APC slams Igbo’s endorsement of Jonathan-2015

The All Progressives Congress in the South-East on Sunday slammed the endorsement of President Goodluck Jonathan to contest in 2015 by some leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party in the zone, saying those who announced the endorsement of the President were selfish individuals.

The South-East APC said that though Jonathan had the constitutional right to contest re-election but that that it was opposed to the “scant strategy” adopted by those who endorsed the President.

Spokesman for the opposition party in the South-East, Mr. Osita Okechukwu, said this in a statement to react to the endorsement of the President as ‘Igbo candidate’ by some leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party in the South-East.

The PDP leaders, on the platform of Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria, endorsed Jonathan at a rally in Awka, Anambra State, on Saturday.

Okechukwu said those behind the Jonathan’s endorsement for 2015 were “Ndigbo-Chop-Sand-Band of politicians who crave to put all our eggs in one basket, foreclose the chances of president of Igbo extraction and subject the hardworking and enterprising Igbos to perpetual beggarly status.”

He added, “They over stretch the stereo-type of Ndigbo Chopping-Sand since after the civil war, therefore Jonathan’s victory will compel our contemporaries, the Yorubas and the Hausas to join in chopping sand.

“Ndigbo-Chop-Sand-Band drummers are not interested whether President Jonathan performed or not, whether he honoured the promises he made to Ndigbo during the 2011 electioneering campaign nor whether his presidential slot impedes on the chances of our producing a president of Igbo extraction in the nearest future.

“Otherwise, how come that up to date there is no Environmental Impact Assessment, no private sector counterpart funding, only N30bn Sure-P-Fund taxed from the people; and most importantly, why the second Niger Bridge is not captured in the federal budget, since, according the drummers, Jonathan so loves Ndigbo.”

Okechukwu’s statement added, “The Chop-Sand-Band thinks that Ndigbo’s memory is so short to forget that it was His Royal Majesty, the Obi of Onitsha, Agbogidi, Igwe Alfred Nnaemaka Achebe, who in February this year, woke our dear President from deep slumber over the promise he made on the second Niger Bridge; upon which fire service approach of Public, Private Partnership was enacted.

“Or is it not amusing that Prof. Chinedu Nebo, Minister of Power, one of the drummers, who talked of Grand Expectation Journey (GEJ), couldn’t tell Ndigbo why the coal project has not taken off-ground and what happened to the N927m, N1.7bn and N1.1bn budgeted for the study survey of Enugu and Gombe Coal in 2012, 2013 and 2014 respectively?

“The revamping of coal was one of our Grand Expectation Journey, premised on the promise made by Jonathan at the South-East PDP Zonal rally during the 2011 electioneering campaign, yet he so loves Ndigbo.”

The party expressed concerns that Jonathan would be “allocated” votes in the South-East in 2015.

“In sum, our fear is that the core ingredient of election, which is a referendum on the performance of the incumbent, may not prevail as the Chop-Sand-Band are constructing a scenario where President Jonathan, like in 2011, would be allocated millions of votes in the South-East, without commensurate performance.”

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