From Adesoji Oyinlola, Lagos
The South-East All Progressives Congress (APC) has hailed the Ohanaeze Ndigbo for killing a motion proposing the endorsement of President Goodluck Jonathan as the candidate of the Igbo people in the 2015 presidential election.
The motion was moved by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, at the Imeobi (inner caucus) meeting of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo on Saturday.
In a statement by the spokesman of the APC in the South-East, Mr. Osita Okechukwu, the party described those that opposed the motion as “true Igbo patriots.”
Okechukwu expressed happiness that “Ndigbo have realised that it doesn’t make sense to put all our eggs in one basket, especially when the political scenario in the 2015 presidential election differs remarkably from that of 2011, when Jonathan was endorsed.”
He said, “Ohanaeze, by refusing to endorse President Jonathan, has taken a cue from Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka’s New Year sermon at the Adoration Ground, that Nigeria needs a change for the better.
“As Mbaka said, ‘I love President Jonathan and I used to be his fan, but I want good for my people and that’s why I want Nigerians to vote out Jonathan and vote Buhari.
“If the Hausa have spread their dragnets in both the PDP and the APC and Yoruba have spread their dragnets in both the PDP and the APC, then Ndigbo should not blame anybody for marginalisation in the event of the APC’s victory in the forthcoming February 14, 2015 presidential election.”
Okechukwu stressed that the APC in the South-East believed that Ohanaeze Ndigbo should remain neutral in the 2015 general elections, as there were Igbo in all the parties, saying “Igbo are not only in the PDP – we have Igbo sons and daughters in the APC, the main opposition party in the country today.
“Our son, Chief Chekwas Okorie, is contesting under the UPP. What happens to him if we endorse Jonathan?”, he queried.
“Ohanaeze is a polygamous father; we must spread our dragnets like our contemporaries in the Nigeria project.
“Like the Hausa and the Yoruba, we should take the battle to every flank; not just one flank, because if we channel all our arsenals to one flank and it goes the other flank, at the end of the day, nobody will take us seriously if tomorrow again we start complaining about marginalisation,” he said.
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