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New Page 34
South-East leaders insist on 2007
•Ohanaeze to pick candidate
SIMON IBE, Political Editor,
KENNETH OFOMA, in Abakaliki and VINCENT EGUNYANGA,
Abuja
SOUTH-East
caucus of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) rose from its meeting in Abakaliki,
the Ebonyi State capital, early yesterday, insisting that Ndigbo are to
produce the country’s president in 2007.
The PDP caucus’ insistence came as the
Ohanaeze the pan-Igbo socio-cultural organisation, said it would soon meet
to decide on who to support for the 2007 presidential election.
However, the South-East PDP caucus
identified lack of unity and indiscipline as the main obstacles to the
realisation of the objective and resolved to close ranks.
The well-attended meeting also set up
three committees on Constitution Review, Budget Implementation, and
Reconciliation, headed by former Vice- President, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, Senator Uche
Chukwumerije and Nigeria’s former Permanent Representative to the United
Nations, Chief Arthur Mbanefo, respectively.
The meeting was attended by Senate
President, Adolphus Wabara, Governors Achike Udenwa and the host, Dr. Sam Egwu,
Dr. Ekwueme, former governor of the old Anambra State, Chief C.C. Onoh, deputy
governors of Imo, Ebonyi and Abia states, Chief Ebere Udeagu, Dr. Chigozie Ogbu
and Dr. Chima Nwafor respectively, as well as a host of federal and state
legislators.
Senator Julius Ucha (Ebonyi), who read the
communique, said besides the composition of the committees, that the South East
governors and Speakers of the House of Assembly were mandated to appeal to Gov.
Orji Uzor Kalu of Abia State and the Speaker, Sir Stanley Ohajuruka to "temper
justice with mercy" in the ongoing impeachment process against the state’s
deputy governor, Dr. Nwafor.
He said the meeting also discussed a wide
range of issues such as the privatisation programme of the federal government,
revenue allocation, a Nigerian president of Igbo stock and reconciliation.
Speaking earlier during the plenary
session, Senator Wabara said Ndigbo were faced with a number of problems
which must be solved "so that we will be very ready for 2007, come what may".
He stressed that for the 2007 presidency
project to succeed, "Igbo must be united."
According to him, "we must be united to
fight a common cause. We cannot continue to run helter-skelter, we cannot
continue to step on each others’ toes, we must continue to fight the common from
a common background."
He also dwelt on the need for party
discipline, insisting that "we just have to start from there if we indeed are
looking forward to 2007".
Wabara thanked the governors and their
deputies who attended a recent meeting in his office on the issue of federal
board appointments, noting that the common front they presented to President
Olusegun Obasanjo, Vice-President Atiku Abubakar on the zone’s marginalisation
in that area, yielded dividends in the form of an increase from 30 to 33
chairmanship positions and from 140 to 160 board memberships for the zone.
In his welcome address, Gov. Egwu said
"frequently, our postures, public utterances and internal bickerings have tended
to give the impression that we (Ndigbo) are not serious in our corporate
aspirations".
He said the Igbo have now reached the
cross roads where they must get their act together or forever be blamed for
unwittingly submitting "our people for national decimation".
The governor appealed for fence mending
between political opponents, pointing out that "those in power have a
responsibility to accommodate them and give them a sense of belonging," to avoid
needless battles and concentrate energies on more enduring projects, like
producing the country’s next president.
"I am convinced that this is not only a
viable project but also a patriotic one. Apart from our population in the
country, Igbos have an unrivalled track record of dynamism, performance and
clear vision. Importantly too, Igbo have contributed enormously towards the
creation of the Nigerian commonwealth," he said.
Dr. Ekwueme who spoke in Igbo, described
meetings such as the caucus meeting, as important and a vehicle for articulating
and solving Igbo problems.
He said, however, that after such
meetings, think-tanks should be raised to look into the matters in details and
come up with resolutions that would be implemented.
He warned that efforts should be made to
avoid the Igbo language being swallowed up by predatory languages like English,
pointing out that a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organisation (UNESCO) report had identified the Igbo language as one of those
that could become extinct in 25 years’ time except conscious efforts were made
to reverse the trend.
Chief Onoh, in his part, said the South
East governors were not united and that unless they closed ranks, Ndigbo
would continue to be marginalised.
He suggested that the five governors of
the zone present five people each to form a team that would articulate the
position of Ndigbo especially towards a constitutional conference,
insisting that presently, the country had neither federalism nor democracy.
Chairman of the Conference of South East
Governors, Chief Udenwa, in his address, said Ndigbo should step forward
fearlessly, to confront the challenges facing them, noting that what are
considered problems were not peculiar to the South East zone.
He said the present crop of Igbo leaders
are the Ziks, Ibiams, Okparas of today and whether Ndigbo would move
forward or not, would depend on people like them and counselled that they should
be willing to serve selflessly.
Meanwhile, Ohanaeze Ndigbo has said
it would soon decide on a candidate to back from the South East zone for the
2007 presidential race.
The group’s president, Prof. Joe Irukwu,
who was represented at the stakeholders’ meeting of the organisation held at the
weekend in Abuja by the Secretary-General, Col. Joe Achuzie (rtd), said "this
will show Nigerians that the 2007 Presidency project is no fluke and is
irrevocable."
He said whoever is picked will be binding
on all the Igbo, declaring: "We are not begging. It’s our turn."
However, the former secretary of the
United Nigeria Peoples Party (UNPP), Dr. Ukeje Nwokefore, appealed to
Ohanaeze to look very well before they leap.
Dr. Nwokefore said the constitutional
conference of 1994/95 where he served as minority whip for Ndigbo decided
that the presidency should be rotated between the North and the South.
He said: "we have to look at the polity’s
reality and replan."
Among the dignitaries at the stakeholders
meeting were the former Speaker of the House of Representatives Chief Agunwa
Anaekwe; ex-governor of Anambra State, Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife, former governor
of Enugu State and ex-PDP secretary, Chief Nwodo Okwesilieze.
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