By Ummi Ismaeel,
Minna
Presidential candidate for the Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide and a security expert, Dr. Valentine Iheukwumere Oparaocha, has said that what the Igbo need most is security for their lives and businesses.
He also promised to pursue if voted into power.
Oparaocha, a retired State Security Service (SSS) officer, said that he joined the race for the number one seat of the apex Igbo organisation knowing what his people needed at this critical period and how to go about guaranteeing that if given the mandate.
In an interview in Minna, Oparaocha said that he knew the many questions of the Igbo man in the Nigerian context and part of his 3-points agenda will include security build-up around the lives of Easterners, Igbo in particular wherever they may find themselves globally.
He said that his message, while in Owerri, the Imo State capital, on January 10, 2021, was to encourage other contestants to support him.
“What the Igbo need most is to be secured in any part of Nigeria and world over, every other thing comes second,” he said.
As a security expert, Oparaocha, who holds the title, Ochudo Ndigbo, said that after retiring from service to his country he decided to offer himself for service to his Igbo people because he knows and understands their pains and worries more than any other contestant.
He promised to work hand-in-hand with governors of the South-East and the Eastern Security Network (ESN) to ensure that the region was safe from all forms of incursions by criminals, while also not jettisoning youths in the region but encourage them to discover who they.
Oparaocha, who believes on the indivisibility of Nigeria, said that the Igbo would be better-off remaining part of the country but would put his wealth of experience as security officer in providing what the easterners have been yearning for over the years.
According to him, “Managing the ESN is far better than trying to break up Nigeria or agitating for a separate country, Biafra. With kidnapping and armed banditry becoming an embarrassment to the Nigeria government, the network is certainly a good development that will help security agencies neutralize some of these security situations.
“We have and I think that is working out very well in the East. But they must seek legitimacy because we cannot forget in a hurry about the Onitsha and the Bakassi boys and the clash of interests. There have been many other difficult security situations solved with the help of such well organized regional vigilante groups”.
He said that the likes of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and his group, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), needed to be properly guided.
“I see the IPOB composition as mostly young people or youth organization that did not see the Nigerian /Biafran civil war. They’re equally being supported and sponsored. But they need to be guided.
“People should not die for a course they believe in and I am sure you will agree with me that it hasn’t gotten to that level yet. I never liked this Egwueke thing set up to checkmate the IPOB. That thing could have been averted and this again is centered on the security where I will be displaying my wealth of experience as security expertise in protecting the Igbo and by extension the entire eastern Nigeria,” he said.
On the 2023 Igbo Presidency, Oparaocha said, “I believe that what is good for the Geese is also good for the Gander. Since Nigeria’s independence about 60 years ago, the North has produced presidents of this country more than the entire South against this rotational Presidency arrangement.
“In Southern Nigeria again, the South-West has had its slot; followed by the South-South in the person of the immediate past President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, though he did for one term after completing his joint ticket with late President Umaru Yar’Adua. what is bad if an Easterner or Igbo man in particular becomes President of this country in 2023?”
For effective piloting of its affairs, Oparaocha said, “I will consolidate on the gains of my predecessors, Chief Nnia Nwodo, who has done his best to bring Ohanaeze Ndigbo to where we are today”.
He added, “My priority if by God’s grace I emerge the next Ohanaeze president is to work for Nigeria’s next President of Igbo extraction in the next election. I will put all machineries to work because there is no way we can achieve desired success from outside the nation’s seat of power; the Aso Rock and the National Assembly”.