IGBOS DON'T BE DECEIVED, ATIKU CAN NOT BE TRUSTED

Alhaji Atiku Abubakar cannot deceive the Igbos that he loves the people more than they love themselves. In the last few months the PDP presidential aspirant has sought to ingratiate himself with South Easterners, saying that he is for a president of Igbo extraction in 2015. We cannot be fooled even if he takes an Igbo for vice president. We know how presidents and governors treat their vice president and deputy governors with scorn and are under no illusion that Alhaji Atiku will be different. The Igbo Mandate believes that the people of the south east must vote wisely at the various primaries to elect people who will deliver the dividends of democracy to our much-neglected homeland. We are convinced that despite pretensions to the contrary, Atiku does not intend to run a government that will benefit the south east.

We are wondering how Atiku can be trusted when he worked assiduously for the defeat of Dr. Alex Ekwueme at the 1998 PDP convention in Jos. Alhaji Atiku has said that he was a major actor in the primaries that produced Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, when Dr. Ekwueme was a major candidate. In 2003, the same Atiku deceived our leaders with a promise to run against Obasanjo only to betray their trust. In fact some of the south eastern and southern governors who openly applauded Dr. EkwuemeÕs candidature were to suffer terribly in the hands of President Obasanjo after he won the elections. We cannot be deceived again. We are not convinced that given the belligerence with which the Northern Political Elders Forum has sought to lay claim to the presidency, it will graciously relinquish power after a term in office. We doubt this and thus we are calling on all Igbos at home and in the diaspora to reject this attempt to confuse our people.

The Igbo Mandate will mobilize Igbos at home and in the dispora to vote against Atiku at the PDP primaries and at the main election if he chooses to run after losing the primaries. We have a longstanding bond with the people of the south south, which we have tried to strengthen successfully in the last ten years. We have our brothers and sisters as indigenes of at least two of the Niger Delta states and share more cultural affinity with the people of the south south than any other people in Nigeria, and so stand to benefit from a Dr. Goodluck Jonathan presidency. It is our view that the position of Ohanaeze NdÕIgbo supporting the Jonathan presidency is well thought out and should be supported by all Igbos. Nze Chukwudi Eluemunor National Chairman