Posted by By GODDY OSUJI, Enugu on
Ohanaeze Ndigbo, apex-Igbo socio-cultural organization, has expressed fears over the workability of President Umar Musa Yar'Adua's proposed unity government, saying it would be unrealistic if it were only based on the premise of sharing the spoils of office.
Ohanaeze Ndigbo, apex-Igbo socio-cultural organization, has expressed fears over the workability of President Umar Musa Yar'Adua's proposed unity government, saying it would be unrealistic if it were only based on the premise of sharing the spoils of office.
The organization said that a government of national unity would have been imperative if going by the results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) did not form the majority in the National Assembly.
The President General of Ohanaeze, Dr. Dozie Ikedife, in an address at the group's Imeobi meeting, in Enugu at the weekend, argued: 'We see the government of national unity, which the president is pursuing as a ploy to infiltrate and neutralise the opposition parties."
Ikedife, however, added: 'If the national unity government addresses the problems that arose from the flawed 2007 general elections and the remaking of the Nigeria constitution, it makes sense to have such a government." He insisted that the proposed government should not be limited to political parties.
Pointing out that the country did not belong to political parties alone, Ikedife advocated the involvement of representatives of all the ethnic nationalities and civil society organizations.
He said that Ohanaeze believed that a lasting solution to the socio-economic and political crises facing the country lay on the re-negotiation of a new federal structure with devolution of powers, functions and resources to the federating units.
The organization, in a resolution, called on all the elected officials in the South-East geo-political zone to articulate ideas and implement programmes that would have positive impact on the economic and infrastructural development of their states.
'The governors, legislature, the people and private sector need to work cooperatively to develop a blueprint for the economic reconstruction of their respective states. It is no longer tolerable that 37 years after the civil war, the Igbo are still lagging behind on the issues of the socio-economic development of their zones," the group said.
Apparently disillusioned by the continued detention of the leader of the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), Chief Ralph Uwazurike, the body described it as a slap on the fundamental rights of Igbo and therefore, called on the Federal Government to effect his immediate unconditional release as well as other political detainees languishing in prisons. It believes that the release of these people would go a long way in guaranteeing peace in Nigeria.
Ohanaeze further supported the position taken by the ethnic nationalities movement on several issues affecting the Nigerian state, while calling on other ethnic groups to join forces to present a united front against anti-people policies of the Federal Government.
The group also frowned at the arrest of members of an Igbo civil society organization by the State Security Services (SSS) in Enugu.