By Tony Edike

ENUGU—THE Igbo Students Association, yesterday, cautioned the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, to drop its plan to endorse a particular presidential candidate for the 2011 election, saying the organisation should remain neutral to ensure its relevance.

In a statement issued by Messrs Eric Udeh and Uchenna Achike, President and Secretary of the group, the students noted with dismay “the untidy way Igbo leaders are going about campaigning for various presidential aspirants without considering our plight as future leaders.”

The group lamented that “unemployment, insecurity, ASUU strike and poverty are dealing with the South East heartlessly, while some Igbo leaders are busy mortgaging away our future in Abuja.

“The Igbo Students Association bemoans the lack of coordination of Igbo leaders.
Some have endorsed Mr. President, while others were locked out in Owerri. We ask whither Ndigbo? What is in it for Ndigbo? What promises have our leaders extracted from the man they have endorsed?”

Insisting that the Igbo cannot give away their support for free, the group wondered why President Goodluck Jonathan had not deemed it necessary to negotiate with Ndigbo over his ambition.

“We hope that a rumour of an impending Ohanaeze endorsement of a particular candidate is not true. Ohanaeze is not a political party; Ohanaeze has no business endorsing presidential candidates,” the group said, warning that any attempt by the umbrella Igbo organisation to endorse any candidate would only polarize Ohanaeze as experienced during the aborted third-term agenda of a former regime.