with their support when he joined the North and SW to unseat GEJ in 2015.

So Jonathan is now an ijaw man? The funny is that you are busy calling the ikwerres cunning, while you igbos are more cunning. Oga leave ijaws out of your mouth and fight your fight with the ikwerres. He no concern ijaw people.

Graysons:
So Jonathan is now an ijaw man? The funny is that you are busy calling the ikwerres cunning, while you igbos are more cunning. Oga leave ijaws out of your mouth and fight your fight with the ikwerres. He no concern ijaw people.

Lol!
GEJ is an Ogbia man, but since Izons are happy with an Ogbia man masquerading as an Ijaw man to take what belongs to them, who am I to complain.

EastisBae:


Of course everyone knows that Igboland transcends SE and includes parts of SS and Benue state. However, if one of your siblings denies you, disgraces both you and your parents at every giving opportunity, teams up with your enemies to attack you, common sense dictates that such sibling should be totally disowned and ostracized.

Stop identifying with those that don't identify with you, that's a shameful and disgusting way of life.

@the emboldened, you keep contradicting yourself, if Opobo people are Igbos as you claimed in another post, Ikwerre people are not as you opine in this post.

One day for reasons best known to you, you will claim Waawa or Ndoki people are not Igbo too cos the power to determine who is Igbo is mainly based on conduct, not ancestral heritage.

Igboid:


Lol!
GEJ is an Ogbia man, but since Izons are happy with an Ogbia man masquerading as an Ijaw man to take what belongs to them, who am I to complain.

You have been complaining since the days of Abraham that Jonathan is not an Ijaw man, even tho Jonathan have no problem being ijaw. Since when did you have a change of heart? Oga fight your fight with the ikwerres heads on stop looking for other people to join in your whatever. If Ijaws will support any ikwerre man presidential ambitions, we will let the whole Nigerians know. And if we are not supporting them,we will still let everyone know. Stop dragging ijaws into your unholy fight.

SweetiliciousD:


@the emboldened, you keep contradicting yourself, if Opobo people are Igbos as you claimed in another post, Ikwerre people are not as you opine in this post.

One day for reasons best known to you, you will claim Waawa or Ndoki people are not Igbo too cos the power to determine who is Igbo is mainly based on conduct, not ancestral heritage.

This topic has nothing to do with Opobo and Bonny.

SweetiliciousD:


@the emboldened, you keep contradicting yourself, if Opobo people are Igbos as you claimed in another post, Ikwerre people are not as you opine in this post.

One day for reasons best known to you, you will claim Waawa or Ndoki people are not Igbo too cos the power to determine who is Igbo is mainly based on conduct, not ancestral heritage.

The day any sub Igbo group starts acting as a total enemy to all Igbos is the day they would also be treated as an enemy too by all Igbos. After all, Aka onye wetara ka eji eso ya!

It shows lack of self respect when you continue embracing those that insult and attack you.

Even Yorubas didn't seize our assets and call them abandoned properties but someone you claim is your brother connived with others to steal our properties in P.H! As if that's not enough, they continued to undermine and insult us because they felt we are done for after losing the war while they have oil wealth.

I would rather vote for Atiku, Osinbajo or any other person than vote for characters like Amaechi or Wike. I will even use my personal resources to campaign against them should they claim to represent Igbos because that's fraud! Any party that mistakenly nominate any of them as candidate to represent Igbos will fail woefully!!

EastisBae:


The day any sub Igbo group starts acting as a total enemy to all Igbos is the day they would also be treated as an enemy too by all Igbos. After all, Aka onye wetara ka eji eso ya!

It shows lack of self respect when you continue embracing those that insult and attack you.

Even Yorubas didn't seize our assets and call them abandoned properties but someone you claim is your brother connived with others to steal our properties in P.H! As if that's not enough, they continued to undermine and insult us because they felt we are done for after losing the war while they have oil wealth.

I would rather vote for Atiku, Osinbajo or any other person than vote for characters like Amaechi or Wike. I will even use my personal resources to campaign against them should they claim to represent Igbos because that's fraud! Any party that mistakenly nominate any of them as candidate to represent Igbos will fail woefully!!

I can't believe that this common sense doesn't come naturally to Ndiigbo.
I mean do you even need to spell these things out for our people to understand?
You keep the group strong by protecting its interests aggressively even against former members who have turned non-members/enemies, you must show no mercy.

This is why Wike and Ikwerre keep Messing up in Rivers State, because they know that the emotional Igbos resident there who atleast form up to 15% of the resident population, will always vote for them regardless of how Igbophobic they are.
How can you give someone or a group such control over you just because you can't control your own emotions?

Someone must wake Ndiigbo up from this slumber.
I swear.

Ikegwuru o.

Omanambala:



You are a demeted bbassstard.....you should be in chains! What is this nonsense you are writing!

Will you shut up stupid Yoruba man, Oil kill you there, soon you animals will claim Imo because of Gas, Ikwere is Igbo and it's clear, kill yourself alien.

Igboid:


Voltron, the defender of the Universe.
All air and no substance.

Ikwerre is not Igbo. Grow up and stop letting your emotions get the better of you.

Will you shut up stupid Yoruba man, Oil kill you there, soon you animals will claim Imo because of Gas, Ikwere is Igbo and it's clear, kill yourself alien.

LLiKYekoba:


In PEJ's voice, 'you were not informed too?'

Will you shut up stupid Yoruba man, Oil kill you there, soon you animals will claim Imo because of Gas, Ikwere is Igbo and it's clear, kill yourself alien.

Osagyefo98:


You done defend your papa house finish before defending your so called brothers.

Keep shut, Hausa.

Igboid:


Lol!
GEJ is an Ogbia man, but since Izons are happy with an Ogbia man masquerading as an Ijaw man to take what belongs to them, who am I to complain.

You are mad.
Ogbia is a subgroup of Ijaw.
What is Ogbia and what is Ijaw
This shows that you know nothing about Ijaw.
Ijaw have different subgroups and clans that came together to become Ijaw.
They all have one anscestor.

Ijoh:


You are mad.
Ogbia is a subgroup of Ijaw.
What is Ogbia and what is Ijaw
This shows that you know nothing about Ijaw.
Ijaw have different subgroups and clans that came together to become Ijaw.
They all have one anscestor.

One ancestor with divergent and completely unrelated languages?

Ogbia is an Ibibiod language. Just like Obulom, Abua, Odual and Abureni.
These are proto Ibibiod people who migrated to and settled in the Eastern Niger Delta, before the arrival of Ijaws into the area.

Igboid:


One ancestor with divergent and completely unrelated languages?

Ogbia is an Ibibiod language. Just like Obulom, Abua, Odual and Abureni.
These are proto Ibibiod people who migrated to and settled in the Eastern Niger Delta, before the arrival of Ijaws into the area.

Mr man after the flood it was remaining only Noah, his three sons and their wives.
Noah was born after the tower of babel story so when all languages where destroyed and Noah and his three sons were speaking just one how come the so many languages in the world.

You mumu well well even Oro till today are begging to join IYC and INC saying they are Obolo Ijaw people we refused.

Igboid:


One ancestor with divergent and completely unrelated languages?

Ogbia is an Ibibiod language. Just like Obulom, Abua, Odual and Abureni.
These are proto Ibibiod people who migrated to and settled in the Eastern Niger Delta, before the arrival of Ijaws into the area.

And so fvcking what? Are the so called Ogbia, Obulum and co complaining to you that they are not ijaws? If they are proud to hang the ijaw tag on themselves, who are you a nobody to speak on their behalves? Who made you their spoke man Okoro?

Igboid:


Since when has Emefiele and Ika people become Igbo?
The only Igbos I know in Delta are the Enu-ani (Aniocha/Oshimili).
If Ika and Emefiele say they are Igbo, let Onu Ika release a public communique proclaiming their Igbo identity and have it published in atleast four major newspapers.
This is something Ohanaeze ought to have done long ago to stop all these mushroom groups denigrating Ndiigbo while trying to have their cake and eat it.

Buhari got accused of Marginalizing Ndiigbo from his appointments in 2016. Buhari came out and claimed that he has many Igbos in his cabinet and mentioned Emefiele and Ibe Kachiukwu.
Ibe Kachiukwu comes from Onicha Ugbo in Enu-ani whose king proudly proclaims the Igbo identity of the town, so we can understand Kachiukwu being called Igbo, because he is Igbo and we know where his allegiance lies.https://www.nairaland.com/3805117/history-enu-ani-igbo-people-onicha-ugbo

But Emefiele comes from Agbor, a place where it's people and King take pleasure in insulting and denying being Igbo.
Yet when Buhari said that Agbor son Emefiele is representing Igbo quota in his cabinet, Agbor people and King, including the Igbophobic Onu Ika all kept quiet.
None of them came out to tell Buhari that they are not Igbo. Because at that moment, claiming Igbo offered them an opportunity.

And of course, because Ohanaeze Ndiigbo have not done their homework earlier, they too couldn't come out to deny Agbor and Emefiele as we should have.
So in the end, Agbor people remain Igbophobic while still managing to reap benefits of being Igbo. And the loser in this con game are the Igbos whose quota gets snatched by a people who openly bash us at will.

This is my grouse with Ohanaeze Ndiigbo their incompetence have shortchanged all Igbo clans whose loyalty lie with Ndiigbo, because it has allowed Igbophobic Opportunists grab things that could have otherwise been reserved for Igbos. By now, Ohanaeze should have demanded that all Igbo speaking communities outside SE who want to be part of Igbo nation "MUST" release a public communique to be published in all Newspapers proclaiming their Igbo identity and signed by their Ezes and their town union presidents and apex organizations ( Onu Ika, Ogbakor Ikwerre, etc).
Any town that couldn't comply to this, should be promptly excommunicated from Igbo nation.
This way we can get a well defined boundary of REAL IGBOLAND, ie those whose allegiance we can count on and not Opportunists. And whenever anyone from these places whose allegiance is not to us try to play the Opportunism game, we can actually come down on such persons hard and disgrace the hell out of them.
https://www.nairaland.com/6251727/why-ohanaeze-ndiigbo-must-restructure

Forget all those things,IKA candidates are our best and better alternatives to the IKWERRE option.Since you and I know the southeast is not producing the next President or VP.

Half bread is better than none.

Ijoh:


Mr man after the flood it was remaining only Noah, his three sons and their wives.
Noah was born after the tower of babel story so when all languages where destroyed and Noah and his three sons were speaking just one how come the so many languages in the world.

You mumu well well even Oro till today are begging to join IYC and INC saying they are Obolo Ijaw people we refused.

Ochi lee e!

GenPutin:


Forget all those things,IKA candidates are our best and better alternatives to the IKWERRE option.Since you and I know the southeast is not producing the next President or VP.

Half bread is better than none.

Let Onu Ika go publish a public address on all national new dallies declaring their Igbo identity and denouncing all their Bini stories.
Let this letter be signed by all kings in Ika including the Dein of Agbor where Emefiele hails from.
Let them tender unreserved apologies to Ndiigbo for all the insults we have received from them in recent years since the war ended.
Then we might consider them.

For now, the only Igbos we know in Delta state are the Enu-ani.
Nkita agaghi na-eri nsi, eze ana ere ewu.

SE will stick to SE candidates.

Igboid:


Let Onu Ika go publish a public address on all national new dallies declaring their Igbo identity and denouncing all their Bini stories.
Let this letter be signed by all kings in Ika including the Dein of Agbor where Emefiele hails from.
Let them tender unreserved apologies to Ndiigbo for all the insults we have received from them in recent years since the war ended.
Then we might consider them.

For now, the only Igbos we know in Delta state are the Enu-ani.
Nkita agaghi na-eri nsi, eze ana ere ewu.

SE will stick to SE candidates.

Okay,if you say so.

As an Igbo from ABA I hate those ikwerre and Ika people.ESN should show them shegge.Ikwerre and Ika are useless.

Now that Amaechi has officially declared his interest to context in the upcoming 2023 presidential election.
I believe it's time to reassurect this thread again.

Politics is all about interests and not emotions.
Amaechi and. Ikwerre are not Igbo.
We should be ready to work with any devil( be they Yoruba or North) that is ready to gurantee our interests.

Voting Amaechi an Ikwerre man, whose emergence will block our future path, and who will throw us under the bus to curry favor from same Yorubas and the North, will be another display of Buffoonery from Ndiigbo.

It will not be well with all these Igbos who have been bought by Amaechi and who are willing to sell the rest of us, just to put food on their own table.

In APC, we are waiting for Umahi to start active campaigning, or for Ogbonnaya Onu or Okorocha to step forward.
If they don't, then we should cut a deal with anyone who emerges in APC that is not Amaechi, and negotiate with them as plan B, in case PDP don't give us the ticket.

Ndiigbo must realize that "Ohu abu nwa".
Amaechi will always belong to his Ikwerre people and by extension Rivers people and then "we SS" people before he belongs to Ndiigbo if we adopt him.

We would be commiting a political suicide if we put our support down for Amaechi on the altar of sentiments.
It will end like GEJ ended.

Remember how Ekwueme and co went about Igboland trying to educate our people on need to insist that GEJ finish off his tenure as a VP to a one term tenure to a Northern President in 2011, and not contest, so that the Northern president having completed Yaradua tenure, with our help , will out of goodwill and agreed interest support Igbo presidency in 2015 or at the least in 2019.

But Ndiigbo out of sentiments led by the paid PDP agents probably high on moneys GEJ doled out to them silenced Ekwueme and co voice of reason and pushed for emotional politics.

Also remember that one of the main emotional arguments paid GEJ agents in Igboland were pushing then was that support for GEJ would help quell the Igbophobia in SS especially in Ijawland.
This was the argument that got me on board then.
But we now Know from hindsight that this argument doesn't hold true.
Igbo support for GEJ has not in anyway changed how the average Ijaw man sees the Igboman.

And you best believe that voting for Ikwerre man will not also change how the Ikwerre views the Igbo.
The only people who will benefit from this Amaechi support in Igboland are the hordes of Igbo political jobbers he has employed, who are all over the internet selling the Amaechi Utopia to Ndiigbo.
These lots will smile home with millions while Ndiigbo will be left with eggs to our face again!

Ndiigbo cheenu echiche ofuma.

If no Igbo man emerges as flag bearer in APC and PDP.
Then we should sit down with anyone, be they devil or God who emerges flag bearer in both parties and discuss what they have to offer Ndiigbo in terms of Lionshare of Political posts and infrastructures, as well as future support for our presidential bid, in exchange for our support.

No one should have our support because they bear Igbo sounding name.

Anyone who gets our support should only do so because they offer us both present (influential Political posts in their government) and future (support in our bid for presidency in the future), and not for anything else.

We must be ruthless, pragmatic and merciless in our pursuit of our interests.
The need of few hungry Political jobbers who collected peanuts from non Igbo candidates like Amaechi and co, must not be allowed to override the interest of the Igbo nation as a group.

The effect of Amaechi emergence as president of NIGERIA to Ndiigbo will be massively devastating.

Just like Ekwueme warned that GEJ support from Ndiigbo and his subsequent emergence will delay Igbo political recovery by decades.

The emergence of Amaechi, a non Igbo man, as president of NIGERIA with Igbo support, will delay Igbo chances of having a clean shot at Nigerian president by atleast another 32yrs!

In 2010, Ndiigbo was at a crossroad. It was obvious that we couldn't contest and win the 2011 presidential election.
So we had two options!
1. Accept to play the second fiddle role to the North by insisting that the GEj allow the North complete Yaradua tenure.
This was the right thing to do, because it would have helped preserve PDP rotational presidency and would have seen the North be magnanimous to Ndiigbo after they must have completed Yaradua tenure in 2015 by supporting us.
This would have also not have led to the injustice and dissatisfaction that the Northern elements felt in PDP in 2015 that led to APC formation.
Ndiigbo by supporting GEJ in 2011 basically buried PDP presidential rotation policy and blocked our own future path, on the altar of Emotions and sentiments!

2. Support GEJ, who had money to dole around, who also evoked the sentiments of "I am one of you" by playing on the Igbo easily controlled emotions by reminding us of our Eastern region brotherhood and how our support for him would help rekindle it.
He also played on the Igbo sense of justice and fairness by reminding us that his people though the main producers of Nigerian crude oil have not enjoyed the highest post in the land.


NB: I took time to copy and paste a long summary of the events that played out in Igboland in 2010 between pro GEJ and pro rotation (those who believed that the North should be allowed to complete her tenure) groups in Igboland, in the next post.

By OCHEREOME NNANNA
This report which was first published in Saturday Vanguard of last week is reproduced for our readers’ delight

FINALLY, the day for the staging of a political summit of Igbo political leaders came on Monday, September 27, 2010 at Owerri.

However, it ran into a hitch when, the night before the event, the major stakeholders arrived from Abuja and other places only to learn from Chief Chyna Iwuanyanwu, the Secretary of the Igbo Political Forum, IPF, the organisers of the summit, that from the look of things, the Conference Hall of the Hotel Concorde, venue of the event that had been paid for two weeks earlier, might not be available.


From right: Prof Charles Soludo, Senator Ken Nnamani, Chief Simeon Okeke, Dr. Alex Ekwueme,Chief Achike Udenwa, Dr Sam Egwu, Mrs. Chinwe Obaji, and Senator Ben Obi outside the Hotel Concorde, Owerri venue of the Igbo Summit, where they were locked out, last week. Photo: Hill Ezeugwu
The hotel management and security officials had been instructed to lock it up and refuse the participants entry into the hotel.

Iwuanyanwu also disclosed that when he arrived in Owerri Airport on Friday, September 24, he was accosted by a couple of State Security Services, SSS, officers, who advised him to allow them to escort him into town for his own safety. However, the presence of a large number of his own “men” made the security men to back off and instead follow him into Owerri in a red car.

According to him, he decided to report to the SSS office in Owerri to know why he was being harassed.

Iwuanyanwu also told our reporter that he decided to have a meeting with Governor Ikedi Ohakim, whom he suspected as the brain behind the move to scuttle the summit.

He said: “When I got to the government house, I was made to wait for four hours before the governor came down, and after a hasty exchange of pleasantries, he informed me that the summit, if allowed to hold in Owerri, would jeopardise his second term ambition.

I told him that we were not here to support any candidate for president in 2011 as feared by some people, but that we were here to give the Igbo people an opportunity to deliberate and agree on the best way to get the best deal for our people in 2011 and to table our demand for the presidency to be zoned to the Igbos in 2015.

But the governor would not listen. He said they were about to enter a Security Council meeting to review the situation. We parted ways on that note.”

By the time the delegates had arrived in Owerri, they decided to hold the main meeting in the night knowing that the venue would not be available the following day. It was during the meeting that everything was concluded and the communiqué drafted.

The decision to hold the gathering outside the lawns of the hotel was partially to rev up the propaganda value of the lockout and partly because most hotels in Owerri, when they learned that the state government was not positively disposed to the meeting being held in Owerri, refused to rent out their conference halls for fear of being blackballed by the Ohakim government, the biggest customer of the many modern hotels in the town.

On Monday, September 27, at about 11 am, as if on cue, the big wigs, led by former Vice President Dr Alex Ekwueme, began to converge at the Hotel Concorde premises.

When they had formed a large body, they proceeded to the door of the hotel where, of course, as predicted, they were not allowed entry. Then they sensationally decided to hold the summit in the blaze of the morning sunshine.

There were no chairs. In fact, two loudspeakers and a microphone powered by the popular ‘I pass my neighbour’ tiny generator were quickly procured, at least to enable the gathering and their fascinated onlookers hear what was being discussed.

In his opening remarks, Ekwueme, who was chairman of the occasion, reiterated that the summit was organised to give the Igbo people a chance to decide how to approach the unfolding transition programme.

He expressed his dismay that anyone would want to stop any group of Nigerians from meeting, adding that it was against the spirit of democracy and constitutionalism.

Okeke also stressed the non-partisan nature of the gathering, pointing out that members of the campaign organisations of the various candidates of the various political parties were among the delegates.

The aim, he affirmed, was for the Igbo people to brainstorm and explore the most viable means of achieving the zoning of the presidency to the South East in 2015, the only means of bringing to a close the ugly memories of the civil war which ended 40 years ago.

He condemned the action of the authorities, lamenting that it was curious that groups from the North, West and South-South, and even Jonathan’s supporters were allowed to peacefully hold their meetings while Igbos were being harassed in their own land from meeting and discussing their political future.

Professor Chinwe Nora Obaji, in a stirring speech, lamented that in spite of the contributions of the Igbo people and the fact that Igbo ingenuity and professionals are in high demand across the globe, Nigeria continues to sidestep the aspirations of one of the nation’s largest ethnic groups to serve at the highest level, forty years after the civil war ended

The communiqué emerged and was distributed barely a few minutes after the one hour event was brought to a close. However, the Imo State Government officials distanced Governor Ohakim from the lockout saga.

The only officer who agreed to speak on record, Mr. Henry Ekpe, the Chief Press Secretary, told our reporter on phone from Abuja where he and his principal were at the time the event was unfolding, that the “order from above” did not emanate from Ohakim.

“If the security agencies felt that there was a threat to law and order and they stepped in to the stop any gathering that is their business. It has nothing to do with the governor.

He has no control over the security agencies, and the management of Concorde is not under the control of the governor. It is a private business. We cannot answer for their actions”.

The inside stories

It is time now to go below the surface and explore the undercurrents that led to the lockout and staging of the summit under the sun. You have guessed it correctly; it was old fashioned politicking at play, with jostling for prime positions by vested interests over the 2011 polls.

The IPF belongs to the flank that supports zoning and the emergence of a northerner as president in 2011. One of the high officials of the Governor Ohakim government who spoke to me described it meeting as “a summit of Anambra politicians for (General Ibrahim) Babangida, which should have held in Awka or Enugu.

They brought it here deliberately to cause confusion.” To say it was a summit for Babangida was not quite correct. The correct way to put it is that they were pro-zoning political actors, which means they do not support the President Goodluck Jonathan aspiration for president in 2011.

For instance, Senator Ben Obi is the Director General of the General Aliyu Gusau Presidential Campaign Organisation.

The pro-zoning Igbo politicians have argued that it is only through it that the demand for the emergence of an Igbo president in 2015 can be possible, adding that if Jonathan succeeds in setting aside zoning and wins in 2011, zoning would die.

In so doing, the Igbo people would be “cheated” again, after zoning was used to heal the June 12 wound of the Yoruba and the agitations of the Niger Delta. The forty year-old wound of the Igbo nation would fester on.

All the pro-zoning politicians were prominent actors during the civil war, and forty years after the war, they want assurances that they would see the end of the conflict in their lifetime through the emergence of an Igbo president in 2015.

On the other hand, Udenta Udenta and Ben Obi, in discussions with this writer, expressed their belief that the North have proved to be promise-keepers in their dealings with the Igbo.

According to them, when the Northern People’s Congress (NPC) and the National Council for Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) went into an alliance after the NPC won the 1959 federal elections, the Igbos shared power with the North almost equally, producing the ceremonial president of Nigeria and juicy cabinet positions that compared well with those of the North.

That alliance forced the Action Group into the opposition. Again, twenty years later in 1979, after the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) won the presidential election and the Nigerian People’s Party (NPP) agreed to enter into an Accord with the North, it enabled the Igbo to produce the nation’s Vice President barely nine years after the civil war, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and several senior cabinet positions.

Again, the West-based UPN, which scored the second highest votes, was relegated to opposition.

A divided house

The Igbo elite are going into the transitional politics of 2011 with a divided house. Ohanaeze Ndi Igbo, led by Ambassador Ralph Uwechue, has held several meetings with the Ijaw National Congress led by Chief Wolfe Obianime Atuboyedia in Yenagoa and both sides agreed to support the President.

No Ijaw group has come to the East for any meeting, though they have visited the North and West. EK Clark holds meetings with Jonathan Igbo supporters in his house, but has never visited any of their residences. This seems to justify the Jonathan camp’s claim that “when the time comes, the Igbos will line up”.

The governors of the South East, a day to the Owerri Summit, had also endorsed the president. Late in August, a group of pro-Jonathan political actors, such as Chief Mbazulike Amechi, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, Dr Chukwuemeka Ezeife and others held their summit in Enugu and threw their support behind Jonathan.

The argument of the pro-Jonathan Igbo leaders is equally convincing. According to them, assisting Jonathan to get elected in 2011 would go a long way in healing the wounds inflicted on the relationship between the Igbo and their Minority neighbours in1952 after Professor Eyo Ita, Leader of Government Business in the former Eastern Region, who was poised to emerge as the Region’s first Premier, before he was displaced by Dr Azikiwe after the latter failed in his bid to become the first Premier of Western Nigeria. Since that period till date, the Igbo people and their minority neighbours have lived like cat and mouse, undermining one another’s political interests, forging partnerships with distant allies and creating deep hurts on one another.

They also believe that if Jonathan wins next year’s election, it would put an end to what they term “Northern arrogance of power and oppression of other Nigerians”.

They argue that it is the only chance Nigeria has to usher in a new beginning, as a Jonathan presidency that is not based on tribal or sectional fundamentalism is likely to work toward the restructuring of Nigeria to remove ethnic or sectional domination. They also claim that Jonathan, as a “neighbour” and in-law, would not ignore or neglect Igbo interest.

All these do not detract from the fact that this Igbo is giving Jonathan unsolicited support, and some are obviously doing so because they are eyeing PDP ticket or jobs or contracts after the race, without any special package for the common good of the Igbo nation. It would appear that the two camps may not be able to close ranks.

It is probably impossible for any large group to close ranks when they are not in power.

vanguardngr.com/2010/10/owerri-lockout-of-igbo-leaders-the-inside-story

The Igbo elite are going into the transitional politics of 2011 with a divided house. Ohanaeze Ndi Igbo, led by Ambassador Ralph Uwechue, has held several meetings with the Ijaw National Congress led by Chief Wolfe Obianime Atuboyedia in Yenagoa and both sides agreed to support the President.

No Ijaw group has come to the East for any meeting, though they have visited the North and West. EK Clark holds meetings with Jonathan Igbo supporters in his house, but has never visited any of their residences. This seems to justify the Jonathan camp’s claim that “when the time comes, the Igbos will line up”.

Now take a look at this part of the summary.

While Ijaws and GEJ were busy negotiating compromise with the North and West.
They knew they needed no negotiating with Ndiigbo.
They just paid few Political jobbers amongst us who went about preaching about GEJ being one of us, then all emotional talks about us and Ijaw being one! You know old Eastern region, and about how supporting GEJ will help bring the old Eastern region unity back.

So we negotiated nothing from GEJ.
While we supported him and took bullets for him, not even our federal roads could be built by him, why should he? He knew our support was not interest based , but rather emotion based. Moreover he paid Igbo Politicaljobbers who worked on our emotions well, so you couldn't blame him.
But he knew the North support was hinged on interests, so he kept trying to please them Amajeri school and all.

Take a look around you and you see same pattern with Igbo political jobbers that are projecting Amaechi to us.
The Isiguzoro faction of Ohanaeze Ndiigbo and all, have obviously been compromised. These lots can't tell me they mean well for Ndiigbo and SE.

It's late here. I have alot to write, so I will write more tomorrow.
I intend to leave this thread as a reminder to future Igbo generations,incase we make this Amaechi blunder, that atleast I tried to stem the tide.
Ekwueme and co did this in 2010 and today, it's has been proven that they were far more visionary than the rest of Igboland at that moment in time.