by PETER OBI ENDORSEMENT OF SANDY ONOR AND THE ISSUING OF THREAT TO THE IGBO COMMUNITY IN CROSS RIVER STATE BY THE APC
Understandably, the endorsement of Senator Sandy Ojang Onor, the Gubernatorial candidate of the PDP in Cross River State, by Mr Peter Obi, dealt a traumatizing and deafening blow on the APC in Cross River State. While I heartily sympathize with them and in the spirit of sportsmanship, acknowledge their right to react to the issue of Obi’s endorsement of Senator Sandy Ojang, I honestly feel it is sickeningly insulting for the APC to issue threats to the Igbo Community in Cross River State, just because Mr. Peter Obi endorsed Senator Sandy Ojang Onor.
I read with utter dismay and grave concern a publication attributed to one of the Spokesperson of the APC in Cross River State, wherein, he flagrantly accused Mr. Peter Obi and his people–the igbos– of trying to reintroduce what he referred to as “internal colonialism” and vowed that his Party will do everything to stop Mr. Peter Obi and “his people”. Firstly, let me acknowledge the fact that it is the constitutional right of Mr. Peter Obi to endorse any Gubernatorial candidate, and in this case, if there is any Political Party that has the right to react offensively to the endorsement, it should be the Labour Party in Cross River State, and not the APC. I mean, we have over 14 Political Parties in Cross River State fielding Gubernatorial Candidates, why is the APC the only party whose feathers are ruffled by this endorsement? Why are they trying so hard to incite the people of the State against the Igbo community in Cross River? Why are they making unnecessary reference to the bitter issues of Civil War and the pre-colonial era?
More worrisome is the fact that Peter Obi’s endorsement of Senator Sandy Ojang Onor, has no ethnic coloration, as Sandy himself is an Ejagham Man from Etung Local Government and married to an Ejagham woman from same Etung Local Government Area. Sandy’s mother, who is from Akamkpa is also Ejagham and not Igbo. I am pretty sure that, if you trace the genealogy of Senator Sandy Ojang Onor, at least, to the 4th generation, you may likely not find any ancestral link with the Igbos. And same goes to his Deputy Governorship Candidate, who is proudly an Efik Princess, from a reputable Royal family. So, on what basis is the APC trying to whip up ethnocentric sentiment against the Igbos in Cross River State, due to Mr. Peter Obi endorsement of Senator Sandy?
I am an Igbo man from Cross River State–proudly and unapologetically so– and I speak on the basis of Self–preservation and morality, not Politics. The APC in Cross River State must as a matter of utmost importance, stop the fanning of these smoldering embers of hatred against the Igbos in Cross River State. The Gubernatorial candidate of the APC must call to order, some of his overzealous media handlers, lest they set the entire state on fire. I am an Igbo man and it is my inalienable right to support whosoever I deem fit to govern our State. Enough of the threats!
©Umezulike Desmond-cruz
