The promise made by some Igbo leaders on Wednesday to support the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, in the forthcoming 2019 election has split the South-East.
The Igbo leaders spoke in Enugu after a meeting where elder statesman, Prof. Ben Nwabueze, urged on them to do him the honour of achieving Atiku’s success.
“In conclusion, the summit reiterated that the time is now for Ndigbo to mobilise and organise effectively to realise the Atiku/Obi ticket,” a communique issued after the meeting had read.
But the leadership of Igbo World Union on Friday said the people of the South-East had yet to decide on which direction to vote in 2019, while the United Progressives Party and an Igbo group called Igboezuo also announced the adoption of President Muhammadu Buhari as its candidate for the 2019 polls.
UPP, Igbo group adopt Buhari
The National Chairman, UPP, Chief Chekwas Okorie, spoke with State House correspondents after a closed-door meeting with Buhari at the Presidential Villa.
Okorie, who doubles as the coordinator of Igboezue, said the group had adopted Buhari because it believed that doing so would pave the way for the emergence of an Igbo President in 2023.
“It is not good that the Igbo nation has put all their eggs in one basket for 16 years. In spite of this, Buhari has not stopped development in the zone. This is the time to get them to earn Igbo Presidency by voting for him in 2019,” he added.
Asked whether the adoption of Buhari did not conflict with the Enugu declaration, where some Igbo leaders already adopted Atiku, Okorie replied that it was not the Ndigbo that declared support for Atiku.
He claimed that there was no time the Ohanaeze Ndigbo met to endorse Atiku.
Okorie said, “Only four founding members of Ohanaeze Ndigbo are alive today and we have never met to endorse Atiku.
“We are poised to change the narrative. Just as Zik and Igbo leaders led Igbo people into coalition in the First and Second Republics, that is what Igboezue is determined to do now.”
