2023 Presidency: We stand by Peter Obi — Ohanaeze

‘We didn’t drag Soludo to deities’

Obiora Ifoh, Abuja and Cosmas Chukwu, Enugu

Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide has said it will continue to stand by the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi in the 2023 general election.

The apex Igbo group said that it’s position is in tandem with the earlier endorsement of the forum of the South East, South South, South West and the Middle Belt leaders who insist that for equity and Justice sake, the presidency should come from the South East.

Speaking at the meeting of the Ohanaeze Finance and Development Committee, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyawu who is the chairman of the committee, Thursday said the Ohanaeze leadership would be meeting by December to re-strategize on how best to achieve the presidential project.

The meeting which witnessed prominent Igbo leaders including former Imo state governor, Achike Udenwa, former National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party, Okwesilieze Nwodo, former Aviation Minister Kema Chikwe, former chairman of Police Service Commission and  industrialists, Chief Simeon Okeke amongst others also agreed to work to make Obi’s presidency a reality.

The group also set up committees on Power: on how to generate electricity through coal; a committee to set up cultural competition; and a committee to revitalize Nkalagu Cement company..

Chief Iwuanyawu while addressing the leaders said, “There was the forum of the South East, South South, South West and the Middle Belt, that forum has worked hard to bring the presidency to the South, in their wisdom, they said that the Presidency should be brought to the South East, they all agreed that it was the right thing to do.

“We in Ohaneaze, we feel happy and the President- General of Ohanaeze is part of this meeting, so it is important to know that all these people have taken a common position.

Ayo Adebanjo was bold enough to tell Nigerians that this is the position of the South, the truth about it is that, that is Ohanaeze’s position.

“Ohaneaze is also watching the campaigns, because the body of these forums made efforts to see that the Presidency is zoned to the South East, many of them still believed that it is still the turn of Ibos.

“Also personally I know Peter Obi, he was the Governor of Anambra State, even his personal character is good, he is very obedient.”

Meanwhile, the National Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Dr Chagozie Alex Ogbonnia, has on behalf of his group debunked recent media report that the Ohanaeze has dragged the Anambra State governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo to deities for his reported attack on the Labour Party, LP presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi.

Ohanaeze had in the statement made available to newsmen, insisted that the group has never sought solution to their problems through any deity and had not done so in this particular case

The message reads thus:”The attention of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide has been drawn to a bizarre and reckless publication currently circulating in the media suggesting that the apex Igbo socio-cultural body and by extension “Ndigbo have dragged Governor Soludo to the two famous divinities and deities, Chokoleze in Mbaise and Ubiniukpabi in Arochuku for his unreasonable public behaviour.”

The reported noted that such “sanctions against Soludo to face Igbo deities will serve as a deterrent to Southeast politicians, who have been hired by enemies of Ndigbo and Nigerians to derail the Obi’s Presidency in 2023”.

“The Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worlwide, led by an erudite scholar and a seasoned diplomat, Ambassador Professor George Obiozor, CON would have ignored the said press release, but silence in this circumstance will tend to give validity to such a fallacy by the unsuspecting public.

“For the avoidance of doubt, Ohanaeze Ndigbo has never contemplated consultation to deities in seeking solutions for the Igbo dilemma. The Igbo are profoundly endowed in various ways least of which is a resort to deities. It needs be added that on November 15, 2022, the National Executive Committee of Ohanaeze Ndigbo held a meeting presided over by Obiozor. The issue of the place of the Igbo in 2023 was elaborately discussed, wherein Obiozor stated: “Having traversed the length and breadth of the country on an advocacy mission for the emergence of a President of Nigeria from the South East zone in the 2023 general elections. We expected a positive outcome, but the two major political parties, APC and PDP rejected with impunity and impudence the practice and convention of the last twenty years of rotation and zoning of office of the President”.

“However, the emergence of Mr. Peter Obi as of today has fulfilled all the expectations of Ndigbo to participate in the 2023 Presidential elections which includes winning the primaries of the party and being nominated as the Presidential candidate of the party.

“The whole country knows this to be the truth and the whole world knows this to be the fact, all of them are watching events in Nigeria either with trepidation or doubt.

Obiozor concluded with:  “The situation in the country today offers Ndigbo the opportunity to relaunch themselves in all socio political dimensions”.

Obiozor added: “Yet, we must keep asking the rest of Nigerians, ‘what do they really want to do with Ndigbo? The decision will be theirs and the response will be ours”

The apex Igbo group averred that “In other words, the position of Ohanaeze Ndigbo and of course the Igbo with respect to 2023 is a constant. We rather used the opportunity to thank all the eminent Nigerians that have lent their supports or thrown their weight behind the cause of justice, equity, unity, progress and corporate existence of Nigeria in the person of Mr. Peter Obi.

“For Ohanaeze Ndigbo, it is either one is with us or against us but never will Nigerians be distracted, since history beckons. For several years to come, it will be recorded as “once upon a time, Ndigbo were shortchanged in the political calculations of Nigeria and Mr. Peter Obi from Anambra State braved up to change the narratives and that he was able to fill the Nigerian expectations.
All the dynamics and intrigues associated with the above scenario will form the essential component of the Igbo history.

“Ohanaeze once more informs that the Secretary General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide is Ambassador Okey Emuchay, MFR and any claim to the contrary are mischief makers, impostors, charlatans, social climbers and those media navigators who leech on the invaluable footprints of Ohanaeze Ndigbo to issue press releases for narrow, perverse and illicit pecuniary interests. It is such unwholesome activities by some maladjusted, impish scaremongers that have been the bane of Igbo cohesion and progress. It is worth repeating that various eminent Igbo dignitaries have appealed to such mischief makers to appreciate that”.

The statement added that “Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide represents the Igbo history, emotions, collectivity, spirituality, unity and strength. Witness abounds that we have severally appealed to the social deviants that the Igbo, all over the world owe a profound emotional attachment to their apex socio-cultural organisation, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide and as such our sacred identity should not be desecrated on the whims, caprices and immediacies of the uninitiated “.