Ohanaeze Lambasts Osita Okechukwu Over Comments On Nwodo

The Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide has called on the director general of the Voice of Nigeria, Osita Okechukwu, to direct his attention to the ‘difficult task of laundering Nigeria’s image to the outside world or keep quiet if he has nothing better to do’.

The apex Igbo socio-cultural organization was reacting to a press interview Okechukwu granted journalists last week, when he accused the president general of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief John Nnia Nwodo, of criticizing the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Ohanaeze, in a statement issued by Chief Emeka Attamah, special adviser to Chief Nwodo, regretted the ‘unfortunate vituperations of Osita Okechukwu against Chief Nwodo who, in the last four years, has given Ndigbo reasons to be proud of themselves again in Nigeria, including Mr Okechukwu himself’.

The statement read in part, “Rather than give Chief Nwodo his due respect and accolade for leading the Igbo during these turbulent years and telling truth to the government, Okechukwu went seeking cheap popularity and further exposing his crass ignorance, since only a convoluted or jealous Igbo son can fail to stand up and applaud Chief Nwodo’s four years’ unparalleled leadership of the Igbo apex socio-cultural body.”

Chief Attamah also reminded Mr Okechukwu that on his inauguration, “Chief Nwodo acknowledged the hand of friendship extended to him by Mr President and was ready to reciprocate, and was only pushed to condemn the gross neglect and marginalisation of the Igbo by the current government even after a lot of remonstrations for an amelioration of the situation.” He added that, ‘while Chief Nwodo criticized some of the policies of the federal government, he remained best of friends with Mr President as he has never condemned his person’.

On the wish of Mr Okechuwku that a Zikist emerge the next president general of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Attamah said, “If Mr Okechukwu had been a true disciple of the great Zik and knew what the Zikist Movement was all about, he would have known that Chief Nwodo was brought up by Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe himself and imbibed all the tenets and mannerisms of Zik and exemplified them in his reaching out to all parts of the country, irrespective of tribe or religion, culminating in the almost total acceptance by most parts of the country of restructuring as the only panacea to Nigeria’s multiferous problems.”

According to him, “It is instructive that even the diehard Professor Ango Abdullahi has become a great proponent of restructuring as the only means of salvation for the country. With due reverence to the towering stature of great Zik, Chief Nwodo is as accommodating as Chief Azikiwe; Chief Nwodo is as articulate as the great Zik; Chief Nwodo has been as outspoken as the great Zik, and Chief Nwodo learnt a lot from and has exhibited the courage and oratorial skills of great Zik. Osita Okechukwu cannot lay claims to most of these attributes.

“Again, it is a great fallacy for Okechukwu to say that he voted for Chief Nwodo to emerge president general of Ohanaeze Ndigbo when he was neither a delegate nor was he present at the Ohanaeze General Assembly that elected Chief Nwodo. It therefore must be pure hallucination for him to say that he voted for Chief Nwodo. Perhaps, the same ignorance made Okechukwu think that a president of Igbo extraction operating under the current constitution and without restructuring can operate well.

“Chief Nwodo believes in the emergence and the inviolate imperative of a president of Igbo extraction in a restructured Nigeria. He said that an Igbo president without restructuring is like a Bishop without a cathedral.”

Chief Attama in the statement enjoined Mr Okechukwu to tender unreserved apologies to Chief Nwodo ‘who by Igbo tradition is his elder brother and whose only crime was rejecting his party, the APC, for reneging on its campaign promise of restructuring the country and drew the ire of Ndigbo and Ohanaeze Ndigbo’.