Apex Igbo sociocultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, said it has evidence and empirical records to show that Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and his running mate, Datti Ahmed, won the February 25, 2023 presidential election.
Insisting the duo is destined to rule Nigeria, the group said it is thrilled by intimidating mass movement that has come to signify consciousness of paradigm shift from a consumption to a production economy, which the Obi-Datti movement symbolises.
Ohanaeze Ndigbo was reacting to reports credited to one Ambassador Tony Chiemelu Obizoba that “the Peter Obi presidency on the platform of Labour Party is not destined to happen in 2023.”
Obizoba, who describes himself as Director General (Implementation and Strategic Planning) of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, had, in a statement, applauded “the victory of Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress” as winner and president-elect, following the presidential election.
Reacting, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, through its National Publicity Secretary, Dr. Alex Ogbonnia, dismissed Obizoba’s position as “one of the most reckless, irresponsible and mischievous publications.”
Describing Obizoba as a self-styled “ambassador”, Ohanaeze Ndigbo dissociated the organisation from any remark suggesting Peter Obi is not destined to rule Nigeria.
The group said it could have ignored the author but noted that silence in the circumstance would mean giving validity to the fallacy before an unsuspecting public.
Its statement reads in part: “Ohanaeze Ndigbo is proud to state that Peter Obi is a man whose track record of accomplishments has countervailed the regrettable and despicable tailspin of Nigerian bourgeois cash and carry democracy.
“Thus, Nigerians both at home and in the Diaspora have, through the Obi phenomenon, demonstrated a loud irrepressible and indelible landmark; an irrevocable corroboration that evil men thrive because good men go to sleep.
“Nigerians and indeed world leaders will continue to celebrate Obi for over one thousand years to come. Peter Obi will be remembered as a man who, with a mere force of morals, uprightness, persuasions and goodwill, changed the political narrative of the most populous and backward African country.”
The statement adds that the Secretary General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Ambassador Okey Emuchay, expressed deep shock that a “faceless meddlesome interloper, such as Tony Chiemelu Obizoba, can be taken serious by the media,” stressing: “It is highly inconceivable that at a point the Nigerian collective aspiration has gained an irresistible momentum, a true Igbo will make such reckless, shameless, embarrassing and demoralising statements using the hallowed name of Ohanaeze Ndigbo”
“We wish to use this opportunity to point out that the social media revolution has inadvertently thrown up an entirely new generation of half-baked, insidious ‘journalists’ who do not place value on ethics and codes of the profession, chief of which is investigative journalism. Otherwise, there is hardly any Nigerian journalist who cannot distinguish between those who speak for Ohanaeze, on one hand, and the spivs and charlatans on the other.”
