Daily Independent Online.
*
Monday,July 19, 2004.
South East PDP
fails to agree on 2007 presidency
•Discard civil war mentality, Kalu tells Igbos
By Chukwudi Achife
Bureau
Chief (Enugu)
and Uche Nwosu
Special Correspondent
(Umuahia)
Igbos need to purge
themselves of “the psychology of the civil war” if they aspire to
produce the next man with the reins of power in Aso Rock, Abia State Governor
Orji Uzor Kalu has said, in yet another clarion call to the South East in the
quest to realise the Igbo Presidency Project.
He described the Igbo
as “the missing link of the Jews” who, like the resilient children
of Abraham, should see their misfortune as a challenge to achieve greater
heights.
Future unborn
generations of the Igbo, he said, would be in jeopardy if they fail to chart a
common cause for the Igbo nation.
Regardless of the
stirring call, leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the South East
rose from their caucus meeting in Abakaliki at the weekend without agreement on
“the Project”.
Expectations that the
caucus would take a position on the issue had been very high but the delegates
- among them former Vice President and presidential aspirant Alex Ekwueme
and Senate President Adolphus Wabara - instead dwelt more on the need for
greater unity and solidarity among political leaders in the zone “towards
the attainment of any common cause including a presidential bid in 2007”.
Others present
included former Governor of the old Anambra State Christian Onoh, Governors Sam
Egwu (Ebonyi) and Achike Udenwa
(Imo). Governors Chimaroke Nnamani
(Enugu) and Chris Ngige (Anambra) and their deputies were absent. Kalu
is on vacation in America.
A communiqué
read at the end of the meeting by Senator Julius Ucha (Ebonyi), who chaired the
conference, stated, however, that the issue of the rightful place for the Igbo
in the national political and socio-economic equation is of major concern to
the caucus.
Emphasis at the
meeting was on constitutional review, revenue allocation, privatisation of
government business and reconciliation among the Igbo political class. Three
committees were set up to consider the issues in depth.
During the opening
ceremony of the meeting, most of the delegates had decried what they observed
as the lack of unity among the Igbo political class which “has continued
to weaken the position of the race in the scheme of things in the
country”.
Onoh accused South
East governors of lack of unity, stressing that their posture has made it
virtually impossible for the region to reach a consensus on the Igbo presidency
project.
Egwu described the project as viable but regretted
that Igbo leaders have played into the hands of their opponents by making
unguarded statements that convey the impression that the region is uncommitted
to assuming Presidential reins.
Kalu spoke in same
vein in far flung Florida, the United States at the anniversary summit of the
Igbo Cultural Association.
An estimated six
million Nigerians live in the U.S. of which the Igbo probably constitute the
biggest single ethnic group. And America is a fertile ground to summon the
winning spirit, a point Kalu did not miss.
He appealed to his
kinsmen in the Diaspora to produce a “formidable front” together
with those at home in order to “ensure that the next President is an
Igbo”.
But he advised the
South East not to see “the project” as one which will be pursued by
a few personalities in Igboland but as a collective one for the entire Igbo
race in particular and Nigeria in general.
To realise it, he
stressed, the Igbo “must consult other ethnic groups as no race can go it
alone if it is serious about producing the President of a country as
multi-cultural and multi-ethnic as Nigeria. The Igbo should not shy away from
laying claims to the Presidency since it is the right of every Nigerian to
aspire to the Presidency”.
He said he travelled
all the way to the U.S. to encourage the Diaspora to forget the past and chart
a new course for the realisation of their “collective enterprise”.
There is no way other
ethnic groups can give the slot to the Igbo on a platter of gold unless they
first of all rid themselves of petty jealousy, greed, character assassination
and hatred, he warned. “These are the vices responsible for disunity in
Igboland”.
On the fabled
historical links the Igbo worldwide have with the Jews, Kalu said: “I am
sure the Igbo must realise that we are the missing link of the Jews. There is
only a thin line separating us from the Jews in terms of ideology and
tolerance. The only difference is that the Jews have been able to turn their
problems into a source of strength to fight for their common interest. I wonder
why we cannot do exactly the same to liberate our people from the shackles of
internal oppression”.
He implored the Igbo
to “envision together, think together and work together” for their common
good and the good of the Nigerian nation.
