Ohanaeze: Why we took Obiozor to Uzodinma — Iwuanyanwu

Elder statesman, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu has explained the reason why the President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Professor George Obiozor was taken to Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State for endorsement as the consensus candidate prior to his emergence. Iwuanyanwu who is the chairman, screening committee for the election said they discovered how so many people vying for the position were becoming desperate, adding that most of them were not fit to handle the position. He said that he noticed how so many of the contestants for the position were besieging him and other members of the committee to accept them.

Some of the contestants he said went to the extreme to lobby politicians close to the governor to help them get the support of the governor for their ambition.

Iwuanyanwu disclosed that in order to avoid the process being politicised, the committee hurriedly presented Obiozor to the governor, instead of giving politicians the opportunity of doing so, thereby politicising the whole process of the election. The elder statesman who stated this while being conferred as the grand patron of the Coalition of South East Youth Leaders (COSEYL) in Owerri on Friday, said “I’m surprised now what I’m hearing, some said the whole thing is politics, some said Buhari had a hand in Obiozor’s emergence, some said Miyetti Allah wrote letter to support Obiozor. But these are not true, it’s the other way round. “We never wanted anybody to play politics with a position like Ohanaeze, when we were screening the aspirants, we noticed some of them were desperate, the way they were besieging us, so we sensed some politicians may want to play a fast one to take Obiozor to the governor and that political undertone we don’t want so the committee made up of CAN, traditional rulers took him first by ourselves to the governor, nothing attached.  (Saturday Sun)