Ben Onyechere Goofed On Atiku
Albeit, I have not met Chief Ben Onyechere, the National Publicity
Secretary of PPA, live. But I have great reverence for him on how he
handles most of disturbing national issues on the pages of the
newspapers. Much as I have respect for him, I cannot sit and watch my
conscience suffer prejudices if I don’t add voice to the condemnation by
many patriots who have criticized the statement credited to Chief Ben
Onyechere reflected in the Sun Newspapers of 6th May, 2007 where he
stated that if not for Atiku’s hatred for the Igbos and his refusal to
be Chief Alex Ekwueme running mate during the PDP 1999 Presidential
primaries, the Ibos would have produced an Ibo man as the President of
Nigeria in 2003.
Reacting to the Onyechere’s statement, Chief Eze. C. Eze, Publicity
Secretary of Action Congress, (AC) Rivers State, has said that according
to Chief Onyechere’s calculation, Dr. Ekwueme after been elected as a
President will resign by 2006 to pave way for Atiku’s presidency that
would have permitted him to run as a sitting President for the 2007
Presidential election which he would have won convincingly without his
current effort of resorting to the Supreme Court to annul the
Presidential election that brought up President Yar’Adua as the
President of Nigeria, “ If Atiku had stuck to the agreement between some
elements in the South East and the North in 2003 he (Atiku) would have
naturally become the President of Nigeria in 2007. The plot was for
Atiku to become the running mate to Ekuweme instead of Obasanjo and for
Ekwueme to be President for three yars, between 2003 and 2006 after
which he would resign for Atiku to be President and therefore contest
the 2007 Presidentuial election an incumbent”
After careful and critical analysis and the import of the above
statement by Chief Onywkere on both Chief Alex Ekweume and the Ibos in
general the Rivers State AC felt the need of not only straightening the
record but to condemn the derogatory, absurd and insulting stand of PPA
Chief. Chief Onyechere stand means that the Ibos through Dr. Ekweume
could not become Nigeria ’s President due to the antecedent of one
single man – Atiku Abubakar.
The AC thinks that the statement of Chief of the Ibos relying on one man
to actualize an Ibo man becoming a President of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria is insulting to the Ibos. To add salt to an open injury, Chief
Onyechere went ahead to state that Dr. Ekwem if elected would have
resigned by 2006 to pave way for Atiku to become President. In other
words an Ibo man is not entitled to finish his tenure as an elected
President of Nigeria apart from the fact that this plot would have
denied the South one extra one year due to them based on the Zonal
principle of eight years for the South and eight years for the North.
If PPA cannot ask Chief Onyechere to retrace this infamous statement;
the Ibo Leadership should at least intervene and ask this man to guide
his irrepressible month. The party thinks that instead of being vilified
by the people like Chief Onyechere, Atiku need to be commended for not
been an instrument to deny the Southern part of Nigeria the number of
years due them to run the Presidency of Nigeria not minding that the
beneficiary of this arrangement, General Obasanjo, was a total failure.
Putting the record straight, Atiku has never and will never nurse any
hatred for any Ibo man no matter the odds; the National Leader of PPA,
Dr. Orji Uzo Klau who is a well-known associate of Atiku, can attest to
this. How can somebody who is married to an Ibo Lady (Dr. Jennifer
Atiku) hate the Ibos the way Chief O is trying to make us believe? How
could somebody who hates the Ibos that much take an Ibo man (Senator Ben
Obi) as his running mate for the 2007 Presidential election and ditch
one of his best friends and great supporter of the dream of AC (Chief of
Tinubu of Lagos State) who invested so much in building AC as a party
and still be termed as a hater of the Ibos- what a fallacy and what a
misleading statement! How can somebody who is a title-holder in the Ibo
land( Ezi Enyi of Anambra, nwanne di n’mba of Imo State) termed to be a
hater of the Ibos if not that somebody is trying to be mischievous?
Nigerians, according to Chief Eze, could remember vividly in 1998 when
Atiku was campaigning to be the Governor of Adamawa State and he
approached the Ibos. Listen to what he told them: “I come to you as a
Southerner as most of my businesses are all based in the Southern part
of Nigeria and most of my business and political associates are all Ibos
to beg you Ibos in Adamawa who are more Adamawa than me to ask you to
vote me). His love to the Ibos made the Ibos both in Adamawa and Taraba
to crown him the ‘Ochendu Ndigbo’; then how come a misguided Chief
Onyechere termed this son of the Ibos as a hater of the Ibos?
Tonye Princewill, leader of Rivers AC, summed it up: “If Atiku hates the
Ibos that much, how come he made an Ibo man (Dr. AC Ndukwe) his personal
physician and trusting his life on an Ibo man? If these are not enough,
how come that 35% of the Ibos are employed in his numerous business
outfits? We must not give a dog a bad name just because we want to hang
the dog. Yes, Atiku may be undergoing through some political baptism but
the fact remains that he will come out of stronger and better to take
Nigeria to the next level.”
By Odimegwu Onwumere
Odimegwu Onwumere, Founder,
Poet Against Child Abuse.
Rivers State. 08032552855