Insulting and Blackmailing Ekweremadu won’t help in the 2019 Elections
There is a total falsehood originating from one Mazi Omife, which is currently circulating on various social media platforms. He made outlandish claims all aimed at smearing and demarketing the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu and inciting unsuspecting Ndigbo against him.
Among other gebrish, Omife and his cohorts wrote: “I really felt very bad after listening to Ike Ekweremadu on Channels Tv interview as he propounded his anti-Igbo political theory in which he canvassed support for Buhari against our own son, Peter Obi. After listening to him, I had the impression that all hope has been lost about Igbos political destiny in the Nigerian political scene. I became even more confounded and dumb founded when shortly after, the same Ekweremadu led Igbo governors to visit Buhari during which they expressed their support for his second term. After the visit, they announced to the Igbos how Buhari had become a ‘changed man’ in his unhidden anti-Igbo proclivity”.
Instructicely, Vanguard Newspaper published a verbatim of the Channels TV interview on Saturday, December 29, 2018. Here are Ekweremadu’s responses to the only part of the lengthy interview that dealt with Igbo, PDP, and the presidency: https://www.vanguardngr.com/…/ekweremadu-what-we-need-to-e…/
Talking of the role of the South East in national matters, you are the most senior South-Easterner in the Nigeria political structure. There have been calculations about the South East producing the next president in 2023. Is it just politics, agenda or there is a bigger and broader plan?
Let me clarify this: no one part of Nigeria can decide to take the presidency and succeed in taking it. What has happened over the years is that, the presidency of the country is dependent on the mood of the nation. In 1999, the mood of the nation was for a Southern President from the Western part of Nigeria. That was how Chief Olusegun Obasanjo became the President. In 2007 again when he was leaving office, the Peoples Democratic Party had zoned it’s presidency to the North, which was the mood of the nation at the time. When President Musa Yar’Adua died, Goodluck Jonathan concluded his tenure and ran for one more term. He contested again in 2015, but the mood of the nation then was that the next President would also come from the North. So, it wasn’t just about Jonathan or President Muhammadu Buhari. It was the mood of the nation. My projection in 2023 is that the mood of the nation would favour a President of Igbo extraction.
Your party has nominated a running mate of the presidential candidate in this cycle from the South East, and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has said he would serve only one term. That seems to fit in very neatly into the 2023 projections. Is that really what is going on?
Well, we have to do all we can to maintain the unity of this country. Everyone would have to make a sacrifice to ensure that happens. Buhari is concluding a four-year term by 2019. If he wins, he can only do one more term of four years, hence the expectation that the next President will come from the South. If Atiku wins, he understands clearly that the next president, will come from the South East. So, it makes political sense for him to commit to one term. Everyone is beginning to see the need and wisdom in ensuring that every part of Nigeria is accommodated at the highest office of the nation.
Here is the YouTube link:https://youtu.be/ceu8WlPzc3g
The interview can also be viewed on his Facebook @Iamekweremadu.
So, whether it was in Omife’s dream or in a vision he heard the mischief he attributed to Senator Ekweremadu and South East PDP Governors, only him and his paymasters are in a position to tell.
However, I don’t think insulting, blackmailing, and smearing Ekweremadu or attributing total falsehoods to him words or imputing wild and downright stupid motives to the Senator will be of any help to the PDP or Ndigbo in 2019.
Although a nationalist, Ekweremadu has fought the Igbo cause so valiantly along with people like Distinguished Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe. When some people preferred to look the other way over the plights of Ndigbo since 2015 in order not to incur the wrath of the APC government, Ekweremadu and some other valiant comrades, especially in the National Assembly, roared and rose to the challenge despite the attendant bruises and persecution. When it was most profitable to dump the PDP, remained strong to rally party faithful towards the revival of the PDP. He remains one of the few PDP chieftains that have not left the party for once since 1998. deserves some respect. How many leopards does one need to kill to addressed as leopard killer (Ogbuagu)?
Indeed, those promoting the anti-Ekwerwmadu propaganda for sometime now are the real enemies of Igbo and PDP political interest. Enough is enough.