Nwodo under fire over Atiku’s endorsement

Ohanaeze Ndigbo President-General John Nnia Nwodo (Jnr) has been accused of “rigging” the group’s constitution to support Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar and his running mate, Peter Obi.

The Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria (VON), Osita Okechukwu, who made the allegation, said Nwodo, deliberately sidelined the Ohaneze’s General Assembly to pave the way for the purported endorsement, which has continued to generate controversy.

According to the VON boss, the General Assembly is the supreme organ of the apex Igbo socio-political organisation, going by Article 10, sub-Section VI of the Ohaneze Constitution.

He was reacting to the controversial endorsement of Atiku/Obi ticket of PDP last Thursday, on a day President Muhammadu Buhari inaugurated the late Nnamdi Azikiwe’s Mausoleum in Onitsha and campaigned in Anambra and Enugu states.

The endorsement contained in a statement signed by the Ohanaeze Ndigbo’s leader continued to draw fury and outrage from notable leading lights of the region, including, Anambra State governor Wily Obiano, former Senate President Ken Nnamani, Labour & Productivity Minister Chris Ngige and Foreign Affairs Minister Geofrey Onyeama, among others.

Fielding reporters’ questions in Enugu, Okechukwu justified the outrage of Igbo leaders over the endorsement, saying the collective interest of Ndigbo nationwide was atrophied by Nwodo’s action.

He alleged that Nwodo acted arbitrarily in “Rambo” style and utterly circumvented Ohanaeze’s constitution in endorsing the Atiku/Obi PDP ticket.

He said: “Ime Obi could have first drawn a checklist of Igbo Charter of demands and hand over to the two leading contenders -Buhari and Atiku, thereafter, convene a General Assembly meeting to decide, but this was not done.

“The tremendous respect one has for our elder brother, Chief John Nnia Nwodo, President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo worldwide, perished when reports crept in on Thursday 24 January, 2019, on how he regrettably rigged the Constitution of Ohaneze and by extension Ndigbo worldwide by recklessly endorsing Atiku/Obi ticket.

”Going through his communiqué the first question is, where is the collective search, the critical and dispassionate appraisal in Nwodo’s endorsement, when in Rambo style he deliberately sidelined the General Assembly, which going by Article 10, subsection VI of the Ohaneze Constitution is the Supreme Organ of Ohaneze Ndigbo?”

On if there was anything wrong in endorsing a party that picked Peter Obi, a southeasterner as a presidential running mate, Okechukwu said: “Yes it was wrong and near idiotic as Governor Obiano alluded to hurriedly endorse Atiku/Obi when main variables and indicators are not critically and dispassionately considered?

“One Ime Obi could had first drawn a checklist of Igbo Charter of demands and hand over to the two leading contenders -Buhari and Atiku – and secondly convene General Assembly meeting to decide. This was not done, so why the hurry?”

Reminded that Ime Obi shall be responsible for rapid response in Ohaneze matters, Okechukwu, an All Progressives Chieftain said: “Is there emergency in 2019 presidential election which was fixed by the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, especially when Nwodo mischievously fixed the Ime Obi in a very important date when our foremost elder statesman, the great Zik was being immortalized by Mr. President?”

On the excuse that Nwodo was not privy to APC’s programme and therefore should be excused, Okechukwu said it was the idiotic angle Obiano alluded to, as the governors and other eminent Igbos  like Chris Ngige pleaded with him to shift the date of Ime Obi, but he refused.

He said: “Methinks it is sheer mischief for Nwodo not only to refuse to shift the date, but when he agreed to shift time from 4pm to 7pm, only for his Kangaroo Ime Obi to hurriedly finish the meeting before 7pm. This is what angered many who arrived for the meeting shortly before 7pm.

Confronted with the second point Ohaneze raised that Atiku had promised to restructure the country, Okechukwu retorted: “Atiku’s position on restructuring is at best opaque and candidly is not as robust as Nwodo’s Ohaneze is propagating. No person or group of persons can amend or alter the 1999 Constitution of the Republic of Nigeria without 2/3 of the members of the National Assembly and 2/3 of the State Houses of Assembly. What we have is a rigid constitution.

“In summary, my position is that it is more politically correct to endorse Buhari if a non-partisan Ohaneze is to endorse any candidate. I therefore commend Southeast governors for their collective resolve to support President Buhari, for his re-election is the surest and quickest route to Nigeria president of Igbo extraction in 2023. Ndigbo’s vote in 2019 for Buhari will simulate a concrete alliance with Buhari’s 10-12 million vote bank in the North”, he added.

Also speaking yesterday in Awka, the Anambra State capital in a telephone chat with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Ngige describes Ohaneze’s endorsement of Atiku as partisan.

According to the minster, what played out was mere congregation of party men that hurriedly took a decision without due consultation of the real Ime-Obi Ohaneze Ndigbo.

He said the meeting was constituted by the President-General of the union with members of the PDP and passed the resolution in favour of Atiku.

Ngige said: “The purported decision of Ohaneze endorsing Atiku Abubakar of the PDP as the Ndigbo choice was a distraction and should be disregarded by well-meaning Igbo sons and daughters.

”The decision was ill-conceived and should be ignored by Ndigbo as it’s a decision propelled by PDP members in Ohaneze Ndigbo, hurriedly taken to drum support for their party members in the coming election.”

Ngige expressed disappointment that the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation would degenerate into meddling in partisan politics.

He said that the people of the Southeast have spoken in the rallies attended by hundreds of thousands of Igbo citizens in Enugu and Onitsha as to their political choice.