APC chairman says Ohaneze Ndigbo is being unfair to Buhari by calling his tenure a nightmare for Ndigbo

PAN-Igbo umbrella body Ohaneze Ndigbo has been told by the chairman of the Anambra State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) that it was not being fair to President Muhammadu Buhari with its criticism of his first term in office.

Since assuming office in 2015, President Buhari has had a frosty relationship with the southeast geo-political zone and Ohaneze Ndigbo. He has been accused of marginalising the zone when it comes to appointments and the location of federal facilities, thus fuelling calls for the recreation of the defunct republic of Biafra.

Between July 1967 and January 1970, Nigeria's Igbos declared Biafra and sought to secede from the country, prompting a civil war. Calls for a similar go at secession have grown over the last four years and the APC has done badly in elections across the southeast in response to the government's crackdown on Biafran activists.

However, yesterday, Chief Basil Ejidike, the chairman of the Anambra State chapter of the APC said Ohaneze Ndigbo was not being fair by saying that his first term was a nightmare for Ndigbo. He said that the original essence of the Ohanaeze-Ndigbo had been defeated long ago when the organisation derailed and deviated from its cultural role and veered into partisan politics.

Chief Ejidike maintained that Ohaneze Ndigbo was not being fair to President Buhari because it was in existence when the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ruled for 16 years and no tangible achievements were recorded in the southeast. He added that Ohanaeze Ndigbo should be a neutral body embracing all political parties, arguing that it venturing ventured into partisan politics does not augur well for the Igbo nation.

According to Chief Ejidike, it was with the advent of President Buhari’s administration that the southeast began to witness the rehabilitation of Onitsha-Awka-Enugu expressway. He added: "During the 16years of PDP administration, the Enugu-Onitsha expressway was impassable.

"Now Nnewi-Amichi-Uga road construction is going on. You are also aware of the commissioning of Zik Mausoleum which we thought Jonathan would have done but he never did that but Buhari came, completed and commissioned it."