From Jeff Amechi Agbodo, Onitsha
The Ndigbo Unity Forum (NUF) has endorsed the candidature of Prof George Obiozor for the President of Ohanaeze Ndigbo come January 2021.
The group supports the endorsement of Obiozor by Imo State stakeholders as the next president of Ohanaeze Ndigbo in January 2021, describing it as a welcome development by all Igbo worldwide.
NUF President NUF Mr Augustine Chukwudum said in a statement that Prof Obiozor as a former Nigerian ambassador to the United States has what it takes to lead Igbos to greater heights.
‘We all know that Ohanaeze Ndigbo lost its glory under the leadership of Prof Joe Irukwu when he allegedly went to campaign for Obasanjo’s third term bid that was later failed; since then we have not had a strong body called Ohanaeze because Irukwu offended Ndigbo, knowing that Obasanjo seized Igbo importers’ container between 2003 and 2007, where Igbo importers lost more than $30 billion as well as Ibeto cement that was over N12 billion then,’ Chukwudum noted.
‘It is unfortaune that Ndigbo forgets things easily, which is not good because we are supposed to document the history of the past so that Ndigbo cannot continue to be hoodwinked. That is the major problem our people have, that is why NUF is there to put things in order and unite Ndigbo that have been in disunity for the past 50 years between 1970 to 2020 after the civil war.
‘That is why we are calling on Igbo all over the world to ignore Nwaorgu, former scribe of Ohanaeze and co that are opposing the endorsement Obiozor, a man well-deserving to lead Ndigbo. We are saying this based on indvidual peformace in the past and those that betrayed us before the 2015 presidential election.
‘We hereby call on all Ohanaeze delegates to make sure that all hands are on deck in electing Prof Obiozor as next president of Ohanaeze come 2021; we are raising this alarm because we don’t want the past to repeat itself. Now that the 2023 presidential election is fast approaching, we need someone we can work together with to actualise a president of Igbo extraction in 2023,’ Chukwudum stated.
What was the role of Chief Iwuanyanwu in making Prof. Irukwu the Ohaneze President? What was Iwuanyanwu’s role in Obasanjo’s Life Presidency priject, even when Igbos were expecting the likes of Iwuanyanwu to champion the campaign for strenghtening the rotational presidency so that Igbos could get shot at the presidency? It will not be good for a few people to impose a candidate that they can control, to the extent that when those few people are now controlled by enemies of Ndigbo, they would in turn drag their stooge president along. If Prof Obiozor should be president, let the process not make him morally obliged to those few that endorsed him as a consensus candidate of IMO State.