IS IKE NWACHUKWU THE RIGHT PERSON TO LEAD SOUTH EAST DELEGATES TO THE NATIONAL CONFAB? A GROUP DISAGREES!

Sen. Ike Nwachukwu

A group, called the Lower Niger Congress (LNC), has rejected the nomination of General Ike Nwachukwu as the leader of South East delegates to the national conference which was inaugurated yesterday by President Goodluck Jonathan. Addressing newsmen in Aba, Abia State at the end of a town hall meeting organized by the group, its Secretary General, Chief Tony Nnadi said his group was opposed to Nwachukwu’s nomination to lead the South East delegates at the confab because he fought against the interest of Ndigbo during the civil war of 1967 to 1970. He lamented that it would be difficult for Ndigbo to achieve its objective of redressing the injustice done her since the amalgamation of Nigeria in 1914 with its delegate led by Nwachukwu who was not on her side during the war. “What the Igbos need now is to firmly  grab the opportunity presented by the national conference to discuss about the union, our being in Nigeria which since 1914 has put us into enslavement and if we still need to be there and continued to be enslaved

. “With the South East delegates being led by someone who fought against us during our war of emancipation, inflicted pains and killed his kinsmen; we are afraid if we are going to make headway at the confab,” he said. Nnadi called on the South East Zone to use the opportunity presented by the national conference to address certain imbalances against it in the Nigerian federation. “Since the Aburi Accord of 1967, everybody knew there had been an unfinished business in the project called Nigeria; hence the confab and we should not make the mistake of sending people like Gen. Ike Nwachukwu who would not represent the interest of Igbos. 

“The amalgamation of Northern and Southern Protectorates by Lord Lugard was a treaty and all treaties have life span of 100 years. That being the case, Nigeria as a union is dead and its burial ceremony will be conducted inside 2014 and if there will be a new union, it would be worked out by all,” he said. It would be recalled that the Abia state governor and chairman,South East Governors’ Forum, Chief Theodore Orji had at the end of their recent meeting in Enugu, announced the  nomination of Gen. Ike Nwachukwu (rtd) to lead South East delegates to the national conference.