Ohanaeze Ndigbo: election is war to change Southeast’s fortune

APEX Igbo socio-political organisation Ohanaeze Ndigbo said yesterday that it was emboldened by the fact that Ndigbo were completely down in taking the decision to endorse the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Abubakar Atiku.

The group’s President-General, John Nnia Nwodo, who during a Solid FM radio programme, explained what informed the Ohanaeze Ndigbo’s position.

He said: “He who is on the ground fears no fall, hence the decision. We are completely down; they cannot treat us worse than they are treating us now. Ohanaeze cannot be on the sideline.”

According to Nwodo, the forthcoming election is a “war to change the status of Ndigbo in Nigeria, banish unemployment among youths in Igboland. It is a war to have sovereignty on our natural resources; it is a war to be recognised as equal partners.”

Reacting to insinuations that the organisation should have applied diplomacy in endorsing a candidate, Nwodo said the group was left with no option, hence the decision.

Besides, he said the organisation took the action because the PDP has given an avowed commitment to restructuring not only in its manifesto but by its presidential candidate.

The Ohanaeze leader said the PDP Presidential candidate has given his commitment to restructuring not just in his campaigns but also in his speeches in Nigeria and abroad.

Nwodo pointed out that Atiku also chose one of their sons in the person of former Anambra State governor Peter Obi, whom he said is not a bench warmer as his running mate.

Recalling Obi’s achievement as governor, Nwodo said: “He has husbanded the resources of Anambra State so creditably that no governor in Nigeria left the amount of savings he left for his state.”

According to him, Obi, as the National Economic Council (NEC) chairman, will not be quiet on the economic neglect of the Southeast.

On the allegation that some people were excluded when the decision to endorse Atiku was taken, Nwodo said they sent out circulars to everybody, adding that out of the 24 members of NEC, 22 attended while 21 voted in favour of the decision.