The congregation of the Igbo in Owerri went beyond a regional dimension to the celebration of ethnic brotherhood nay cultural grandeur for which the South East has compelled attention across the years. It was the Igbo Day Celebrations. When eminent Jurist, Justice Chukwudifu Oputa, Chairman of the august event whose remarks set the tones for the deliberations, spoke, he betrayed gnawing concern for the political regression of the Igbo and brought to the fore the imperative of Igbo to patch whatever cracks on the wall of the South East mansion to pave the way for a formidable contention for competitive positions in the country.
The chairman of the Oputa panel insisted that a breakthrough at the sore issue of unity among the Igbo constituted the badly needed masterstroke to socio-political and economic challenges waiting for the attention of the Igbo people, chief among which was the burning quest of the Igbo to produce the next president of Nigeria in 2007.
Oputa, who called on the organisers of the programme, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, to institute an action which should henceforth be entrusted with the responsibility of articulating the collective position of the Igbo on major issues of concern to the zone, reminded his Igbo brothers to maximise the opportunity offered by the event to reflect critically on how to project the future of the region.
This he professed should be in consonance with the antecedents of Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe, First President of Independent Nigeria, Dr. Michael Okpara, former Premier of the South East region, Z.C Obi, the first President of the Igbo Union, J.T.U Aguyi Ironsi, Former Head of State of Nigeria, Dr. Akanu Ibiam, and Chief Sam Onunaka Mbakwe, former Governor of Imo State, Dr. Denis Osadebey, former Premier of Mid Western region, who did not only help to shape the society but left behind a positive imprints in the sands of time. While emphasising on the need of the Igbo people to spice their economic advantages within the Nigerian nation with unity in the political sector, Oputa expressed some serious reservations. He urged the people to give the deserved attention at self-rededication and an overhaul of their psyche to effectively curtail the monster of betrayal among the Igbo most especially when money became the factor. Interestingly, the theme of unity and a president of Igbo extraction in 2007 ran through virtually all speeches that were made during the gathering.
The President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Professor Joe Irukwu, the chief host of the event bankrolled by the Imo State Governor, Chief Achike Udenwa, was more frontal in his assertion that it had become the turn of the Igbo to be given the opportunity to rule the country. The Ohanaeze position as highlighted by its President General extinguished the covert presidential ambition of some South East Governors believed to have been scheming to be Vice Presidential Candidates to top politicians of Northern extraction whose eyes are focussed on the Aso Presidential Villa in Abuja in 2007.
Irukwu said, �This country was built on a tripod of three regions. Given the original structure of the country, equity fairness and justice demand that the Igbo produce the next president. The North has ruled for 30 years, the West would have ruled for 12 years by the time Obasanjo completes his second term in 2007, but the Igbos have only ruled for 6 months.
Therefore, the Igbo should be given a chance to produce the president since the North and the West have had their turn. Any Igbo son who vies for the Vice President under any party is on his own. He does not have the support of Ohanaeze.� Commenting also at the event which was marked by cultural displays fanfare, and pictures of the five South East Governors screaming their supposed strong points, the Imo State Governor, Chief Achike Udenwa, who has assumed a noticeably vocal position in articulating the Igbo interest in recent time, reminded the gathering of the serious neglect to which the South East zone has been subjected over the years even as they intensified efforts to capture the presidency in 2007.
Advising the Igbos to be prepared to make the necessary sacrifice towards the actualising of what has come to be identified in the South East as the Igbo agenda for 2007, Udenwa expressed the resolve of the Igbo nation to go into a symbiotic alliance with the states of the South South for the effective prosecution of the campaign to have the Igbo step into Obasanjo�s position when he eventually relinquishes his position in 2007.
The Imo State Governor, who was recently adopted by his Orlu Clan and the Imo State House of Assembly to present himself for the epic battle for the presidency said, �Between now and May 29 2007 when one of us will by the grace of God, move into the Aso Rock Presidential Villa is thirty months or 11,680 days.
This is definitely a relatively long period of time. While we shall busy ourselves working ceaselessly for the grand objective of capturing the presidency, we will remain mindful of the fact that Igbo land has suffered years of neglect in the hands of successive federal administrations, the cumulative effect of which is that federal amenities in the South East have virtually collapsed.�
Ironically, in the midst of the deafening calls on Ndigbo to brace up for the battle for the presidency, the political actors of the South East who converged in Owerri were not rather forthcoming on the political personae expected to engage the Northern political gladiators in the grim contest for the coveted position. However, the Governor of Anambra State, Dr. Chris Ngige, was one man who would not opt for an evasive response to one of the most frequently repeated questions about Igbo Presidential aspirants.
Ngige, in his address, had challenged Igbo people with outstanding political and leadership pedigree befitting of the office of the President to present themselves asserting also that while the Igbo should utilise the day to review their past, they should be aware of the fact that the time had come for them to re-enact their deserved position in the land, stressing �it is time and when the time reaches, things start to happen.� To Sam Egwu who was among the three governors of the South East States that were present at the event, the challenge of 2007 before the Igbos was onerous but not insurmountable.
The Governor who pledged the support of the Ebonyi Government to the Igbo cause financially or materially, however proffered a metaphysical alternative to the realisation of the smouldering presidential desire of the Igbo people. He called on all Igbos to seek the intervention of God on the project in their places of worship as Nigerians were believed to be looking forward to the Igbos to ascertain what whey would do with the opportunity of producing the president in the next elections.
However, deliberations were not restricted to the monotony of the repeated addresses on the possibility and fairness of the Igbo demand for the presidency.
In the face of the emphatic statements from the array of distinguished personalities from the South East who spoke, the Igbo leadership found it expedient to make some sensitive clarifications on some pressing national issues in a world press conference addressed by Professor Irukwu with the leaders of the Igbo nation present at the occasion.
The Ohanaeze leader who addressed the press at the Banquet Hall of the Imo State Government House, Owerri, told the Nigerian citizenry not to have any doubts about the unflinching commitment and determination of the Igbo race to the promotion of unity and stability in the country.
He said, �We believe in the concept of a united, viable and democratic Nigeria in which justice and equity will be the order of the day, a nation built on the ruling principles of our founding fathers. Ndigbo remains committed to the social, political and economic development of a Nigeria nation that is based on justice equity and fairness in accordance with the fundamental principle of our national policy in the overall interest of the constituent parts of the federation.�
Among other commentaries which were highlighted during the conference was the state of the Nigerian federalism, which the Ohanaeze said was one screaming example of how not to operate a federation. Irukwu, spokesman of the group insisted that the story of Nigeria which started well as a federation in 1960 at independence had taken a diversionary turn making it important for due steps to be taken at restoring the defining features of the Nigerian federalism.
