From: David Onwuchekwa, Nnewi
A top Biafran war commander and very close associate of late Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, popularly referred to as “Air Raid’’ during the civil war, Col. Joe Achuzia, has said that the survival of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) as a political party should be the concern of all Igbo.
He described the APGA as the soul of the Igbo. Col. Achuzia recalled that the two gifts late Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu gave to Igbo were Biafra and the APGA, saying that it was on the two that late Ojukwu’s soul rested.
He posited that since the first republic that the Igbo were not only denied a shot at the presidency as no political party was willing to give them presidential ticket but were also prevented from having ideological political platform to rally round their own people except the APGA.
Col. Achuzia, a British-trained aeronautic engineer and one-time Secretary General of the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, spoke inside his sitting room at his Asaba residence while receiving the Senior Special Assistant to Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State on Political Matters, Mr Arinzechukwu Awogu, who came to felicitate with him on his 90th birthday that came up on May 17, 2017.
He commended Governor Obiano for living up to the dreams of APGA’s founding fathers despite the challenges in human management and implored him to ensure that APGA produced presidential candidate in 2019 general election, if Biafra did not come before then.
The fiery war commander revealed that it was Ojukwu’s desire for it to be on record that an Igboman ran for the presidency of Nigeria in every election year and that the Igbo could only come together under a political unit and nurture same to national mainstream.