Stephen Ukandu Umuahia
The apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has disowned media report credited to one Tony Chiemelu Obizoba who claimed to be the Director-General, Implementation and Strategic Planning, Ohanaeze Ndigbo General Assembly Worldwide.
Obizoba in the purported media report wherein he also claimed to be speaking for Ohanaeze Ndigbo, said that it was not yet Obi’s time to be President.
But embarrassed by the “mischievous report,” Ohanaeze Ndigbo in a terse statement by its Publicity Secretary, Dr Alex Ogbonnia, said the said Obizoba was fake and unknown to the apex Igbo body.
Ohanaeze which dismissed Obizoba as an impostor hired by the enemies of Ndigbo for an odd job, urged the public to disregard the fake report which is the complete opposite of the position of Ohanaeze on Obi’s presidential ambition.
The statement made available to Ikengaonline read in full:
“The attention of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide has been drawn to one of the most reckless, irresponsible and mischievous publications currently circulating in the media by an uncouth wary transgressor, impostor, charlatan and scoundrel who parades himself as Ambassador Tony Chiemelu Obizoba, who deludes himself as the Director-General, Implementation and Strategic Planning, Ohanaeze Ndigbo General Assembly Worldwide.
“The self-styled “Ambassador” in his hallucinating illusions stated that the Peter Obi’s presidency on the platform of the Labour Party is not destined to happen in 2023.”
“He went on to applaud “the victory of Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress” as the winner and President-elect following the presidential election held on Saturday, February 25, 2023” among other things.
“Ordinarily, we would have ignored the said press release to avoid dignifying such maladjusted, impish scaremongers; but silence in this circumstance would mean giving validity to such fallacy by the unsuspecting gullible public.
“For purpose of clarity, Ohanaeze Ndigbo vehemently dissociates itself from any remark that suggests that Peter Obi is not destined to rule Nigeria. Rather, Ohanaeze has sufficient evidence and empirical records to show that Peter Obi and Datti Ahmed won the presidential election held on Saturday, February 25, 2023.
“Ohanaeze Nidigbo is impressed, thrilled and fascinated by the groundswell and intimidating mass movement, which has come to signify the consciousness of the paradigm shift from a consumption economy to a production economy, which the Obi-Datti movement symbolises in the present day Nigeria.
“Ohanaeze Ndigbo is proud to state that Peter Obi is a man whose track record of accomplishments has countervailed the regrettable and despicable tailspin of Nigerian bourgeois cash and carry democracy.
“Thus, Nigerians both at home and in the Diaspora have, through the Obi phenomenon, demonstrated a loud irrepressible and indelible landmark; an irrevocable corroboration that evil men thrive because good men go to sleep.
“Nigerians and indeed the world leaders will continue to celebrate Obi for over one thousand years to come. Peter Obi will be remembered as a man who with a mere force of morals, uprightness, persuasions and goodwill has changed the political narratives of the most populous and backward African country.
“One major challenge that has afflicted the Igbo for some decades now is the adulteration of the communal sensibility, the Igbo sense of originality. This is one of the harsh realities of the Nigerian civil war where Nigerian soldiers comprising diverse ethnics including mercenaries from Niger, Chad Republics, etc., occupied the Igbo land.
“As happens in such military occupations, some Igbo women who went astray from the Igbo enclaves were assaulted, debauched and adulterated. These women later came back with pregnancies to give births to monstrous hybrids.
“Some of these rabble-rousing products of adultery who, given the openness of the Igbo society, have gained access to Igbo red caps have become the mischief-makers, charlatans, social climbers and media navigators who leech on the invaluable footprints of Ohanaeze Ndigbo to issue press releases for narrow, perverse and illicit pecuniary interests.
“And, these characters have been reminded to no avail that Ohanaeze represents the Igbo totem, emotions, collective consciousness, politicality and social solidarity.
“The Secretary General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Ambassador Okey Emuchay, MFR, expressed deep shock that a faceless meddlesome interloper such as Tony Chiemelu Obizoba can be taken seriously by the media. Of course , it is highly inconceivable that at a point the Nigerian collective aspiration has gained an irresistible momentum, a true Igbo will make such reckless, shameless, embarrassing and demoralising statements using the hallowed name of Ohanaeze Ndigbo.
“We wish to use this opportunity to point out that the social media revolution has inadvertently thrown up an entirely new generation of half-baked, insidious “journalists” who do not place value on the ethics and codes of the profession, chief of which is investigative journalism. Otherwise, there is hardly any Nigerian journalist who cannot distinguish between those who speak for Ohanaeze on one hand and the spivs and charlatans on the other.”
