Help Rally Igbo Support for FG, Atiku Tells Nwodo

PDP hails president-general’s election
Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja
Former Vice President and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Atiku Abubakar, has urged the newly elected president of the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, the Ohanaeze, Chief John Nnia Nwodo, to assist in mobilising his people to support President Muhammadu Buhari- led administration.

While congratulating Nwodo on his election as President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the apex socio-cultural organisation of the Igbo nation, Atiku urged him to galvanise his kinsmen to proffer solutions to the myriads of issues of interest to the Igbo people and Nigerians in general.

In a statement issued by his media office yesterday, the former vice president said Nwodo’s election: “Is auspicious coming at a time when the Igbo nation, nay, the entire Nigerian federation is facing challenges of nationhood, and needs men and women of knowledge and goodwill to get the country out of this challenge.”
He said Nwodo could not have assumed leadership at a better time.

Atiku noted that Nwodo ranks very high among the many quality men and women in the Igbo nation who could fill the position of Leader of Ohanaeze, and for the mantle to have fallen on the former Minister of Information attests to the high esteem in which he is held in Igbo land and beyond.

The APC chieftain commended the leadership of Ohanaeze for holding a hitch-free and rancour-free election thereby showing that democratic transfers of power in our society can be carried out in a harmonious manner.

Atiku urged the new executive of the group and the generality of Igbos to join hands with the new President-General to proffer solutions to the myriads of issues of interest to the Igbo people and Nigerians in general.
The former vice president called on Nwodo to also mobilise the Igbo people to give maximum support to the government of President Muhammadu Buhari in his effort to re-position and unite the country, adding that political unity and peace are important for economic development to take place in the country.

Atiku pledged his readiness to work with the new leadership of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo to further a national agenda that will make all Nigerians proud of their country.
Meanwhile, the National Caretaker Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has expressed joy at the emergence of Nwodo as the as the President-General of Ohanaeze Ndi-Igbo.
Meanwhile, the PDP has said it is ready to work with the new leader of the Igbo nation to drive the cause of national development.

In a statement issued yesterday by the Secretary of the Caretaker Committee, Senator Ben Ndi Obi, the party urged the president-general to use his office to chat the way forward for the Igbo nation in the political equation of this country.

“I write to congratulate you on your well-deserved victory as the President-General of the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndi-Igbo. We were delighted at the news of your victory.

“We were confident you would emerge the President-General of the Igbo umbrella body, having proven in the past, of your capacity and competence with the various positions you have held such as second republic minister under President Shehu Shagari, minister of information under General Abdulsalami Abubakar, having served meritoriously in those offices, we have no doubt that you will bring your wealth of experience to bear in this exalted office.

“Your emergence would no doubt restore the moral compass of the group and return it to the glorious visions of its founding fathers; and set it on course to chat the way forward for the Igbo nation in the political equation of this country.

“I am aware of your past contributions to the development of this body, I recall with nostalgia our joint involvement in reorganising Ohanaeze Ndigbo, when some of us came together under the able leadership of Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, Senator Arthur Nzeribe, Uche Chukwumerije, Prof. ABC Nwosu, your good self and my humble self, which led to Ojukwu becoming the chairman of the strategic committee of Ohanaeze Ndi Igbo.

“With that at the back of my mind, it is very clear to me, you are firmly on a familiar terrain and would act decisively to uplift the Igbo Nation at home and in diaspora with pride and dignity. “As you embark on your new responsibilities, we wish to assure you of the continuous cooperation of the PDP in the affairs of Ndigbo.