The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Ndigbo

Now that Ndigbo are in opposition

I wrote not too long ago on this space asking whether Ndigbo would sink and swim with President Goodluck Jonathan and some readers came at me like rabid dogs. Some even labeled me outcast. Who is the outcast now? Who is the greatest loser in the unfolding political arithmetic of Nigeria? Just like PDP, Ndigbo too have become political Humpty Dumpty, the silly, big egg that has suffered a shameful fall.

Going forward, and if they manage to gather themselves together, they will be more pragmatic in their political calculations and eschew excessive sentimentality. They will also have to do away with most of their leaders who think with their stomach and who have no clarity about tomorrow.

It is just as well that for once in our political lives, we are operating from the opposition camp. So much for years of opportunism, whoredom and romance with just any government in power; now we have to work for our keep, make our own case and determine how we want to play the field. Again, perhaps this is the treatment we need in order to wise up in the politics of this land.

April 3, 2015
Hausa/Fulani, Ndigbo, others endorse Ambode

Lagosians expect the dawn of a new era next month. Ahead of the governorship elections, indigenes and non-indigenes are mobilising support for the candidature of Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, the standard bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC). A member of the Akin Ambode Campaign Group, Odunayo Akinsiju, examines the impact of the volunteer group in its engagement with ethnic nationalities in the Centre of Excellence.

It is not so much of a walk in the park as it is a long, hard haul to the top with a man who looks set, perhaps destined, to becoming the next governor of Lagos State. I am talking about Akinwunmi Ambode, the 51-year-old chartered accountant who is contesting as the Lagos State governorship on the platform of the All Progressive Congress (APC) come April 11, 2015.

This is an account of a volunteer who had a ring-side view of this amiable candidate’s busy schedule last Saturday. And what a difference that day made in accentuating the point that this is a candidate who would leave no stone unturned in reaching out to every stakeholder in Lagos State with his message of continuity and sustainability. His body language and his remarks at each occasion revealed why he is the ideal candidate that is arguably the most qualified and better prepared at this period to continue with the legacy of successes that Lagos State has been witnessing in the past 15 years.

The day started with the biggest revelation. The Igbos, contrary to insinuations, are indeed behind the candidacy of the APC candidates and are not averse to the type of progressive ideology that the ruling party in Lagos State preaches. And so the day began with a grand rally at Onikan Stadium, where a full house of professionals, elders, women, traders, youths and students – all of Igbo extraction and based in Lagos State – trooped out to unequivocally make their stand known: they were out to endorse the Buhari-Osinbajo team for the Presidential election as well as the Ambode-Adebule team for Lagos State governorship.

It was their show, the Igbos in Lagos. Funded and organized by them to express their position. And although the rally had in attendance key APC leaders and candidates like Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the national leader of the party with his wife, Oluremi; Ambode and his running mate, Dr. Oluranti Adebule and several other candidates of the party, it was still a platform decidedly mounted to demonstrate where the Igbos stand in the forthcoming election.

It was a necessary and commendable stand to make at this time when endorsement of certain candidates has become desperate and dollarized. Anybody who claims to be on your side ought to be able to stand up and be counted for you. This is what the Igbos have done, just like the Arewa people did last month at the same venue, declaring in one voice that no amount of last-minute transactional overtures would make them vote against their conscience.

This principled stand did not escape Ambode in his remarks. By that rally, the Igbos have reciprocated the good gesture of the successive administration in Lagos, a state where they have kept a commissioner’s slot for several years and where one of their own has been the official spokesperson of the party for many years. The next four years will witness more cordial relationship between the Lagos State government and the Igbo whose contribution to the commerce and fortunes of the state is well acknowledged, Ambode said clearly. His promise was that in his administration, if elected next month, no one will be discriminated against on the basis of tribe, religion or creed, while also promising an improvement in the business environment of the state.

The Arewas were next and this Epe-born technocrat is showing no sense of fatigue or irritation even though he had been out the previous night till the wee hours of the morning attending a dinner meeting with all the aspirants who contested the party’s slot with his last December. The meeting with the Hausa leaders in Lagos was as strategic as the Igbo rally. The non-indigenes’ votes in the state, said to be between 35 and 40 per cent of the total registered voters is a voting bloc that cannot be ignored. Both the Igbo and the Arewa are said to account for the largest chunk of that total.

Warm welcome and a promise of total support for his continuity agenda awaited Ambode from the Sarkin Hausa and the entire Arewa community, when Ambode’s campaign train arrived in Yaba. How can a candidate be so blessed in one day, getting the endorsement of both the Igbo and the Arewa in Lagos the same day, two weeks to the Presidential elections and four weeks to the governorship poll? To these ‘non-indegene Lagosians,’ apart from his own sterling qualities as a well-read, and well-experienced Public Finance expert, Ambode is reaping the fruits of the labour that his party, the APC, has sown in the past 15 years in Lagos.

While the federal government struggles to deliver on its promises and is adjudged to have failed in the key areas of national security, accountability, power, oil and gas and in provision of social infrastructure, thereby making the desire for change at the centre a necessity, Lagos State on the other hand has been exemplary in how to grow Internally Generated Revenue and deliver on promises, thereby making the state attractive not just to indigenes of other states but to foreigners as well.

Such a working state, the Igbo and Arewa communities are unanimous in their verdict, deserves the services of a technocrat who has the requisite experience, who understands the workings of government and who was part of the painstaking effort to grow the finances of the state in continuing with the good works of the incumbent governor. In their wisdom, that man is Akinwunmi Ambode, the University of Lagos-trained Chartered Accountant who spent 27 years of meritorious service in the Lagos State Civil Service, rising to become the Auditor General for Local Governments and later as Accountant General/Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance.

But Ambode was not done on that interesting day. And he chose a community in dire need of government attention as his next point of call. Makoko, next on the schedule, provided a platform for the governorship candidate to hear first-hand the yearnings of that community and to address a town hall meeting that sought to reassure on the type of change they should expect in the next four years. While slums and shanties may be an unfortunate feature of most mega-cities in the world, due to inadequacy of resources, Makoko, from Ambode’s assurance, will witness a true transformation in the new dispensation. “The Lagos of our dream is here. It is a Lagos that will work for everybody. We will build on the achievements of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Governor Babatunde Fashola administrations. We are coming to consolidate on those achievements and Makoko will not be left out in this new dawn,” said.

If it is about roads, for instance, Ambode was confident that his Project 20-20-57 would come to the rescue of localities like Makoko. What this project means is that if elected, Ambode’s government, would have minimum of 20 roads and 20 streetlights constructed in each of the 57 local councils each year. “With this template, more than four thousand roads would have been completed across all the local governments and council areas in Lagos in four years.”

For a man whose selfless disposition is widely acknowledged, Ambode exudes real passion about his desire to serve as the governor of this prosperous state. His vision is clear and he has an infectious way of communicating it to the people. “We seek a clean, safe and prosperous Lagos, where justice and equity shall reign,” he reiterated at each function. And because he is real and demonstrably amiable, Lagosians, just like the band of hundreds of volunteers that have enlisted to his cause, believe him.

He did not end that memorable Saturday without looking in at the Ikosi residence of Hon. Tunde Salau, who passed on last week. Touching words of condolence poured out from his pen, describing the departed as a strong pillar of support… a seasoned politician and leader. May your story never end.” He had more kind words to the family of the departed also.

Campaigning with Ambode was like a long cruise, in which you hardly feel the strain. So it can be said of last Saturday, like the great American jazz singer once sang: what a difference a day makes, and the difference is Ambode.

March 26, 2015
Jonathan, PDP shortchanged Ndigbo – Buhari Campaign Organization

The campaign team of Gen Mohammadu Buhari of the All Progressive Congress (APC) says the reason why Ndigbo will not vote for President Goodluck Jonathan on Saturday because he shortchanged the people.

Speaking with reporters Wednesday in Awka, Anambra state coordinator Gen Buhari’s Presidential Committee Council (PCC), Chima Okafor, a lawyer, said the injustice against Ndigbo had become unbearable.

Besides, the lopsided midterm report of the Present administration of Jonathan on expenditure showed that the South East got only 74 billion naira representing a paltry 5.2 percent.

While North Central got 497 billion naira (35%), Northwest 296 billion naira (21%), South West 216 billion naira (15.1%), South South 212 billion naira (15%) and North East 116 billion naira (8.2%).

Okafor said that Ndigbo should forget sentiment on Saturday in making sure that Jonathan and his People’s Democratic Party (PDP) were voted out, adding that politics was based on facts and figures.

Furthermore, he sounded it clear that South South People were not our brothers or sisters as being speculated, adding that they were only our neighbors who failed to vote for any Igbo person during the past elections in the country.

“This injustice against Ndigbo should be revisited in this election and it has to stop which has become so glaring and we believe the people in the South East will not want the thing to continue.

“When you talk of abandoned property in this country, is it not in the South South of then old Rivers State? Our people will not allow themselves to be deceived further.

“This election is a referendum on Jonathan’s administration, where he has not done justice to infrastructure, the economy in the South East.

“President Goodluck Jonathan must take responsibility for the infrastructural decay in the south East, we have not got any single new project in the area but only rehabilitation and we have continued to play the fool after given him the highest number of votes in 2011.

“There is massive deindustrialization in the South East which has led to many people losing their lives, then tell me why the people should vote Jonathan again in 2015” Okafor questioned?

He said that Ndigbo had invested so much in PDP without gaining anything, adding that the people should now invest in the APC for real positive change on Saturday’s election.

Also, facts don’t lie, as published by the Amalgamated Youth Organization of Jonthan, Sambo North West zone support group recently, showed that the present administration had done more projects elsewhere without doing any single one in the South East.

According to Okafor, all the federal roads in the South East were death traps, with over 1,000 Igbo sons and daughters being killed along Enugu-Port Harcourt and Onitsha –Enugu express ways through Motor accidents.

Before now, the president announced in 2012 that he would go in exile if the 2nd Niger Bridge was not completed in 2015, a pronouncement he made at a town hall meeting in Onitsha, Anambra state, yet, and nothing had been done at the site.

The Igbo leaders were insulted by the president again Tuesday morning, when he shared them a paltry 200,000 naira each at Owerri, which was coordinated by his foot soldiers, after sharing out thousands of dollars to traditional rulers in other zones recently.

March 25, 2015
Ndigbo in Niger enlist 15,000 for APC

The Chairman of Niger State Igbo in Diaspora Association, Chief Onyeka Ozuluoha, has said the association has enlisted 15,000 members in 18 of the 25 local governments in support of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Ozoluoha, who addressed reporters yesterday in Minna, said contrary to rumours, the Igbo in Niger State endorsed the APC standard-bearer, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari and the governorship candidate, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello.

He said: “As I’m talking to you now, we have convinced over 15,000 Igbo resident in the state to support the APC and vote for its candidates. We have advised those who left the state for fear of election violence to return and vote for the APC.”

Ozoluoha described as untrue, the insinuation that all Igbo supported President Goodluck Jonathan.

He said the citizens need a change and Gen. Buhari represented that change for a better Nigeria.

According to him, “our association is effective in Niger State. Our members are committed, working hard for the success of APC. We are already in 18 of the 25 local governments.”

The Igbo leader cautioned against mass exodus of non-indigenes, especially the Igbo, from the state before the election.

Ozoluoha said: “If you are running, you must know what is pursuing you. I am sure the fears of post-election violence are gone and we are staying to vote for Buhari and other APC candidates.”

He urged the Igbo to join the movement for a change, for development and security of life and property, symbolised by the APC.

March 24, 2015
Hausa/Fulani, Ndigbo, others endorse Ambode

Lagosians expect the dawn of a new era next month. Ahead of the governorship elections, indigenes and non-indigenes are mobilising support for the candidature of Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, the standard bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC). A member of the Akin Ambode Campaign Group, Odunayo Akinsiju, examines the impact of the volunteer group in its engagement with ethnic nationalities in the Centre of Excellence.

It is not so much of a walk in the park as it is a long, hard haul to the top with a man who looks set, perhaps destined, to becoming the next governor of Lagos State. I am talking about Akinwunmi Ambode, the 51-year-old chartered accountant who is contesting as the Lagos State governorship on the platform of the All Progressive Congress (APC) come April 11, 2015.

This is an account of a volunteer who had a ring-side view of this amiable candidate’s busy schedule last Saturday. And what a difference that day made in accentuating the point that this is a candidate who would leave no stone unturned in reaching out to every stakeholder in Lagos State with his message of continuity and sustainability. His body language and his remarks at each occasion revealed why he is the ideal candidate that is arguably the most qualified and better prepared at this period to continue with the legacy of successes that Lagos State has been witnessing in the past 15 years.

The day started with the biggest revelation. The Igbos, contrary to insinuations, are indeed behind the candidacy of the APC candidates and are not averse to the type of progressive ideology that the ruling party in Lagos State preaches. And so the day began with a grand rally at Onikan Stadium, where a full house of professionals, elders, women, traders, youths and students – all of Igbo extraction and based in Lagos State – trooped out to unequivocally make their stand known: they were out to endorse the Buhari-Osinbajo team for the Presidential election as well as the Ambode-Adebule team for Lagos State governorship.

It was their show, the Igbos in Lagos. Funded and organized by them to express their position. And although the rally had in attendance key APC leaders and candidates like Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the national leader of the party with his wife, Oluremi; Ambode and his running mate, Dr. Oluranti Adebule and several other candidates of the party, it was still a platform decidedly mounted to demonstrate where the Igbos stand in the forthcoming election.

It was a necessary and commendable stand to make at this time when endorsement of certain candidates has become desperate and dollarized. Anybody who claims to be on your side ought to be able to stand up and be counted for you. This is what the Igbos have done, just like the Arewa people did last month at the same venue, declaring in one voice that no amount of last-minute transactional overtures would make them vote against their conscience.

This principled stand did not escape Ambode in his remarks. By that rally, the Igbos have reciprocated the good gesture of the successive administration in Lagos, a state where they have kept a commissioner’s slot for several years and where one of their own has been the official spokesperson of the party for many years. The next four years will witness more cordial relationship between the Lagos State government and the Igbo whose contribution to the commerce and fortunes of the state is well acknowledged, Ambode said clearly. His promise was that in his administration, if elected next month, no one will be discriminated against on the basis of tribe, religion or creed, while also promising an improvement in the business environment of the state.

The Arewas were next and this Epe-born technocrat is showing no sense of fatigue or irritation even though he had been out the previous night till the wee hours of the morning attending a dinner meeting with all the aspirants who contested the party’s slot with his last December. The meeting with the Hausa leaders in Lagos was as strategic as the Igbo rally. The non-indigenes’ votes in the state, said to be between 35 and 40 per cent of the total registered voters is a voting bloc that cannot be ignored. Both the Igbo and the Arewa are said to account for the largest chunk of that total.

Warm welcome and a promise of total support for his continuity agenda awaited Ambode from the Sarkin Hausa and the entire Arewa community, when Ambode’s campaign train arrived in Yaba. How can a candidate be so blessed in one day, getting the endorsement of both the Igbo and the Arewa in Lagos the same day, two weeks to the Presidential elections and four weeks to the governorship poll? To these ‘non-indegene Lagosians,’ apart from his own sterling qualities as a well-read, and well-experienced Public Finance expert, Ambode is reaping the fruits of the labour that his party, the APC, has sown in the past 15 years in Lagos.

While the federal government struggles to deliver on its promises and is adjudged to have failed in the key areas of national security, accountability, power, oil and gas and in provision of social infrastructure, thereby making the desire for change at the centre a necessity, Lagos State on the other hand has been exemplary in how to grow Internally Generated Revenue and deliver on promises, thereby making the state attractive not just to indigenes of other states but to foreigners as well.

Such a working state, the Igbo and Arewa communities are unanimous in their verdict, deserves the services of a technocrat who has the requisite experience, who understands the workings of government and who was part of the painstaking effort to grow the finances of the state in continuing with the good works of the incumbent governor. In their wisdom, that man is Akinwunmi Ambode, the University of Lagos-trained Chartered Accountant who spent 27 years of meritorious service in the Lagos State Civil Service, rising to become the Auditor General for Local Governments and later as Accountant General/Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance.

But Ambode was not done on that interesting day. And he chose a community in dire need of government attention as his next point of call. Makoko, next on the schedule, provided a platform for the governorship candidate to hear first-hand the yearnings of that community and to address a town hall meeting that sought to reassure on the type of change they should expect in the next four years. While slums and shanties may be an unfortunate feature of most mega-cities in the world, due to inadequacy of resources, Makoko, from Ambode’s assurance, will witness a true transformation in the new dispensation. “The Lagos of our dream is here. It is a Lagos that will work for everybody. We will build on the achievements of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Governor Babatunde Fashola administrations. We are coming to consolidate on those achievements and Makoko will not be left out in this new dawn,” said.

If it is about roads, for instance, Ambode was confident that his Project 20-20-57 would come to the rescue of localities like Makoko. What this project means is that if elected, Ambode’s government, would have minimum of 20 roads and 20 streetlights constructed in each of the 57 local councils each year. “With this template, more than four thousand roads would have been completed across all the local governments and council areas in Lagos in four years.”

For a man whose selfless disposition is widely acknowledged, Ambode exudes real passion about his desire to serve as the governor of this prosperous state. His vision is clear and he has an infectious way of communicating it to the people. “We seek a clean, safe and prosperous Lagos, where justice and equity shall reign,” he reiterated at each function. And because he is real and demonstrably amiable, Lagosians, just like the band of hundreds of volunteers that have enlisted to his cause, believe him.

He did not end that memorable Saturday without looking in at the Ikosi residence of Hon. Tunde Salau, who passed on last week. Touching words of condolence poured out from his pen, describing the departed as a strong pillar of support… a seasoned politician and leader. May your story never end.” He had more kind words to the family of the departed also.

Campaigning with Ambode was like a long cruise, in which you hardly feel the strain. So it can be said of last Saturday, like the great American jazz singer once sang: what a difference a day makes, and the difference is Ambode.

March 24, 2015
Ndigbo, Fani-Kayode and 2015 presidency

There is no doubt that the only way the Igbos apart from political accident can produce the president in the country is by zoning. If not for the sudden demise of President Umaru Musa Yar Adua in office, and President Goodluck Jonathan’s contest of 2011 Presidency against the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) zoning arrangement, PDP would have fielded a southeast presidential candidate, and a North Central running mate in this forthcoming presidential poll. That was why the then PDP national chairman, Chief Vincent Ogbulafor was very frank and courageous at the peak of the late president Yar Adua health saga when he publicly declared that PDP would abide by its presidency zoning arrangement.

But immediately Jonathan assumed office as president, the presidency and its hawks ousted Ogbulafor from office and roped him in, in alleged corrupt practice to silence him. Some prominent Igbo politicians in the PDP and their Northern counterparts which include Senator Ken Nnamani, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Senator Ben Obi, Prof ABC Nwosu, Senator Uche Chukwumerije, Prof. Ango Abdullahi and others met severally then and even signed a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) that they would work together as a people to ensure that their political interest and aspiration would be met. But before one could bat an eyelid, the Igbo political leaders in the PDP have capitulated and sold out to the Jonathan’s ambition in 2011. Typical of an Igbo man who is always handy to be used to betray his people, many of the Igbo political leaders jumped into the Jonathan’s campaign train to the disappointment of their Northern counterparts. There were settled with contracts, appointments, and cash in exchange for their political opportunity and by the extension right to produce the presidency in 2015.

Ahead of the 2015 polls, they saw the political trend with the formation of All Progressives Congress (APC), the alignment between the North and the southwest which has become the possible game change, they stuck with the Jonathan’s ambition even when it is obvious that Jonathan’s government in the last five years plus has failed the Igbos woefully. In the last five years of Jonathan administration in Igbo land, It has been more of political promise, less action. From the Second Niger Bridge, Enugu-Onitsha road, Enugu-Port Harcourt road, Onitsha port to the refusal to commission Prof. Barth Nnaji’s Geometric power plant in Aba that was ready for almost two years now. The list is endless. But some few Igbo treacherous leaders who are beneficiaries of the President Jonathan’s government and the massive corruption that has characterised it in the last five years have continued to shamelessly campaign for his re-election in Igbo land with nothing concrete for the Igbos.

These categories of Igbo leaders include former governors, incumbent governors, serving ministers, former ministers, leadership of Ohanaeze Ndigbo and several others. So much public funds have been made available to them by the Presidency, and they are busy justifying their loots by engaging in all kinds of hatchet political jobs. They are everywhere on the pages of newspaper, in the churches, communities, on the streets sponsoring pro-Jonathan rallies with looted public money, abusing Buhari and APC. They are deluding the people that Buhari will islamise Nigeria if he is elected President, but failed to tell them why President Jonathan has not Christianise the country in the last five years, if it is easy.

In this their hatchet job, none of these so-called Igbo political leaders in the PDP is talking or negotiating anything better for the political future of the southeast in power equation of the country. What matters most to them is the immediacy, which is their private pockets, business interests, and that of their families, and relations. Others can go the hell. That is why majority of them have remained with the tag “Any Government In Power” (AGIP). It is for this reason that some Nigerians and the Director of Media and Publicity of the President Jonathan campaign organisation, Chief Femi-Fani-Kayode could summon courage to insult the sensibilities of the Igbos in the name of campaigning for President Jonathan by re-writing the civil war history.

Addressing journalists in Umuahia Abia State recently, Fani-Kayode, said there had been “mind boggling allegations” against Buhari over his roles in the massacre of Igbos in the ‘60s and should therefore not be allowed to continue to run from his shadows. He said Buhari’s hands reek of the blood of innocent Igbo civilians massacred in cold blood hence such atrocities could not qualify him as a presidential candidate but a candidate for the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague. Citing the horrendous massacre of Igbo civilians, including women and children in the North, and the killing of Igbo men and young boys at Asaba after the town was “liberated” by federal forces, Fani-Kayode insisted that Buhari’s name had always popped up in connection with those heinous \crimes against humanity. “It is important for us to remember that day because one of the allegations against Buhari that was to be put to him at the Oputa Panel was that he was among the division that took part in the massacre and that ordered those killings,” he said, adding that Buhari should speak up and explain if he was in Asaba on that fateful day and if so apologise to Igbos and Nigerians in general before atoning for his sins.

It had been expected that some Igbo leaders would have called Fani-Kayode to order over the unguarded utterances especially concerning the Igbos and the civil war, but as we know the fear of incurring the Presidency’s wrath appears to be their handicaps because they lack integrity.If Buhari was serving in a military division where Igbos were killed during the civil war does that mean that Buhari killed them? Why was Fani-Kayode trying to re-write history of civil war for the Igbos, and when has he become the Spokesman of the Igbos or Ohanaeze?

Whereas those in the North whom people like Fani- Kayode tagged enemies of the Igbos did not only protect Igbos property in the region, they returned them to the Igbos immediately after the civil war. People like the late Biafra warlord Chief Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu reclaimed his father’s house in Kano after the war and willed it to one of her daughters at death. That is why it was easy for Igbos in the North to start life quickly after the war. Before the Boko Haram insurgency 80 per cent of Igbos are earning their living in the remote areas of the North where you hardly find an Ijaw man. This is because Ijaw men are not good at adventures. So who is trying to pitch Igbos against the North ahead of the rescheduled polls? When has Igbos become cheap products for sale to the highest bidder?

Ahead of the rescheduled presidential poll, the political atmosphere is very clear. The direction is change and the Igbos should not be behind because immediately the change occurs, these political hypocrites called Igbo leaders in the PDP that have been hoodwinking the Igbos with Greek gift from President Jonathan will be the first to shift base. They are not truly Igbo political leaders, but political harlots who are specialists in the elitist conspiracy of divide and rule method to remain politically relevant. Igbos must shine their eyes.

•Jacob Nwaezeorah, a retired civil servant wrote from Nsukka, Enugu State

March 20, 2015
Hausa/Fulani, Ndigbo, others endorse Ambode

lagosians expect the down of a new era next month. Ahead of the governorship elections, indigenes and non-indigenes are mobilising support for the candidature of Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, the standard bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC). A member of Akin Ambode Group, Odunayo Akinsiju, examines the impact of the volunteer group in its engagement with ethnic nationalities in the Centre of Excellence.

It is not so much of a walk in the park as it is a long, hard haul to the top with a man who looks set, perhaps destined, to becoming the next governor of Lagos State. I am talking about Akinwunmi Ambode, the 51-year-old chartered accountant who is contesting as the Lagos State governorship on the platform of the All Progressive Congress (APC) come April 11, 2015.

This is an account of a volunteer who had a ring-side view of this amiable candidate’s busy schedule last Saturday. And what a difference that day made in accentuating the point that this is a candidate who would leave no stone unturned in reaching out to every stakeholder in Lagos State with his message of continuity and sustainability. His body language and his remarks at each occasion revealed why he is the ideal candidate that is arguably the most qualified and better prepared at this period to continue with the legacy of successes that Lagos State has been witnessing in the past 15 years.

The day started with the biggest revelation. The Igbos, contrary to insinuations, are indeed behind the candidacy of the APC candidates and are not averse to the type of progressive ideology that the ruling party in Lagos State preaches. And so the day began with a grand rally at Onikan Stadium, where a full house of professionals, elders, women, traders, youths and students – all of Igbo extraction and based in Lagos State – trooped out to unequivocally make their stand known: they were out to endorse the Buhari-Osinbajo team for the Presidential election as well as the Ambode-Adebule team for Lagos State governorship.

It was their show, the Igbos in Lagos. Funded and organized by them to express their position. And although the rally had in attendance key APC leaders and candidates like Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the national leader of the party with his wife, Oluremi; Ambode and his running mate, Dr. Oluranti Adebule and several other candidates of the party, it was still a platform decidedly mounted to demonstrate where the Igbos stand in the forthcoming election.

It was a necessary and commendable stand to make at this time when endorsement of certain candidates has become desperate and dollarized. Anybody who claims to be on your side ought to be able to stand up and be counted for you. This is what the Igbos have done, just like the Arewa people did last month at the same venue, declaring in one voice that no amount of last-minute transactional overtures would make them vote against their conscience.

This principled stand did not escape Ambode in his remarks. By that rally, the Igbos have reciprocated the good gesture of the successive administration in Lagos, a state where they have kept a commissioner’s slot for several years and where one of their own has been the official spokesperson of the party for many years. The next four years will witness more cordial relationship between the Lagos State government and the Igbo whose contribution to the commerce and fortunes of the state is well acknowledged, Ambode said clearly. His promise was that in his administration, if elected next month, no one will be discriminated against on the basis of tribe, religion or creed, while also promising an improvement in the business environment of the state.

The Arewas were next and this Epe-born technocrat is showing no sense of fatigue or irritation even though he had been out the previous night till the wee hours of the morning attending a dinner meeting with all the aspirants who contested the party’s slot with his last December. The meeting with the Hausa leaders in Lagos was as strategic as the Igbo rally. The non-indigenes’ votes in the state, said to be between 35 and 40 per cent of the total registered voters is a voting bloc that cannot be ignored. Both the Igbo and the Arewa are said to account for the largest chunk of that total.

Warm welcome and a promise of total support for his continuity agenda awaited Ambode from the Sarkin Hausa and the entire Arewa community, when Ambode’s campaign train arrived in Yaba. How can a candidate be so blessed in one day, getting the endorsement of both the Igbo and the Arewa in Lagos the same day, two weeks to the Presidential elections and four weeks to the governorship poll? To these ‘non-indegene Lagosians,’ apart from his own sterling qualities as a well-read, and well-experienced Public Finance expert, Ambode is reaping the fruits of the labour that his party, the APC, has sown in the past 15 years in Lagos.

While the federal government struggles to deliver on its promises and is adjudged to have failed in the key areas of national security, accountability, power, oil and gas and in provision of social infrastructure, thereby making the desire for change at the centre a necessity, Lagos State on the other hand has been exemplary in how to grow Internally Generated Revenue and deliver on promises, thereby making the state attractive not just to indigenes of other states but to foreigners as well.

Such a working state, the Igbo and Arewa communities are unanimous in their verdict, deserves the services of a technocrat who has the requisite experience, who understands the workings of government and who was part of the painstaking effort to grow the finances of the state in continuing with the good works of the incumbent governor. In their wisdom, that man is Akinwunmi Ambode, the University of Lagos-trained Chartered Accountant who spent 27 years of meritorious service in the Lagos State Civil Service, rising to become the Auditor General for Local Governments and later as Accountant General/Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance.

But Ambode was not done on that interesting day. And he chose a community in dire need of government attention as his next point of call. Makoko, next on the schedule, provided a platform for the governorship candidate to hear first-hand the yearnings of that community and to address a town hall meeting that sought to reassure on the type of change they should expect in the next four years. While slums and shanties may be an unfortunate feature of most mega-cities in the world, due to inadequacy of resources, Makoko, from Ambode’s assurance, will witness a true transformation in the new dispensation. “The Lagos of our dream is here. It is a Lagos that will work for everybody. We will build on the achievements of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Governor Babatunde Fashola administrations. We are coming to consolidate on those achievements and Makoko will not be left out in this new dawn,” said.

If it is about roads, for instance, Ambode was confident that his Project 20-20-57 would come to the rescue of localities like Makoko. What this project means is that if elected, Ambode’s government, would have minimum of 20 roads and 20 streetlights constructed in each of the 57 local councils each year. “With this template, more than four thousand roads would have been completed across all the local governments and council areas in Lagos in four years.”

For a man whose selfless disposition is widely acknowledged, Ambode exudes real passion about his desire to serve as the governor of this prosperous state. His vision is clear and he has an infectious way of communicating it to the people. “We seek a clean, safe and prosperous Lagos, where justice and equity shall reign,” he reiterated at each function. And because he is real and demonstrably amiable, Lagosians, just like the band of hundreds of volunteers that have enlisted to his cause, believe him.

He did not end that memorable Saturday without looking in at the Ikosi residence of Hon. Tunde Salau, who passed on last week. Touching words of condolence poured out from his pen, describing the departed as a strong pillar of support… a seasoned politician and leader. May your story never end.” He had more kind words to the family of the departed also.

Campaigning with Ambode was like a long cruise, in which you hardly feel the strain. So it can be said of last Saturday, like the great American jazz singer once sang: what a difference a day makes, and the difference is Ambode.

March 19, 2015
Don’t yield to campaign of division, Tinubu tells Ndigbo

The National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, yesterday urged Nigerians not to yield to any campaign designed to divide the country along religious and ethnic lines.

Addressing party supporters at the Ndigbo APC rally held at Onikan Stadium, Lagos, Tinubu accused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of fanning the embers of division with a view to pulling the country down.

Tinubu described the Igbos in Lagos as dedicated and committed people who have made significant contributions to the development of the state and Nigeria in general.

He said: “Some of you have been here for over 50 years, doing your businesses unmolested. Nobody can discriminate against you. Nobody will fight you because of your language.

“Now, they have been coming to Lagos, calling you group by group or giving you dollars, even ‘dollarised’ rice, ‘dollarised akpu’ , but can this translate any of these into school fees for your children? Can this open business opportunities for you in Lagos? The APC government has opened several opportunities for Igbo and we will continue to do so.”

Tinubu said the PDP only remembers the people of the approach of elections.

He said when Nigerians voted for President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011, it was not done on the basis of where he came from, but in the belief that he would deliver on his electoral promises.

The president, he alleged, has failed to fulfill his promises, and has even made life more difficult for the people.

He recalled that when the president assumed the leadership of the country, the dollar sold for N120.

“Today, the naira has fallen; it is now N340 to a pound, the cost of living has hit the ceiling, traders are finding it difficult to replace their stocks. The business community is suffering and Nigerians need a saviour to bail us out.”

He said General Muhammadu Buhari saved the country in the past when it was facing socio-economic challenges, noting that the majority of Nigerians now look forward to him to bail the country out of its predicament.

He said those campaigning that age was not on Buhari’s side miss the point.

“Chief Obafemi Awolowo contested his last election at the age of 74, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe of blessed memory contested his last election at the age of 79, Nelson Mandela ruled South Africa at 74.

“Buhari is a soldier and a patriot, when America needed the greatest patriot to rescue it from economic challenges; they chose a retired soldier Dwight Eisenhower. When France was invaded by Soviet communists, the French went to General Charles De Gaulle. When Britain was in trouble they invited Winston Churchill to save them

“This is the time we need General Buhari who has done it before to rescue us from this elephantiasis.”

Also speaking, the Lagos State governorship candidate of APC, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode said the Igbo in Lagos have everything to gain if he is voted into office.

“Lagos has stood for all of us, it is time for the people to stand for Lagos,” he said.

“I know that economic hardship does not discriminate; we are all facing a difficult time and if something is not done Nigeria will go bankrupt”.

He promised to consolidate on the achievements of Governor Babatunde Fashola.

Igbo leader, Chris Nwakobia, said the PDP has failed the country and declared that the Igbo, are not articles of trade to be used and dumped.

He said the destiny of the Southeast is tied to that of the other geo-political zones, hence the need for all of them to work together.

“We repudiate those who tinker with the idea of dividing us along religious and ethnic lines. We believe that together we can make Nigeria work. That is why the Igbo are for change. We believe that with the Yoruba and Hausa we shall make Nigeria better,” he said.

March 15, 2015
The new Ohanaeze Ndigbo

The current Ralph Obioha caretaker committee of Ohanaeze Ndigbo has a salvaging mission. To begin with, it is sad to note that the immediate past executive of Ohanaeze whose tenure expired on 12th January, 2015 still parades itself as the leadership of the organisation. When will Africans begin to respect and abide by the constitution of their land? When will sit-tight leaders and rulers and tenure elongation fascists stop disgracing our people and stop putting us up as baboons incapable of playing by the rules of the game? Why must leaders cling to power against the provision of the constitution that set them up? Why? Who does not know that Ohanaeze Ndigbo is very long overdue for restructuring and revitalisation if it is expected to play effective and purposeful role as the arrowhead of Ndigbo in present-day Nigeria?

A flashback to the founding of Ohanaeze shows that the Igbo State Union of pre-independence could be said to be the forerunner of Ohanaeze. There was in existence many Igbo socio-cultural associations that pursued basic group and mass interests. They included Ohanaeze Ndigbo, National Union of True Igbo Congress (based mainly in the United States of America), Igbo Youth Movement, Igboezue Cultural Association, Igbo Progressive Forum, Confederation of Igbo Students, Igbo Youth and Leadership League, Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), Eastern Mandate Union, Ndigbo Youth Movement, Federated Igbo Youth Congress (Port Harcourt based) and Delegates Conference of all Igbos living in northern Nigeria (with headquarters in Maiduguri). Until Ohanaeze became the umbrella Igbo cultural organisation, these motley Igbo cultural groups pulled from diverse directions each claiming to be the authentic Igbo voice and speaking with different voices on issues affecting Ndigbo.

A resuscitated Ohanaeze Ndigbo came into being in the Second Republic as a counterpoise by the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) against the Nigerian Peoples Party (NPP) in Igbo states of Nigeria, the then Anambra and Imo states. It came as a response of NPN leadership in Igbo land to their failure to mobilise Igbo population behind their preferred political platform. It was therefore a trump card to achieve political relevance and legitimacy in Igbo land by a conservative faction of the Igbo political elite (merchant class, traditional institutions, politicians and few intelligentsia) against the backdrop of an iron cast grip on the ordinary people by the rival NPP. It is no surprise that Ohanaeze recorded no achievement and suffered serious credibility problem for much of 1980’s since it did not pursue any great cause for Ndigbo. It was merely the political wing of the now comatose Peoples Club of Nigeria, an amorphous congregation of the Igbo moneyed class whose fame for eating and drinking rivaled that of the Epicurians.

A new repackaged Ohanaeze resurfaced in the heat of the turmoil and unrest generated by Babangida’s winding political transition programme ostensibly to give voice to the interest and aspirations of all Igbos within a deeply troubled, if rapidly changing Federation a la Afenifere. The June 12 crisis of 1993 provided the repackaged Ohanaeze with its first acid test as a credible platform that can articulate Igbo interests. It failed to provide the much needed leadership direction, thus leaving the Igbo nation groping.

In the new democratic dispensation (1999-date) the story is the same – a leadership without focus, without articulating the core Igbo interests. What we see has since been the pursuit of purely selfish personal interest by members of the executive of Ohanaeze who hijack the organisation and go cap in hand to Abuja begging for appointments as ministers, ambassadors, board members or for federal contracts, consultancy services and retainerships. Mrs. Sarah Jibril one-time PDP Presidential aspirant put it well in a newspaper interview when she accused some Igbo leaders of trading with the votes of their people. It is sad but true that some of our leaders lack original conviction, principles and commitment to Igbo interest. They pursue personal business interest while pretending to represent Ndigbo. So the tragic picture has emerged of the greedy selfish Igbo politicians who would sell their birth right for money – a band of carpet beggars and boot lickers.

It is no wonder that the out-gone Ohanaeze executive (who would want to sit tight) stampeded themselves to Aso Rock to drum their support for President Jonathan. They even went further to pledge blanket support of all Ndigbo for Jonathan’s second term ambition in the imminent general elections without obtaining a quid pro quo from the President for Ndigbo whom they claim to represent!

What really are Igbo core/cardinal/mass interests in Nigeria? First, Ndigbo are a migrant people, making their home wherever business is good. The ordinary Igbo man therefore invests in the stability and peace of the country and, as a corollary, in the security and safety of his person and property. He who threatens his life and property at the slightest argument threatening his basic interest. Therefore any presidential candidate worth Igbo support and Igbo leadership support must ensure the safety of Igbo lives and property anywhere in Nigeria.

In his emphasis on this core Igbo interest, Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu had this to say: “If killing Igbos living in the North continues to be a favourite hobby of religious fanatics without any realistic effort by the federal government to check it, then, the Igbos should find a path of dignity and protection for themselves even if it is as unattractive as a march back to Biafra. It is better to drive apart and be safe than to drive close and collide”. Former Governor of Anambra State Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife reacted thus: “if the tree of one Nigeria must survive by periodically gulping the Igbo blood, that tree must be genetically re-engineered not to need blood at all. Certainly, if the tree of one Nigeria must have Igbo blood to survive, that tree must die”. In a paper titled “issues in Restructuring Corporate Nigeria’, which he presented at Arewa House, Kaduna (11th September, 1999), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi (now Emir of Kano) had this to say: “Our present political leaders have no sense of history. There is a new Igbo man, who was not born in 1966 and neither knows nor cares about Nzeogwu and Ojukwu. There are Igbo men on the street who were never Baifrans. They were born Nigerians, but suffer because of action of earlier generations. They will soon decide that it is better to fight their own war, and may be find an honourable peace than to remain in this contemptible state in perpetuity… the nation is sitting on a time-bomb”.

Secondly, the Igbo inhabits a comparatively overpopulated land. It is basic interest to have their land developed to ensure that jobs are created by putting in place such infrastructures as good road network, electricity, development of Onitsha Niger river port, speedy completion of Enugu international airport and establishment of industries among others. Thirdly, Ndigbo are a Christian people. Christianity provides the standard of values upon which everything is built. It is therefore in Igbo interest that Christianity is at par with any other religion in the land. Any candidate that wants Igbo votes must give a guarantee of this. Fourthly, Ndigbo are increasingly marginalised because of structural and administrative imbalance put in place by successive military and civilian regimes since the end of the civil war. Restructuring Nigeria is now a basic Igbo interest.

It is proposed that restructuring should follow the following lines:

•Federal system based on the six geopolitical zones as the federating units/regions.

•Retain existing states as units of government within the zones.

•Devolution of more power from the centre to the zones.

•Reorganisation of security forces (armed forces and the police).

•An equitable formula for revenue allocation.

•Separate constitutions for the centre and the zones/regions.

An English political philosopher John Sutart Mills posited that “for a federation to work, no one group will have the advantage of relying on its unaided strength. If there be such a one, and only one, it will insist on being master of the joint deliberations”. Unity is dependent on equal relations. Equal relations are difficult when one region of a State is so large or so powerful to override the wishes of the other regions put together.

At page 155 of his book, “In Biafra Africa Died”, Emefiena Ezeani put it this way: “Nigeria today is not only a disabled giant of Africa but also a synonym of anarchy and bloodbath, an edifice erected by Britain in 1914. Until that edifice is drastically and honestly dismantled and RESTRUCTURED, Nigeria will continue to be a disgrace to the Afro race”. It is a very big irony that very often, when history hits us in the eyes, even as pin pricks, we don’t see it. As Chief C.C Onoh, former Governor of old Anambra State put it; “Mind you, if we are not careful to remedy the things that produced the Niger Delta Militant Groups and the MASSOB, this country is bound to break up”.

A Yoruba pressure group, Oodua Liberation Movement warned (Saturday Vanguard February 14, 2015) as follows: “We therefore demand for immediate restructuring of Nigeria soon after the new government is inaugurated. Let there be no illusion that meaningful development and peace can be achieved in Nigeria by any political party or any person without first restructuring Nigeria”. These are the issues any responsible Igbo leadership group must canvass before the two major presidential candidates. It is disingenuous for any organization that purports to speak for Igbos to pledge blanket Igbo support for any candidate without some quid pro quo. It is as banal as it is stupid. It does not make sense.

Ohanaeze caretaker committee has put out invitation to the two presidential candidates – Jonathan and Buhari to discuss these core interests of Ndigbo. It is up to them to play ball and honour the invitation. Like the non-partisan organisation that they are, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Caretaker Committee believes that Igbos should vote according to their individual conscience. Ends

•Joe Asogwa is a lawyer and political scientist

March 13, 2015
‘Why Ndigbo ‘ll vote APC in Lagos’

In this piece, the Co-ordinator of the Association for the ‘Defence of Igbo Interests in Lagos’, Comrade Chris Nwokobia, explains why Ndigbo will vote for the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, at the April 11 election.

In all parts of Lagos, we have been inundated with innuendoes that will clearly endanger Ndigbo, their properties and other interests in Lagos if not well handled. We are concerned because there is a raging feeling all over Lagos that Igbo are deep into a conspiracy to undermine the political interests of the Yoruba and help impose an anti-Yoruba surrogate in Lagos, as a way of mocking and undermining the political interests of the Yoruba Nation.

We see this as dangerous and we note that this has sparked hostile reactions and promises to spark more reactions after the election.

We are compelled to state that Ndigbo are parts and parcel of Lagos and that we share an excellent relationship with the people of Lagos, especially the Yoruba. We state also that Ndigbo are the prime beneficiaries of the conducive environment Lagos offers, that Ndigbo are the prime beneficiaries of the good, orderly and secure governance in Lagos, especially in the past sixteen years, we note that Igbo businesses and spirit of enterprise have flowered so well in the new Lagos, a working and modern Mega City that offers a home for all Nigerians and offers an expansive environment for Igbo businesses to thrive unimpeded.

Our concern is that these great benefits stand to be endangered by a misreading of the present and unfolding political situation in the country, where it is being made to seem as if Igbo are in the forefront of what is seen as a political battle to upstage the Yoruba in Lagos. We are concerned that the greedy and selfish interests of some self-serving Igbo masquerading as leaders of Igbo people and self serving groups, stand to endanger the Igbo in Lagos in the near future hence we issue this disclaimer. We want to state the afore-mentioned impressions amounts to a    misreading of the Igbo in Lagos and their well known republican disposition especially as it relates to issues and politics in Nigeria and do not represent the feelings and political inclination of the majority of Igbos who do their business, live their lives and work in Lagos unimpeded.

We note that the PDP has been brash, immodest and loud in dropping the good name of Ndigbo for their political ambition to rule Lagos. We note the insinuation being created all over Lagos at present that Igbo are being mobilized with huge money and resources to work for PDP. While we do not deny this, we insist that this is restricted to few people who are transacting business with the name of Ndigbo. They neither represent the generality of Ndigbo nor do they represent credible Igbo platforms, which have worked well with Yoruba since the amalgamation of Nigeria.

We align with the huge success story Lagos has been in the past sixteen years under APC leadership and we are happy that Ndigbo have expanded tremendously in this period, investing hugely in the expanding economy of Lagos and exploiting the promises of the state, enjoying excellent security, good infrastructures, good transportation and a friendly business environment.

Given that there is clear danger ahead, we want to state that Ndigbo are not part of the indecent money sharing going on now as a campaign strategy of President Jonathan and the PDP. This is not to dispute that various so-called Igbo groups are not partaking in this malfeasance. They are on their own and represent themselves the few members of their groups and families. Millions of Igbo in Lagos are not part of this and we wonder how much it will take to settle all Igbo in Lagos. Those who have partaken in the sharing of dollars and Naira are on their own, if we must restate this fact. They should not drag Ndigbo to their illicit business.

Proceeding further, we want to advance reasons why Ndigbo must vote the APC government in Lagos.

Why vote APC?

• APC Lagos has shown through actions and deeds that it understands what leadership is all about.  It has shown leadership in Lagos and made Lagos a destination for all Nigerians especially for Ndigbo when the Federal Government under PDP has abdicated its responsibility to Nigerians.

• APC government in Lagos has made the issue of Security the number one agenda and this has made it possible for Igbo businesses to thrive in Lagos.  When kidnappers ravaged the South East I know many Igbo Lagosians who traveled to the village to bring their parents to Lagos. Today, Lagos is the safest state of Nigeria where Igbos sleeps with both eyes closed and do their lawful businesses without molestation.

•APC government in Lagos led by Governor Fashola fought Ebola to a standstill and effectively stopped the spread to other parts of Nigeria.  This led the United Nations to declare Nigeria Ebola free. It could have been worse if not because of this courageous intervention that led the way in curbing this deadly virus in Nigeria.

• APC government in Lagos has created a conducive atmosphere for Igbo businesses to thrive in Lagos whether is Real estate, Commerce, Transport, Artisans, Okada, Churches, Construction and other professions.

• More than 500 Igbo are working in Lagos State Ministries and LGAs in various capacities, including the powerful office of Commissioner for Budget and Planning. Time and space will not permit me to mention their names here.  In Abia State, a PDP Governor, Theodore Orji sacked Igbo from Anambra, Enugu, Imo and Ebonyi states.

•Lagos APC government has fought for justice for Igbo Lagosians like Miss Uzoma Okere who was assaulted by a Naval Rating.  Lagos also funded the treatment of a popular Actress, Ngozi Nwosu, OJB Jezreel, Prince Ifeanyi Dike, etc abroad.  Lagos APC government  not only rehabilitated the family of the late Human Rights Activist, Chima Ubani, it also gave the family a house  and offered his children scholarship to all levels of education when the Federal Government and his home PDP State government turned their backs on his family after he died fighting for the masses. APC government in Lagos has fought for countless number of Igbo Lagosians to get justice in Lagos.  Again time and space will not permit me to mention their names here.

• Lagos is the second home for Igbo in Nigeria.  Check the number of Igbo in Lagos. Check the volume of investment and check the successes. This can only happen because a stable and trusted APC government has been in place. Contrast this with what obtains at the Federal Level where PDP holds sway.

• Under APC government, Lagos is the fifth largest economy in Africa, larger than the economies of many African countries. Today, Lagos remains the driver of the Nigerian economy and pulls its weakest links. This is what the Igbo need to thrive and excel and not the consumptive politics the PDP promotes which excels in looting and sharing parts of the loot during election time.

• APC government in Lagos has remained a pacesetter for other states to copy in Nigeria.  Every good idea, every good thing, every evidence of good leadership you see anywhere in the country must have a link and or connection with Lagos.  APC government is a thinking government and you do not prefer a fourth-eleven for the first-eleven.

• It is better for Ndigbo in Lagos to work with those they know than to plan a deal with total strangers. His Royal Highness, the Oba of Lagos Oba Rilwanu Akiolu has told all Lagosians that they do not want PDP anywhere on their soil.  Igbo in Lagos should listen to him as a mark of respect.  PDP has devastated Yoruba land since 1999 from Ogun to Oyo, from Ondo to Ekiti and to Osun. PDP has devastated Nigeria in 16 years and made the country a laughing stock in the comity of nations. Yoruba see PDP as a virus.  That is why they formed an alliance with the North to stop PDP.

• A lot of money is exchanging hands in Lagos but money cannot buy friendship or relationship.  Friendship and Relationship are built over years of hard work and commitment.  Money can buy you a bed but it cannot buy sleep.  Money can buy you a car but it cannot buy you safety.  Money can buy you the best shoes in the world but you need to have legs to wear shoes. If Igbo make the mistake of investing in a dying horse by voting PDP at a time other Nigerians are rejecting it for its sixteen wasteful years in power, it will neither affect the electoral choice of Lagosians nor make any positive difference for Igbo. It will rather worsen their woes in Nigeria especially in Lagos where they co-exist and compete favorably with other Nigerians. Igbo be warned.

Wake-up call:

In concluding, we want to debunk the impression being created that Ndigbo are against the present wind of change in Nigeria. We want to correct the impression that Ndigbo are very comfortable with the state of affairs in Nigeria.

We are all for change and Ndigbo will maintain significant presence in the change movement sweeping all over Nigeria.

March 5, 2015