By Adadainfo
The Ohanaeze Youth Council, Tuesday, claimed that Delta governor Ifeanyi Okowa abandoned Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide for about seven years, and recently began to identify himself as Igbo to curry votes during the 2023 presidential election.
Igboayaka O Igboayaka, its national president, stated this in a statement. Okowa is the vice-presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party ahead of the 2023 general elections. He is from South-South region of the country as against South East that has been crying over alleged non-inclusion in Nigeria’s political hierarchy. However, Okowa’s Igbo ‘blood’, exemplified by his being a member of Ohanaeze, is seen as an Igbo representation in the PDP.
But Igboayaka said, “The purported identity of Gov Ifeanyi Okowa, the vice-presidential candidate of PDP, as an Igbo man, is ‘very questionable’.
Gov Ifeanyi Okowa had over the years exhibited a high level of complacency towards the activities of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, hence his invisibility in the activities of the Igbo race.
“Ndigbo since after the 1966 to 1970 genocide have gone through political and economic strangulation, but were able to unify again through Ohanaeze Ndigbo.
“To Igbo politicians, being Igbo comes in every four years during election time, especially those in South-South zone.
This is what Gov Ifeanyi Okowa has demonstrated. Suddenly, my elder brother Ifeanyi Okowa, has picked a new song of being Igbo in his public outings.
“The Ala-Igbo Sustainable Development Project powered by Ohanaeze Ndigbo had gone into extinction while we have the likes of Gov Ifeanyi Okowa and other unpatriotic Igbo governors from South East.
“Gov Ifeanyi Okowa found it more vital to fund Atiku Abubakar’s presidential campaign than to support numerous projects going on at Ohanaeze Ndigbo Secretariat.
“It’s pathetic that Gov Ifeanyi Okowa, who abandoned Ohanaeze Ndigbo for seven years with over N200m unpaid monthly dues, is seeking the supporting of his Igbo tribe to win 2023 presidential election.
“I challenge Gov Ifeanyichukwu Okowa to provide evidence of his Ohanaeze Ndigbo statutory monthly dues to general public, or any project he has sited in Ohanaeze Ndigbo secretariat since he became Senator and Governor”
It’s a common saying that ‘Charity Begins at Home’, but Gov Ifeanyi Okowa has failed in this area. Being an Igbo man should not only be when you need Ndigbo, but when Ndigbo need you.”
