SUNDAY, 13TH MAY, 2001

Igbo Presidency: 'Anyim, Okadigbo are obstacles.'

Alleged rivalry between Senate President, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim and his predecessor, Senator Chuba Okadigbo, presumed to be at the root of current crisis in the Senate, is an obstacle to the realisation of Ndigbo’s dream to produce the next President, according to elder statesman and Ohaneze chieftain, Chief M.C.K. Ajuluchukwu.

Ajuluchukwu, who said the crisis had raised fears among Ndigbo that another change of leadership in the upper legislative house was imminent, also accused Senators of Igbo extraction of creating opprobrious impression that they cannot be trusted to produce stable leadership at the legislative level.

"I want to warn that they should stop creating this opprobrious impression which does nothing but soil the name of Igbo that we are incapable of managing the affairs of the nation", he told

Sunday Vanguard in Lagos at the weekend. "Otherwise, the clamour for an Igbo president for the Federal Republic of Nigeria in the next dispensation could be endangered by the present disruptive activities of our senators", the Ohaneze chieftain stated.

Ajuluchukwu added: "we don’t want a nation’s president which can be changed every three months. God forbid that the Igbos should be allowed to produce a cycle of presidents who stand the danger of being changed every three months".

"I therefore appeal to Igbo senators to demonstrate to the rest of Nigerians an ability for stability in the polity", he added.

Describing the senate as an extension of the Biafra War, the Ohaneze chieftain said the situation appeared as if "certain elements in the Senate arranged against Ndigbo while some others seem to be using the Judas strategy in trying to use Igbos against Igbos".

Ajuluchukwu wondered why Igbos could not stand by their kith and kin in the Senate who are being derided for certain acts of omission or commission like Professor Sam Aluko did to his Senator son, Gbenga.

"I believe that Professor Aluko is one of the best fathers in the country. He stood by his accused son, Gbenga, through thick and thin, believing he committed no offence against public good", he said.

He continued: "In the same vein, I want to say without any equivocation that the onslaught being waged against Okadigbo by certain people will end in futility.

According to him, he did not believe that Okadigbo is capable of deliberately misappropriating public funds.

The Ohaneze chief, however, said his position was without prejudice to any decision by the president, the attorney-general and the inspector-general of police to consider judicial intervention.