Osita Okechukwu, Director General, Voice of Nigeria (VON) and founding member of All Progressives Congress (APC), has described former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s attack on President-elect Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s transition as political hypocrisy.
Recall that Atiku, the presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the just concluded general elections decried the absence of any Igbo person on the membership list of Tinubu’s transition committee.
While reaction to the former Vice President’s Reacting to Atiku’s comment, Okechukwu, noted that Atiku’s attempt to play the advocate for Igbo interest amounts to shedding of crocodile tears, and recaled how the former Vice President brazenly breached the zoning arrangement in PDP and the zoning convention of president from north to south.
He stressed that Atiku’s attempt to stand in for Ndigbo is a clear example of medicine after death, pointing out that the former Vice President betrayed Ndigbo during the PDP Presidential primary election, and noted that it was the deepest and unkindest cut.
Okechukwu said, “I make bold to state that the former Vice President had long lost the moral high ground to parade himself or even pontificate as a friend of Ndigbo. It’s sheer hypocrisy and cannot wipe out the injury inflicted on Igbo members of PDP by our dear brother-in-law.
“One remembers with nostalgia the deep attachment of Ndigbo to PDP, even when His Excellency, Dr Alex Ekwueme, the party’s pioneer chairman was shoved aside at the Jos convention in 1999.
“They repeated the same, which was even more painful, when President Buhari nominated Rt.Hon. Chuba Okadigbo as his running mate in the 2003 presidential election and Rt.Hon. Edwin Ume-Ezeoke as his running mate in the 2007 presidential election.
“Even though I subscribe to inclusive politics, His Excellency, Atiku Abubukar had all it takes to have supported Peter Obi for the 2023 PDP’s presidential ticket during the party’s primary election.
“But, here was a man who pulled out from PDP in 2014, defected to APC in protest against former President Goodluck Jonathan’s breach of South to North rotation convention of presidency, claiming that Governor Nyesom Wike’s ambition compelled him to contest the PDP presidential primary. That is a no brainer.”
On why he is peeved by Atiku’s objective observation on the transition committee list, Okechukwu, said nobody should fight any proxy war on behalf of Ndigbo, stressing that “Ndigbo are like the fabled Beetle, and nobody can kill the Beetle.”
He said “We are the fabled Beetle, we are Zikists and patriots per excellence more than any other tribe. Atiku was in his statement shedding mere crocodile tears.
“I stand to be contradicted; we invest wherever we live and we reside in all the nook and crannies of our dear country. Our stance remains, let the Eagle perch as well as the Dove,” Okechukwu said
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