USA Africa Dialogue Series - OHANAEZE NDIGBO BACKS JONATHAN - BOLD AND HISTORIC MOVE AND NO SHACKING

OHANAEZE NDIGBO BACKS JONATHAN - BOLD AND HISTORIC MOVE AND NO SHACKING

 

PUNCH NEWSPAPERS.

 

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

2011: Ohaneze Ndigbo, INC back Jonathan

Agency reporter

An apex Igbo group, Ohaneze Ndigbo and the Ijaw National Congress have thrown their weight behind President Goodluck Jonathan, if he decides to contest for the 2011 presidential election.

The President-General of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Ambassador Ralph Uwechue, and his colleague in the INC, Dr. Atuboyedia Obianime, stated this during a joint courtesy visit to Bayelsa State Governor Timipre Sylva in Yenegoa.

The groups' positions were contained in a statement by the Chief Press Secretary to Sylva, Mr. Doifie Ola, which was made available to our correspondent in Lagos .

Obianime said that members of the Ohaneze Ndigbo were in the state to consult with the INC for the purpose of forging a common front towards the 2011 elections.

Corroborating Obianime's comment, Uwechue said the visit of his group to the state was to reciprocate the gesture of the INC, adding that their conduct reflected the quality of the Izon people.

He stressed the turbulent moments experienced in the country was normal in the process of nation-building, adding that there was the need for both the Ijaw and the Igbo to join hands towards entrenching a solid foundation for national development.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Tue, Jul 13, 2010 at 12:23 PM, <EOCHIEKE@aol.com> wrote:

 

 

 

"The permanency of interests rather than friendship...is the way to go.

 

"I believe in what have you done for me lately,

 

"How l wish that will become our igbo credo." --Mazi Vincent C. Unachukwu

 

*       *      *

 

Mazi Vincent:

 

I apologize in advance for jumping ino the mud.

But I do so hoping that my self-deprecating foray

would help further the ntugha uche, which you propose

should  be the guiding principle for meandering through

Nigeria's landmine in the name of politics.

 

You see, there are no "permanent interests" in politics.

The "friendship" is nothing more than "strange bedfeloows" -

that is, while the "interest" lasts. This is the primary

reason is why politics per se is a morally-bankrupt enterprise

even when it is not intended as such. The so-called

"interests" are  often selfish because matters are often

viewed from the eyes of the beholder.

 

This selfish interests are also the reason "enmity" is (mutually)

assured in politics whether or not we like it or perceive it as such.

It only takes something to trigger it to the surface.

 

Even you, by your own submission:

"....what have you done for me lately," and want to

make it an "Igbo credo," suggests that  you perhaps

 understand thaere are no "permant interests" in politics. 

 

When you look at Nigeria's history and Igbo involvment, the

other major players (say Hausa and Youruba) have proven to more

adept in Nigeria's dog eat dog politics than the Igbo players.

 

I cannot go into any further detail here. I have already done

so many times in the past. The Hausa political players

are practicaal, and have never let their commonsense

fail them. The Yoruba players are seen as cameleons

or untrust-worthy "friends" by Igbo players. But

as you may see, the Igbo is always the loser.

 

Anyway as I listen to the arguments, they are more

centered on sentiments and the same bitter tribal

politics, even though the norm, Igbo "players" do not know

how to play well. It is either they over-reach unsustainably,

and create suspicion or they under-reach and bad-mouth

at the same time in the name of the so-called "enemies."

 

Good Igbo political players should operate from the background,

inject "money" if they are able to do so, and appear neutral

in public. Thus far, no one has demonstrated that political

savy. Instead some insult their ancestors and some

badmouth the so-called ememies and recant reasons

why the label must stick.

 

You invoked Zik. Good! Even him agreed that there cannot

be "permanent interest" in politics. He played well.

 

But the times demand that we must play bettr than

he did to survive in Nigeria's cut-throat politics. Zik, an Igbo player

laid the foundation of good Nigeria politics. But an Igbo player

led the "revoltion" to truncate that foundation. That is not

say that we blame any particular person or the course of events.

It is just that it is apparent that we are yet to learn from the field study.

Everyone is jumping up and down screaming and giving opinions.

That is fine as long as you let us analize your position, and that

you promise that you would listen and take note. 

 

Peace,

"Ezii"

 

 

*       *       *

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Kevin Ani <ebonyinews@yahoo.com>
To: igbo_forum@yahoogroups.com; IgboEvents@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Mon, Jul 12, 2010 6:24 pm
Subject: [IGBO_FORUM] Re: Handle Ijaw diplomatically: Clark Tackles Babangida, Northern Elders Over Zoning

 

Mazi Unachukwu,   Thanks for your mail. Let one million flowers bloom.   Leaving aside zoning, there is a real danger in Igbo brand of total politics and over-identification with Jonathan. Unless they exercise utmost caution, eventually, Igbo will become so central to Jonathan's bid that even the Ijaw suspecting a hidden agenda will start to disown him. They may even withdraw him lest he pushes Ijaw into an unplanned confrontation with their erstwhile northern mentors. Mark it somewhere.   Ani NSIBIDI PRESS tm --- On Tue, 7/13/10, vincent unachukwu <chukwukpee@gmail.com> wrote: From: vincent unachukwu <chukwukpee@gmail.com> Subject: Re: [IGBO_FORUM] Re: Handle Ijaw diplomatically: Clark Tackles Babangida, Northern Elders Over Zoning To: igbo_forum@yahoogroups.com, asa-usa@yahoogroups.com, AnambraForum@yahoogroups.com, "umuanambra" <UmuAnambra@yahoogroups.com>, "IGBO EVENTS" <IgboEvents@yahoogroups.com> Date: Tuesday, July 13, 2010, 12:04 AM Mazi Ani, rapuchaa ife edelu na moto, Jonathan and his people now have their Bayelsa state. Igbo if our  Ikwere brothers don't give up Igwe Ocha is igbo politically or majority wise for ever. I don't see them leaving Yenagoe to inherit PH, Elele, Omanelu, Diobu, Umukroshu, Umumasi, Ogbunabali,Igrinta, Obi igbo,etc. Who is calling who names now, in spite of the Arewa accord. I am sorry if l was aggressive in making my point, forgive and forget. There will be no stealth punch thrown from my side just jaw jawing to see if we can articulate some ways out, l don't know how, except by ntughali uche, just calm down lets find a way how to wriggle out of this imbroglio. Reserve your punch for JEG, while l will reserve mine for IBB and Buhari My take is there are no saints here, just cold bloody calculated competing interests. Look at us we don't have the likes of Clark's or Arewa to dig in and protect our interests. Just efulefu illiterate money bags sniffing the fallen crumbs from the masters tables and ready to sell their moms to be first to get under the table. Look at how they can easily be bought over to insult people like Dr. Ekwueme or Dim Ikemba. Who is challenging Clark etc ? Akpasia na mkpuke they carry the message as in onye nnaya dunyelu ori.During the igbo  renaissance the money bags stayed on the sides and let the likes of Zik, Opara, Mbazulike, KO, Onunaka etc be our spokes people while the money bags stay behind as nnukwu mmanwu. Now the illiterates want to be governors and ministers to represent us, to the point of buying awarded degrees from the elites who connive with them to confer to them honorary doctors to confuse issues of literacy. Our illiterates want to showcase themselves at the expense of odimma ora igbo they lack the intellect to articulate.  Lets leave off the little things and find our how to configure the big picture of compatible interests. The permanency of interests rather than friendship or enmity is the way to go. I believe in what have you done for me lately, How l wish that will become our igbo credo. Mazi Vincent C. Unachukwu On Mon, Jul 12, 2010 at 5:22 PM, Kevin Ani <ebonyinews@yahoo.com> wrote:   Mazi Unachukwu,   You started off by calling zoning a retrogression and the architects of it idiots. Next you branded those who hold other views as those who don't get it, awusa apologists and now lovers of awusa fairness. How can you continue a debate and hear other viewpoints if you are utterly incapable of de-coupling your story from incendiary language you use? What do you hope to gain from this utterly deplorable use of language?    1. You called architects of PDP zoning idiots. However, when you were invited to unpack zoning, it turned out that the policy had merits, only it needed more fine-tuning. Would you now admit that there was in fact nothing retrogressive or idiotic about zoning in the first place, only an attempt at equity and fairness that requires further refinement?   2. Next you conceptualize the issue of power succession in nigeria in terms of love and hate. Within this impoverished schema of yours, anyone who cautions against the planned repudiation of his own party policy by Mr. Jonathan becomes an awusa lover and its corollary Ijaw hater. No be so? In essence, you have crowded out  even Ijaw voices  while you take the centre stage in a fight that is not properly yours. One wonders how your fanatic stance would have developed and what it would have led to had Yarsdua lived. Na waa!   3. While you are constructing your composite utopian dream around Jonathan, you have brushed aside the little details which are mere irritants to your grand design. For example, you were told that right now,  Mr. Jonathan is plotting to re-install Ijaw minority rule in Rivers State where Igbo are the clear majority. He has already used state power to halt Chibuike Amaechi's urban renewal and the clearance of Ijaw slums around the waterfronts of Port Harcourt.  But obviously, such little martters are of no interest to you.    4. You wrote:   "... They the core north ...threw us out of Jobs in the north and went off to hire Philippines and Indians...They threw us out and imported foreign workers to take our place. This is the same country..."   I don't know which planet you were when the Ijaw-controlled Rivers State government did exactly the same thing and more right under your nose between 1970 and 1994. They not only employed Indian and Pakistanis to teach in their schools but refused to employ Igbo even on contract and routinely expelled Igbo students from their schools. They even set up a radio station to support their policy by beaming anti-Igbo broadcasts to Igbo areas asking them to keep away. By all means defend your new found Ijaw hero but please stick to what you know and resist any attempt to rig history.    I have written enough already about this PDP thing even though I am not a member of that party or any other. Nor do I have any interest in all the rubbish that go on in that place. Nice talking to you. Just it easy and learn to express your opinion in less combative format. Over and out.   Ani     NSIBIDI PRESS tm --- On Mon, 7/12/10, vincent unachukwu <chukwukpee@gmail.com> wrote: From: vincent unachukwu <chukwukpee@gmail.com> Subject: Re: [IGBO_FORUM] RE: [asa-usa] Re: [IgboEvents:Live] Handle Ijaw diplomatically: Clark Tackles Babangida, Northern Elders Over Zoning To: asa-usa@yahoogroups.com, AnambraForum@yahoogroups.com, "umuanambra" <UmuAnambra@yahoogroups.com>, "IGBO EVENTS" <IgboEvents@yahoogroups.c om>, igbo_forum@yahoogroups.com Date: Monday, July 12, 2010, 6:02 PM Magu, l love you for this, because you seem to understand the big problem that we as a people will have to surmount in other to be serious. It is our chi as in our stars. Let me digress a little,  I am not sure how you came up with the assumption or possibility that let say that JEG/Namadi  tenure obtains passed 2011. How do Yoruba's leap frog igbo to the vice presidency of Namadi. The trajectory if it happened will point towards Namadi/Nnamdi, no Yoruba,wont you say? My  problem is that we have been there before. The khaki boys intervened to deny us the plum job.  You know those of us here who love Hausa fairness have yet to explain to me and all of us why Buhari/Idiagbon detained Dr. Alex Ekwume and not Shehu Shagari. IBB is in trouble with the Yoruba's because he scuttled J/12. How come some of us are in love with Buhari who did the same thing to Dr. Alex Ekwueme. Where is the outrage on such unfairness? How do we continue to love the Hausa's after the mayhem they have visited on our people. The Yoruba's or the Ijaws never spilled the igbo blood in peace time. They the core north did. They threw us out of Jobs in the north and went off to hire Philippines and Indians. Check the archives of proceedings in the old northern house of assembly on how to get rid of qualified igbos working in their civil service because they do not have qualified northerners to take the positions. So as soon as the British granted independence that Zik helped engineered. They threw us out and imported foreign workers to take our place. This is the same country. So my recurring question is what is it we will loose if we do something ominous supporting JEG/Namadi with negotiation not the white flag our stupid trader mindset governors have just fomented. I am pretty sure a governor Dr. Chris Nwabueze Ngige would not have accented to this foolery idiocy of the five south east governors without consultation and goodies for south east if it had to be done. Ok, coming to your main trajectory reconfiguration is merely encoding the new reality that stuff happens Death and accidents are inevitable. No one lives for ever weather young or old, stuff may happen or may not. These leaders fly in air planes or other modes of transportation that are prone to accidents or may develope incurable dieseas and die. So succession mode and methods must be enshrined in the zoning arrangement if there is need to continue in zoning and to make sure no part of it conflicts with the constitution Mag, Lets follow the trajectory of Umya/JEG, Yaradua eight years, then what next? A big set up  of the igbo's and the Ijaws to clash by OBJ as the Hausa did Obj and Ekwueme. What happened at the convention? they voted for OBJ to compensate for Abiola J/12. Do you honestly think that at the end of Umya/JEG.When 100 igbo traders start aspiring to be president, who would get it? Ani Okonkwo an Aba trader money bag with an Odera kind of education plus his humongous ego as wide as the atlantic ocean challenging the likes of Soludo, Chris Ngige, Ben Obi,Senator Nnamani,Uche Chukwumerije and Dr. Alex Ekwueme for the presidency at the convention. Who do you think the rest of the country will select. Arewa as the delegation of the Ijaws may indicate was that an agreement was already in the works as to 2015 before Umya demise, so nothing would have changed the reality.  My take is let the process run out as we reconfigure a new base. We need to negotiate and determine what it is that we want. Mag, our agenda may not be the agenda of these trader mindset people. They have been solo hits all this time and ldon't think they will ever change. They believe in noctural negotiotions igbuchi akpafa not odimma ndi igbo The Orji Uzo Kalu, Mbadunuju, Kema Chikwe, Gov.Nnamani, Achike Udenwa, Fake doctor Andy Uba Ojo Madueke, Vincent Ogbulafor and a host of like minds that had previous positions and did nothing for the igbo race Yes the governors and Chairman Nwodo did put the cart before the horse but l dont think they will have been so stupid to give out their barn without negotiating something in return. I wish they will tell us what the understanding was. Example, second niger bridge and refurbishing of the old bridge before 2011. Enugu international airport without hesitation of maybe, maybe not as we heard from the former Minister of aviation the inclusion and codification of Abia and Imo in the oil producing area proper and the rights that go with it. Onitsha sea port and dredging on constant basis plus barges and ships calling to discharge and load goods for export. Federal presence and infrastructure deployments in the South East. Oguta port expansion, So lets wait and hear their explanation(s) for giving out the barn to JEG. Let the debate continue in the line that Magu is positing.  Mazi Vincent C. Unachukwu On Sun, Jul 11, 2010 at 11:29 PM, Magnus Ekwueme <imaxxis@sbcglobal.net> wrote:   Vin: I dere nke oma but here is where I have problems and I will excerpt from your write-up. Here it comes "My take is let the process run itself as we go back to the drawing board to reconfigure a new base....." Now that the governors have given in, how do we figure in this reconfiguration? Do we just sit and wait for whatever they decide to dish to us or do we stand up and stake our own claims? Who is going to do the reconfiguring: Goodluck or PDP? Man, what I am saying is that it is improper for the governors to disenfranchise us in the first place and, I am agreeing with Kevin Ani here, since Obasanjo has taken the South's first 8 years and Umoru was on his way to the North's turn and this Goodluck k-leg come happen, how do we secure our own turn? I wrote earlier that if Goodluck goes for his own two terms (allowing him freedom to run, that is), the pick goes back to the North, abi? That would be another two terms. Since the division is between North and South, it boils down to Yoruba getting the next South's pick. North gets the next stanza. See the trend? WE will never smell this presidency in the next thirty-forty years. Ndiigbo akwuru by the wayside na-elele egwu musical chair. What do we get? This is where the problem makpus. Don't get me wrong. We may even fare better if we did not rule Nigeria. Oruo the Igbo turn, one hundred men will vie for the one position and we end up having an Hausa man tell us who it is going to be. On the other hand, given the record of those Igbo who have been placed in positions to bring home some bacon and brought none, we might as well negotiate and get us a second Niger Bridge, some refineries and/or some other federal presence in the region. Ndi be anyi si obu ekebe nni ka e ji ama nwa akpotara akpota. Why would we, by our own selves, put us in that onye akpotara akpota in Nigeria scheme of things. If we don't ask, how do you think we are going to get our fair share? There's no sophistication in what I saying. We just got to negotiate for us. We were told that just as Goodluck got his position, he sent a delegation to Arewa reminding them how the Ijaw fought with them for one Nigeria. Kedu delegation nke anyi when our governors have thrown the towel? I am sorry but I gotta say my mind. I know some people are having their stomachs all knotted up. They call me dumb. I may be stupid but dumb? Mbanu! Mgbo tuwakwaa madu isi. Bia, Ezeude, kedu ife i jiri gbachi nkiti here ndi governor e ree anyi two pence? Sincerely, [Magnus Ekwueme] "It behooves a prudent person to make trial of everything before arms".--Henry Thomas Riley. -----Original Message----- From: asa-usa@yahoogroups.com [mailto:asa-usa@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of vincent unachukwu Sent: Sunday, July 11, 2010 8:41 PM To: igbo_forum@yahoogroups.com; asa-usa@yahoogroups.com; AnambraForum@yahoogroups.com; umuanambra; IGBO EVENTS Subject: Re: [IGBO_FORUM] RE: [asa-usa] Re: [IgboEvents:Live] Handle Ijaw diplomatically: Clark Tackles Babangida, Northern Elders Over Zoning Magu, yours is a loaded question, My contention is not about going with JEG but rather fairness of the process. Is zoning an omnibus term for whatever, written or unwritten process? In the subsisting agreement, all it said was zoning between North and South, Each ruling two term under normal condition or circumstance but silent on every other conditions. So now that normal is not obtainable what happens about crucibles as how rules that were never articulated or anticipated be applied. My take is let the process run itself as we go back to the drawing board to reconfigure a new base to include what was not anticipated without disrupting the mitigating flow process. Are we saying that in a civilized setting what was not agreed upon in succession process will be imposed on the fly no matter the disruption it may cause. We don't make up the rules as we go. Only what is in the book is applicable. They PDP anticipated a clean succession process in the agreement but reality sometimes operates differently, Now a new situation must be addressed by a new rule, so must going back through the process that enabled it to begin with, to rectify the anomaly by all and sundry PDP committee,s.This might be the reason people have a different take on the zoning implementation. I rest my case. NB: l have no take on what goodies or none promised as that was not my bias Also the Governors arrogating to themselves the right they don't have to commit ndigbo to contesting or not for the presidency is arrogant to say the least. I was attacked by Peter Obi people when l decried the same overreach by my hero Dim Ikemba to mortgage us to IBB without asking us ndi igbo and ndi anambra. I just think they are talking for themselves. The good thing is that the money they did not steal they will use to develop our states instead of, for political bribery Mazi Vincent C. Unachukwu

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