₦airaland Forum

Igbo Leaders Reject PDP, Opt For Opposition

By Maxwell Oditta Asst Politics Editor, Lagos

15th May

Igbo leaders have scoffed at the post of deputy Senate president zoned to the South East by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

They described it as an office that exists only in name and accused the party of subordinating the Igbo to other ethnic nationalities.

Governorship candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Ikechi Emenike, fired off on Monday that the Igbo, by the arrangement, would continue to retrogress in the PDP.

"If you see a situation where the South West, after producing the President, rather than take a leap back, they want to produce the Senate president. If you look at the hierarchy, you have the President, the vice president, the Senate president, the House speaker, the deputy Senate president – the fifth of the elective positions.

"The Igbo are number three and have stepped back to number five. The Yoruba are number one. They are coming to number four. Naturally, you would have expected that those who are number one should be number five. But they are number four ahead of the Igbo again. This is not good," Emenike, a defector from the PDP, agitated.

A member of the National Political Reforms Conference, Zik Chuka Obi, re-echoed the views, saying it would be unfortunate if the Igbo are not given the speakership.

His lament: "Now that the North West has taken the post of President and the South South the vice president, what do we get? From the reports so far, it looks as though the Igbo are not likely to get the Senate presidency again."

A deputy governorship candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in Imo, Cliff Ogbede, said PDP leaders are not thinking the right way.

A Presidential candidate of the Citizens Popular Party (CPP), Maxi Okwu, added that the South East is short changed in the PDP because there is no Igbo man or woman of clout where it matters.

"The PDP is the dominant party, whether by hook or crook," he reasoned. "An Igbo man is not there in the dominant caucus of the PDP. The only person who has some mega strength is Andy Uba. We are not even in the mainstream of the leaders of the three arms of government. The PDP has no place for Ndigbo. The Igbo made a mistake in not realising that they have no place in the PDP. Some of us realised it earlier and we said so."

Ralph Okey Nwosu, the National Chairman of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), said it is not surprising that the PDP undermines Igbo interest, since it has neither Igbo vote nor Igbo sympathy.

His words: "Ndigbo are so disgusted with the PDP that it cannot win a councillorship seat in a free and fair election. If there is any election in the South East, we will have a bloc vote. But no elections took place.

"The people who were not allowed to vote know who they would have voted for. Whenever we have a true election in Nigeria, we will reject the PDP completely."

To Ohanaeze President, Dozie Ikedie, PDP leaders toy with the fortunes of the Igbo and this is why Ndigbo will not recognise the government of Umar Yar’Adua unless the leaders of the party treat the Igbo justly.

"It is clear that the Igbo have been manipulated out of the position. It is not the end of the world. But quite clearly, we are not comfortable with the PDP because of the way they have treated Ndigbo.

"If the PDP wants to have a rethink and treat Ndigbo fairly, we will give them a chance," Ikedife stressed, objecting to any activism that could lead to bloodshed in the zone.

Ohanaeze will not recognise the new government, as the group is now being re-invented from ‘the establishment tool’ it was in the past, Nwosu added.

He criticised the World Igbo Congress (WIC) for allowing itself to be "polluted" by the PDP.

"We have a new leadership in the person of Ikedife. They are re-inventing the Ohaneze, the South East, the Igbo man and the Nigerian nation profoundly.

"The World Igbo Congress is, meanwhile, misdirected. The same pollution of the PDP has also infiltrated them, and they are now a bit misdirected. Some Igbos in the diaspora are trying to do something to reposition the World Igbo Congress. For now, it is misdirected."

But it is not only Ohanaeze that needs re-inventing, Obi pointed out – the same applies to Aka Ikenga, the other pan-Igbo group he argued, even though a governorship candidate of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in Imo, George Opara, is not persuaded.

"Ohanaeze is just a pan-Igbo organisation. I cannot think of any move they have made that put the Igbo nation in an enviable pedestal at any time. I am yet to see Ikedife’s reformation plans to say that Ohanaeze could witness any re-invention of any form," Opara stated.

Although a full-blooded Igbo, I will be very, very glad if the PDP and Yaradua will torture us politically (no postions at all for the Igbo now) so that in the next election, the Igbo will be more united and fight for their rights as a group. The individualism in our politics is just suffocating.

Another Cheap Tribalist

Welcome to LORD LUGARDISM

Great unearthing this.

The Igbo leaders have spoken.

The Igbo are not interested in any position in the current NASS leadership.

It's their right after all

Salewa97:
The Igbo leaders have spoken.

The Igbo are not interested in any position in the current NASS leadership.

It's their right after all

CyrusVI:

See them,awom smello deeply concerned self appointed æffœnjå ministers of Igbo affairs and special advisers and analysts for Igbo matters

Looking at the date of the original post and remembering all that has happened in our personal lives since then. A whole lot..
Lots of loved ones have gone

Still nothing was learned since

helinues:
Still nothing was learned since

It’s a generational thing, they can never ever learn anything airy from drugs trafficking and baby merchandising