(Special Report) How South-East Marginalised Self at Major Presidential Primaries
Ebonyi State, other South East States are a sellout in the struggle to have South Eastern persons grabbing presidential tickets of major political parties in Nigeria. This they replicated in the presidential primary of the PDP. Only Ebonyi State delegates delivered a South Easterner — Sen. Anyim Pius Anyim 100 percent. Anambra, Enugu, Abia and Imo States sold theirs. It’s important that people of the South East who aren’t into politics note this. When we talk about the state that has interest of the Igbo at heart politically, only Ebonyi State comes to mind.
With this kind of mentality by the other four South East States, the Igbo man doesn’t stand a chance into the Aso Rock apart from a situation of the Yar’dua and Goodluck Jonathan repeats. In the Enugu-Onitsha expressway construction project linking the West African states, Ebonyi State constructed its own portion. Enugu and Anambra States did away with theirs. Today, these sections are almost impassable . I hope Igbo people are taking record.
Ebonyi State had 39 delegates in the APC presidential primary election that just ended. Out of that figure, Engr David Umahi got 38 votes; Dr Ogbonnaya Onu got 1 vote making it 39. Imo had over 100 delegates. Rochas Okorocha got zero. Emeka Nwajiuba got only 1 vote. Where did Imo votes go? They simply voted for Tinubu of the Yoruba extraction. Anambra State had about 100 delegates, Ikeobasi Mokelu from Anambra got zero vote. Where did Anambra votes go? Simply they went to Tinubu and Amaechi. They didn’t vote for a South Eastern aspirant. Abia had about 100 delegates. They didn’t vote for a South Eastern aspirant. They voted for Sen. Dr Ahmed Lawan of the North East. Enugu had about 50 delegates. They didn’t vote for a South Eastern aspirant. They possibly shared their votes to Tinubu and Amaechi.
Tomorrow, South East will be chanting the song of marginalisation when it’s clear that apart from
Igbos are the ones marginalising themselves and when the judgement comes to fore, Ebonyi State should be excluded from the statistics of the South East States that are mercantile in politics and anti Igbo political movement and philosophy. Congratulations to Ndi Ebonyi for the exemplary outings they have undertaken so far.
