Shola Oyeyipo
First son of the late Biafran warlord, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, Emeka Ojukwu (Jr.), has expressed high hope that the yesterday coalition between Nigerian Intervention Movement (NIM) and Alliance for New Nigerian (ANN) would defeat the current President Muhammadu Buhari-led All Progressives Congress (APC).
Speaking with journalists after the event held at the Centre for International Advanced and Professional Studies (CIAPS), Ikeja, Lagos, Ojukwu, who is a member of NIM Strategic Committee, said the vision behind the synergy of the two bodies, which is to replace the President Buhari leadership could be actaulised if properly pursued.
According to him, the initiative is progressive.
“I am so much keyed in on it. What we need to do is that at this point we must make sure; because it is after this event that disparity sets in, when the different presidential aspirants start having different ideas.
“We must have a way of coalescing them (the aspirants) making them all to accept. Like one of the speakers said: that the drive is for the nation and not for the individual. Those are the things,†he said.
He, however, warned that the electorate must go beyond mere voting by protecting their votes to ensure that the will of Nigerians is reflected in the outcome of the coming election.
“When you vote, the next problem is the umpire. You will make sure that the umpire is straight, then that is all. We will get it done. But if we only emphasis on voting and leave a lacuna, we might not make it,†Ojukwu said.
Though the duo of Agbakoba and Balewa were absent for various reasons, the content of their prepared speech stated that the collaboration between the political party and advocacy group is premised on the urgent need to restore hope to Nigerians by helping to bring about good governance that will engender a new Nigeria that will work for all.
