Amby Uneze in Owerri
A frontline candidate for the position of the president general of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Prof. George Obiozor, has vowed to assemble Igbo talents and experts to cater and defend the destiny of Ndigbo, if he is elected into the position.
This is just as Obiozor said under his leadership, the Igbo would no longer be seen as crying babies because their problems are not insurmountable.
Addressing a press conference in Owerri the Imo State capital, Obiozor, a former Nigerian Ambassador to the United States of America, the State of Israel and Republic of Cyprus, said he would defend the destiny of Ndigbo with appreciable success and diplomatic dexterity, decency and decorum.
He said the office of the president general of Ohanaeze Ndigbo is not a career or a job or a position to fulfill personal ambition, but one that should at this moment be a position that comes through inspiration and experience.
According to him, under his leadership, “Ndigbo will never be victims again, of Nigerian tragic circumstances which they did not create nor can they control”.
He noted that Ndigbo had been associated with economic and business ingenuity, which had had a mixed bag mixed response of praise, jealousy and envy.
While adding that the economic success associated with Ndigbo had always been individual achievements and successes, Obiozor stated that under his leadership, a new era of prosperity of Ndigbo as collective efforts would start with the laudable initiative of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, in terms of the Economic Stabilization Fund.
He insisted that in the current position Ndigbo had found themselves, “the team that represents matters for that will determine much of the destiny of Ndigbo in Nigeria or what follows. Our position should therefore begin with efforts to effectively reintegrate Ndigbo into Nigerian political process effectively, significantly and relevantly. This will require a serious diplomacy and not confrontations or conflicts. Power elites reward their friends and frustrate or punish their enemies”.
He further stated, “For far too long, Ndigbo have been objects of stereotype and profiling which ended in being misunderstood and misrepresented in national politics or business, academia or artisans. Negative profiling has been an Igbo cross to carry since Nnamdi Azikiwe’s emergence in Nigeria politics in the 1940s.
“Consequently, quite often Igbos were confronted with envy, anger, hostility and violence at any given crises in Nigeria and even outside Nigeria. But in the end, it is still better to envy Ndigbo than pity us.
“We’ve been known to be turning obstacles into prosperity. What Igbo are suffering today are not new. But we surmounted them in the past. Igbo were not the first graduates in Nigeria but we led the country in almost every sector. I maintain that success is the greatest revenge against injustice. We’ve done well.
There is a chance for the Igbo to start on a new narrative,” he said.
Obiozor insisted that Ndigbo could be unified again closer to Igbo state union days, saying, “Many things unite us but we’re paying attention to few things that divide us. That’s our main problem and that can change.”
