SAN FRANCISCO, December 10, (THEWILL) – The apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohaneze Ndigbo says it has no regrets over its decision to back former President Goodluck Jonathan, in the 2015 presidential election against then candidate Muhammadu Buhari, who eventually won the poll.
It is believed in some quarters that the bloc votes given to Jonathan by Ohaneze and the most people of the Southeast was a grave miscalculation on the part of the Igbo, as it cost the geopolitical zone a place in national mainstream politics.
This was as Buhari had been reported as saying when he visited the United States months ago that, “Constituencies that gave me 97 per cent cannot in all honesty be treated, on some issues, (same way) with constituencies that gave me five per cent”.
But speaking with newsmen in Enugu ahead of the expiration of the tenure of the current National Executive Committee of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, its Secretary-General, Dr. Joe Nwaorgu, said the travails of the Igbo under Buhari’s administration had vindicated the body’s outright rejection of the President from the outset.
Addressing reporters in company of some other Ohanaeze chieftains, Nwaorgu said, “The Igbo have been having problems with the Federal Government since the end of the civil war, problems of neglect by successive administrations, but the problems have exacerbated under Buhari.
“He (Buhari) has been unfair to us – in his first 32 appointments, he gave 24 to northerners, seven to southerners, and out of these seven to southerners, there was none to the Southeast.
“Nothing has changed, the ministerial appointments he has given us are our constitutional entitlements but who he places where is clear. The super ministers are there.
“It has been very bad for the Igbo since 1970 but the situation has exacerbated under Buhari and his attitude and utterances are not helping matters. In fact, Buhari is even acting to provoke us into taking a wrong step, to give him a reason to clamp down on us.”
Explaining why Ohanaeze rejected Buhari from the get go, the Secretary-General argued that Buhari has always been unfair to the Igbos.
“We know him very well, during his first outing from 1983 to 1985, what did he do? Shagari, number one person (in the previous civilian administration was placed under) house arrest, Ekwueme, the number two, who has no constitutional functions (was sent to) prison. Igbo took note. He came out again as Executive Director, Petroleum Trust Fund, what did he do? Have you checked the allocations of PTF? Sixty-six per cent of all our petroleum money went to the North-West, his zone. He gave us (South-East) 6.2 per cent.
“With that pedigree, what will encourage people to say please come on? If we had said come on it would have put us in a poor shape that we can’t analyze well. We analyzed well, and we have been vindicated,” he said.
The Ohanaeze Ndigbo chieftain went on to based the organization’s decision to support Jonathan in the presidential election on the need to mend relations with the South-South, which together with the Southeast was part of the old Eastern Region.
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