Assistant Editor South East, CHRISTIAN NWOKOCHA x-rays the just concluded PDP and APC presidential campaigns in the South East and failure of the zone’s leadership in extracting commitments from the candidates.
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressive Congress (APC), last week, concluded their presidential campaigns in the South East with their presidential candidates – Goodluck Jonathan (PDP) and Muhammadu Buhari (APC) claiming certain levels of relationship with the people of the region. While Jonathan prances around with Ebele, Azikiwe (Igbo names) to his name, the APC presidential candidate Muhammadu Buhari added Okechukwu (Igbo name) – a name msaid to have been given to him by his great grandmother who the Imo State governor, Rochas Okorocha said came from “somewhere” in Anambra state.
Both candidates had reasonable crowd whether they were rented or real. They also made promises to the crowd that gathered for their reception.
It was indeed an opportunity for them to sell their individual and party programmes.
Jonathan had a field day as an incumbent, using the opportunity to state what he has achieved for Nigerians as President and promised to do more. He promised improved power supply, completion of existing projects such as roads, industries, employment and the Second Niger Bridge. On Imo education projects, the president said the federal government contributed to over 50 percent of all education projects including the controversial free education in the state, under the education partnership policy of the federal government.
Buhari also made promises in the areas of road construction, youth empowerment programmes and to deal with Boko Haram and corruption related matters.
Curiously, while the euphoria lasted, the governors of the South East, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Igbozurume and other numerous pressure groups failed to strike political, economic and infrastructural development deals with either Jonathan or Buhari in the interest of the people.
This implies that any candidate that wins cannot be responsible for any pact that did not exist.
An Igbo elder statesman and Ex-Biafra Commander, Col. Joe Achuzie and the South East CAN President Bishop Ebele were of the same opinion that the failure of Ohanaeze and the South East governors’ Forum to secure a deal with any of the presidential candidates was not proper in the present day Nigeria project.
Achuzie particularly stressed that there were no one-on-one discussions with any of the candidates on behalf of the Igbo people. “That of Jonathan, we had earlier had group discussions as Igbo on what to do with him. That of APC candidate, no discussions on issues about him. My stand from the beginning is not to give him my support. I don’t try to mix up issues. I keep my distance because I have already assessed him, known his objectives and motives on why he insists in taking over government of the federation. He should not be given the opportunity by me or anybody related to me or the Igbo in general to enable him achieve these objectives against the Igbo people, Christians and related matters that are not in tune with new ideas in the world. Consequently my interest is to ensure that his objectives and ideas of what he thinks Nigeria should be will not be achieved through the Igbo nation. His thinking about Nigeria is actually different from what he believes. If he eventually wins which I am sure he will not, some Yoruba who follow him today will definitely regret knowing Buhari”, he stated.
Achuzie added that he believes in Jonathan completing his tenure of eight years to avoid abandoned projects. “It is mandatory that we vote for him. For Ohanaeze to move in this direction, it requires Igbo council of elders to work with Ohanaeze for any meaningful demand, but the governors of the South East are not as organized as they should be and this is affecting the activities of Ohanaeze which should front the Igbo demands. However, we expect that before the end of the second quarter of the next administration all the projects located in Igbo land would have been completed”, he said.
TheNiche gathered that in past elections, Ohanaeze and South East Governors Forum had failed to extract commitments from candidates on development of infrastructure in the interest of the zone. Prior to general elections in 2003, 2007 and 2011 there were no concrete bargains for political and economic empowerment of the zone.
