By Chioma Gabriel, Deputy Editor
In his  reaction, factional National Chairman of All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, Chekwas Okorie has dismissed the communique issued by the so-called leaders of the South-East and Northern Summit as a decision of political businessmen who have been out of relevance and are desperately looking for relevance in the scheme of things and therefore should not be taken serious.

The APGA leader  urged the Igbo to disregard any media report tagging Igbos to have taken a position as that has not happened.
Excerpts.

It was reported that the South-East leaders have accepted zoning to the North till 2015. How true is this?
There is no consensus agreement because the people from the list published in the papers do not represent the Igbo people.

If you look at the names of the people who attended the meeting with the North, you will discover that they are people who held positions in the past in this country but they are no longer in office and so, they are looking for a way to attain relevance in Nigeria’s politics once again but these should not be taken serious.

They are former governors, former senate president and several of them who were in PDP government but have lost their relevance. They think they will achieve relevance by supporting zoning but you and I know that zoning is a PDP affair. Other political parties do not have  zoning in their constitution. It is only PDP and that is their business.

South-East is not a political party. We are a people of diverse political parties and political orientations and the group that had a meeting with Northern elders don’t represent the South-East. They represent themselves.

From the way things are going, it seems zoning has gone beyond PDP because the North is now calling for all the parties to adopt Northern presidential candidates.

There is a limit to that kind of manipulation. There is no way anybody can force the APGA which is recognised by INEC to adopt a Northern Presidential candidate. It is not possible. We are human beings, not cows. Nobody can push us around and that is why our people should get together to plan for our future.

You must also know that the meeting as reported is different from another meeting that will take place on Monday that will be chaired by Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu. That is a meeting of South-East people and that is different from what took place between some of  these   retired PDP people and the North.

So, what some of these people have gone to do is business because they are trying to do political business in the name of Igbo people but that would not work. Our people are everywhere. You can see us in every part of Nigeria and that is why I am saying that it is impossible to hoodwink us.

Some of these people mentioned are top Igbo politicians and they have followers.

It’s political business they are doing but what I don’t believe is that a man like Ezeife would be a party to that type of meeting. I can vouch that he was not a party to that decision because the Ezeife I know would not be part of such a decision. He thinks differently and that is why I don’t understand his presence in the midst of such a people.

What transpired is a PDP business and I can tell you that is not even representative of South-East PDP because I’m aware some PDP people in the South-East would want Jonathan to contest. So, I don’t believe that communique is representative of the views of the South-East PDP and therefore should not be taken serious.

So, as 2011 is approaching and Jonathan has not declared, what do you think should happen if he decides because Nigerians believe PDP will produce the next President?

Whatever Jonathan decides to do, he will  still negotiate with the zones. It is possible that the APGA that I lead will negotiate with President Jonathan if he decides to contest in 2011. If he solicits APGA’s support, he may get their support for presidency 2011.

My only concern is for our people to take the right decision and vote right. South East people should not let themselves be misled by any businessman in politics. It will not work because they are agitating to satisfy their individual selfish agenda and not working for the common interest of  the Igbo people. They should therefore be disregarded and their views taken as their individual opinion.

They did not represent us— Uwechue, Ohanaeze President

To start with, individuals can have their preferences but the preferences of individuals should not be taken as the position of the entire ndigbo. For Ndigbo as a people to have a position, there has to be an analysis of the situation, before we take a position. We are consulting quietly and  analysing the legitimate interest of Igbos.

Individuals are free to make their alliances but they will be talking for themselves and not for the South-East people because the South-East has not taken any decision on that. Individual Igbo leaders should not posit their views as the general view of the South East people because they have none for now.