POLITICS
2023: Kalu Betrayed Igbo Cause for Personal Interest — Ohanaeze Youths
The Ohanaeze Youth Council has descended heavily on the Chief Whip of the Senate, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu describing his withdrawal from the presidential race and declaration of support for the President of Senate, Ahmed Lawan, as a betrayal of the Igbo cause.
The Ohanaeze Youth Council insisted that the quest of the South East to produce a Nigerian President of Igbo extraction is non-negotiable.
The National President of Ohanaeze Youth Council, Igboayaka O Igboayaka, made the comment in a state on Friday.
Igboayaka regretted that he led a 10-man delegation of Ohanaeze youths on solidarity visit to Kalu when he was in detention at Kuje Prison.
He said that Kalu should apologize to the Igbo people for offending their sensibilities.
Igboayaka who said that Kalu decided to support Lawan in pursuit of an alleged intent to become Senate President warned that there would’ve no room for electoral campaign for the Senate in the South East if the Igbo are denied the Presidential ticket at the primaries.
Igboayaka was reacting to Kalu statement that he would support the Senate President who is from the North East which according to him, is closest to the region on the issue of equity and fairness.
“In the absence of a South Easterner being president of Nigeria in 2023, I have my full support for a North Easterner. This is because it would be the closest to the equity, fairness and Justice everyone is talking about. It further means that the justice is on its way to the South East.” He had said But Igboayaka who disagreed with Kalu said, “I recall that I took 10 National Executives of Ohanaeze Youth Council (OYC) to Abuja, we were ushered in at Kuje prison on Monday, February 10, 2020 at about 11:41. Our brother Orji Uzor Kalu received us in one of the prison Director’s office, dressed in a pair of white native attire.
“In my utmost conviction whether guilty or not guilty, I told Orji Uzor Kalu that his persecution was as a result of the zone he came from, but God will find a way to deliver you.
“We prayed for Senator Orji Uzor Kalu for God to show him mercy and love. My brother Orji Uzor Kalu was very excited that his younger brothers and sisters left Southeast to Abuja just to demonstrate the Igbo symbol of Unity.
“Lo and behold, Orji Uzor Kalu opted that we should keep visiting him at Keju prison, but in my Prophetic inspiration I said, “Onyeisi we will not visit you here, our next visit to you will be in your house to discuss how Ndigbo will produce a Nigerian President of Southeast extraction 2023.
“To my utmost dismay just on Tuesday, May 10, 2022, I read my brother Orji Uzor Kalu flying on a selfish political wing, and throwing his support on Sen. Ahmed Lawan from Northeast of Northern Nigeria, with the ill-motive to return to the Senate to become the Senate president, but Orji Uzor Kalu should bear it in mind that there will be No safe ground in Igbo land to campaign for his selfish Senate election if Southeast are denied presidential tickets in 2022 APC and PDP primaries.
“Sen. Orji Uzor Kalu you can recall that Ohanaeze Youth Council executives didn’t leave their comfort zone far away from East to visit you in Kuje prison to discuss about Senate president.
You have insulted our sense of sensibility, therefore we demand apology from you, if not for anything for the pains and cost of moving 10 national Executives on a solidarity visit to you at Kuje prison.
“In the Spirit Of Fairness, Justice and Equity, we stand on a rotational presidency, that Southwest and South-South are vying for president is inconsequential to your outburst and support for Sen. Ahmed Lawan. If you don’t have the capacity to vie, we expect you to support your brothers in APC like Ogbonnaya Onu and co.
“It’s obvious that Orji Uzor Kalu’s statement against Southeast presidential project is a show of shame, timidity, cowardice and a classified political profiteer’s mindset.
“Time has gone when some Igbo political elites speak for Ndigbo. The new generation of Igbo extraction wouldn’t tolerate such comment from Orji Uzor Kalu and his likes. Therefore, the decision of what Ndigbo want will be determined by Igbo youths numbering over Fifty Million (50,000 000).
“I challenge Senator Orji Uzor Kalu if he is man enough to call a meeting in an open field in Aba, and tell us that he will support Senator Alhmed Lawan”.
The Abia Chapter of the INEC Staff Welfare Association (ISWA) has warned its members to uphold the integrity of the commission and guard against the culture of manipulating election results.
The Abia Chairman of the association, Mr Collins Eze, gave the advice at the group’s general meeting and end-of-year party in Umuahia.
Speaking in an interview with newsmen on the sideline of the ceremony, Eze said that the staff members were adequately aware of their enormous responsibility and should ensure free, fair and credible elections.
He said: “We have also told our colleagues that anywhere they find themselves they should make sure that they do the needful by ensuring transparency in the conduct of elections.
“We have always told them not to allow anybody to induce them with money to manipulate election results.
“I’m happy that they have been building the capacity of our colleagues on election processes.
“So, in the coming years, we won’t have any problem in ensuring free, fair and peaceful elections.”
He said that the end-of-year party was special as it afforded them the opportunity “to wine and dine together as well as thank God for sustaining them in 2024”.
Eze said that his leadership had introduced various means of assisting members in dire financial needs by providing platforms to solicit suppory for them.
He expressed gratitude to members for their support and cooperation, describing them as the “secret behind the success of this administration”.
He said that 34 of at least 350 staff members of the commission in the state retired from service in 2024.
According to him, the development has placed a huge financial burden on the association, in terms of their welfare and entitlement as members.
Report says that each member received a carton of tomato paste as Christmas gift from the association. (NAN)
A chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Osita Okechukwu, has told the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to be thankful to God that its 16-year administration was not probed by the successive APC-led governments.Okechukwu stated this on Tuesday in Abuja, while reacting to a statement by PDP congratulating Ghanaians for the conduct of free, fair and transparent general elections.
Report says that PDP had, in a statement, said that the verdict of the people of Ghana in the presidential election was a signal to the APC that its days were numbered. The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, had said in the statement that the power of the people in Nigeria, just like in Ghana, would ‘surely prevail and end the APC’s oppressive rule’.This, he said, would “return Nigeria to the path of good governance, security, political stability and economic prosperity on the platform of the PDP in 2027.”However, in his reactions to Ologunagba’s statement, Okechukwu said that the PDP clan should thank God that former President Muhammadu Buhari and President Bola Tinubu, out of sheer statesmanship, had refused to probe ‘the 16 locus years of PDP administrations’.Okechukwu, a former Director-General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), described the 16 years of PDP administrations as ones full of squandering and lack of plan.He said that Nigeria had yet to recover from the humongous culture of impunity and trust deficit planted by PDP on the Nigerian soil.Okechukwu said corruption was among the culture of impunity, saying it governed the privatisation of Nigeria’s electricity value chain, a key element in the country’s industrialisation drive.“Another is the blatant rigging of the 2007 general elections which the foremost beneficiary, President Umaru Yar’Adua, out of good conscience and noble magnanimity, publicly acknowledged the malfeasance which characterised his victory,” he said.Okechukwu also mentioned what he called conscienceless sale of the legislative and ministerial quarters, the annual rentage of which, he said, was bleeding the country’s treasury.“Another one is the neglect of $23 billion Greenfield Refinery, which could have saved over $70 billion expended on importation of refined petroleum products and which simulated the economic hardship of today,” he said.On why, for nine years, the APC administration could not fix those challenges, he recalled the efforts made by the Buhari administration to reopen talks on the Greenfield Refinery which, according to him, the Chinese regrettably rebuffed.The former VON director-general said that Nigerians were not in a hurry to forget the deliberate breach of the rotational convention of president from the north to the south.He said that the country could not also forget the utter disregard for Section 7 of the PDP’s constitution which expressly mandated zoning.Okechukwu advised the PDP not to insult the sensibilities of Nigerians by assuming that citizens would easily forget how they were put in the harms way.He said that PDP should thank God that Buhari and Tinubu did not want to probe them, adding “that’s why Nigerians cannot decipher the difference between the two political parties.” (NAN)
Sen. Ned Nwoko (PDP-Delta) says that Local Government Administration is central to democracy in Nigeria as it ensures grassroots governance and service delivery at the local level.This is contained in a statement signed by Dr Michael Nwoko, the Chief of Staff to the lawmaker in Abuja on Monday.Nwoko said this on the occasion of the presentation of an award “Icon of Hope” to him by the Association of Local Government Vice Chairmen of Nigeria (ALGOVC).
He was represented by his Chief of Staff. He said that the importance of local government administration in the country could not be overemphasised, as it was the bedrock of democracy.According to him, local governments in Nigeria play key roles in the country’s democracy by promoting participatory democracy, providing services, and representing citizens.“Local Governments help determine local needs and how to meet them. They also act as a link between the centre, state, and local people.“They are created to decentralise power and bring the government closer to the people. They perform both mandatory and concurrent functions.“It is in view of this that I took it upon myself to enhance the viability of local governments through the Paris and London club loan refunds,”he said.Dr Folashade Olabanji-Oba, ALGOVC National Chairman, while presenting the award at its 7th Annual National Conference, said the award was in recognition of the lawmaker’s significant contributions to strengthening local government administration.She highlighted Nwoko’s critical role in ensuring the Paris and London Club loan refunds, a financial breakthrough she said enhanced the capacity of local governments nationwide.(NAN)
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