CNPP takes Igbo presidency campaign to US
By Chuks Ehirim
SENIOR
Correspondent, Abuja
Conference of Nigerian
Political Parties (CNPP) has taken the campaign for an Igbo Presidency to New
Jersey, United States where the World Igbo Congress (WIC) holds in September.
The essence of the
group’s visit to the U.S., according to CNPP point man Osita Okechukwu,
is to inform the Igbo in the Diaspora that the Presidency project can no longer
be realised within the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
He spoke in an interview
in Abuja before he left for the conference.
The CNPP would equally
use the opportunity to remind Ndigbo in the U.S. that the ballot option has
been closed in Nigeria.
“We are going
there essentially to explain to them that in terms of the monumental malpractices
that characterised the last election that the ballot option has been closed in
Nigeria, especially for those of them who are interested in Igbo
presidency,” Okechukwu said.
He warned that the
Igbo who are looking for the Presidency on the platform of the PDP should
forget the idea, stressing that only one of the opposition parties can give
them the ticket.
“Some of them
are looking at the Igbo Presidency from the PDP platform but we are the only
people who can give Igbo a ticket. PDP has become a stock exchange and
unfortunately for the Igbo, they have sold their stocks in the 2003 primaries
for the Presidential election”.
Okechukwu, who is a
member of the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP), said the CNPP as well as
representatives of the Nigerian Government are invited to the WIC, an annual
event, by the organisers.
Also invited to the
congress, which holds at New Jersey, USA, between September 1 and 3, are former
Head of State and Presidential candidate of the ANPP in last year’s
election, Muhammadu Buhari, and his campaign director, Buba Galadima.
And the CNPP would use
the opportunity to canvass international support for another project -
the recovery of Nigeria’s looted money, code named “Missing Fund
Project (MFP)”.
Campaign for the MFP
is being taken to the congress “because of the support the body has
demonstrated in Nigeria’s development over the years”.
