Apex Igbo socio-cultural organization, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has warned former president Goodluck Jonathan not to pitch Ijaws against Igbo people.
Ohaneze stated this in reaction to the purchase of All Progressives Congress, APC, presidential nomination form for Jonathan.
The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders’ Association, purchased the form for Jonathan on Monday. But the ex-President has come out to say he did not authorize the process.
Reacting to the development, Ohanaeze in a statement by its Secretary-General, Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro, told Jonathan not to forget the sacrifices Ndigbo made for him in the past.
He said Ndigbo gave the former President the highest support while he held sway, which earned them the 5 percent togga from the incumbent President, Muhammadu Buhari.
He declared that “there is no going back to the 2023 Nigerian President of Igbo stock and anything contrary to it amounts to a denial of equity, fairness, and justice.”
Isiguzoro said “there are frantic endeavors and backstage activities to pitch Ijaws against Ndigbo, a repeat of 1966 gimmicks aimed at the resuscitating the age-long enmity between the two ethnic groups of old Eastern region, which was demolished in 2011 when Igbos adopted Jonathan as our own.
“We expect Goodluck Jonathan as an elder statesman and African iconic personality to endorse an Igbo Presidency from the seven Igbo speaking States, including Anioma (in Delta) or Ikwerre (in Rivers).
“He should not forget that the South-East and the Igbos were his citadel of support in 2011 and 2015. We became marginalized and were regarded as 5 percent because of the support we gave Jonathan in 2015.
“This should be a payback time for the sacrifices we made for the Ijaws and Jonathan in particular”.
He said though backstage power mongers were enthusiastic about the division of Igbos and Ijaws of the old Eastern region for the gain of the North, “their plot is dead on arrival.”
