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... you�re a joker, Ohanaeze replies Rimi
TAJUDEEN SULEIMAN
THE pan-Igbo organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo has replied the former Minister of Communication, Alhaji Abubukar Rimi over his call on the Igbo to wait till 2015 to contest for the presidency.
It described his outburst as a joke.
Rimi had, in an interview with Sunday Punch, said it was the turn of the North to have the presidency again and advised the Igbo to wait till 2015, when the North would have served two terms of four years before asking for the presidency.
But the National Secretary General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Col. Joe Achuzia, in a brief chat with Sunday Punch in Enugu, said the former civilian governor of old Kano State should not be taken seriously.
�This is a man who has been contesting the presidency since the Second Republic.
�He is taking the issue to a ridiculous extent�, Achuzia said.
He stated further that the Igbo have resolved that it was their turn to produce the president in 2007, adding that there was nothing anyone could do to �intimidate� them from fighting for their fundamental rights.
�The Igbo are the second largest ethnic group in any state of the federation, after the citizens of that state, in terms of number and property, we have the greatest stake in this country, and there is absolutely no reason why the Igbos should not have the presidency in 2007,� Achuzia said.
He said Ohanaeze was working hard to �sensitize and mobilize� the South-east and other parts of the country, on the Igbo presidency project.
On how a consensus presidential candidate for the South-east could emerged, Achuzia disclosed that the potential candidate must be one who is ready to implement the agenda of Ohanaeze.
�We are not going to support anybody just because he has money. The candidate must be ready to implement our agenda, he must be somebody who believes in our agenda�, he said.
According to Achuzia, Ohanaeze�s major agenda is the �protection of citizens� rights,� whereby every Nigerian would have the right to stay in any part of the country and be protected.
�That is our most important agenda, citizens rights, that will make every one stay in any part of the country and be protected, without anybody intimidating or persecuting you on the basis of tribe or religion�, Achuzia said.
He said the Igbo, more than any other group, have the greatest stake in the unity and corporate existence of the country because of their spread in the country.
He said the people own property and businesses in almost every state and local government in the country.
Sunday Punch, July 25, 2004
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