Why Igbo Were Mobilized To Vote Buhari

According to Vanguard, former  Governor of Abia State, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, yesterday gave an insight into why he mobilized Igbo leaders in the 19 Northern states and the Federal 

Capital Territory, FCT, to endorse the presidential candidate of All Progressives Congress, APC, General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), saying the people of the South-East must not put their eggs in one basket.

Dr. Onu, who was optimistic that APC would win Saturday’s presidential election, said General Buhari had been campaigning on issues and the manifesto of the party, adding that the people of the South-East geo- political zone had been with the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, since the coming on board of the present political dispensation.

The former national chairman of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, and a chieftain of APC said: “It is very important that the people of the South-East do not put their eggs in one basket.

“If you look at the politics of the nation over the past 16 years, the people of the South-East supported the ruling PDP.

“However, if you look at the way the ruling PDP treated the South-East, you would find out that there is not really any remarkable reward for the loyalty and the support that the south had for the ruling PDP. You know the people of the South-East, they are very enterprising.

“Many of them are engaged in commerce and trade and they need good roads so that people can move in and out of the South-East.

“I do not know if you have visited Awka; you need to travel between Awka and Enugu, you would be amazed on how bad that road is.

“You need to travel between Owerri and Port Harcourt, you would be amazed how bad the road is, especially the Imo State section of that road.

“These are all federal roads. From Aba to Ikot- Ekpene and from Umuahia to Ikot-Ekpene.

“It appears that each time election is by the corner, a foundation stone will be laid for the second Niger Bridge. You know the last time that this happened and every-body thought that that bridge would be built, but nothing came out of it. Again just under one year to another election, similar effort is coming on.

“There is not really anything that the people of the South-East can say is the reward they got or they are getting from this loyalty, this massive support.

“So APC is a national party; a very strong party. We now have two strong parties in a multi-party democracy in the country.