Former national chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) Chief Victor Umeh has warned that the Igbo will not accept any form of marginalisation from the Buhari-led government which he said had clearly sidelined the Igbo.
Umeh who spoke in an interview after his thanksgiving service to mark end of his tenure as APGA national chairman, his 53rd birthday and Silver jubilee of his marriage, which ceremony attracted thousands of friends, party supporters and well-wishers to his home town, Aguluzigbo said that Ndigbo would have no choice than to fight for their right in Nigeria if the marginalisation continued.
He said it was obvious that “in the scheme of things as they are today, we are not considered as we ought to be considered. I am not happy about that and maybe it is a journey only God will determine when we reach that promised land. I can tell you that I am not happy”.
He said he was watching things unfold in Nigeria and only prays for life for the struggle to continue.
According to him, he will take a few weeks of rest and will surely “come back to tell Nigerians that Igbos will not be taken for a ride”.
He added: “Igbos are an important people in Nigeria not just because of their industry, their hard work, their resourcefulness but they are also a major ethnic group in Nigeria. No matter the circumstances, no matter the situation; nobody in Nigeria can take Igbos for a ride. It will not happen. We will continue that struggle even with the last breathe we have, particularly me.
“I want President Buhari to know that Igbos are important people in Nigeria. I want him to reintegrate Igbos in Nigeria and close the grievances of the Civil War. I can never rest until our people get their respect and dignity and right restored, fully in Nigeria.”
Taking a retrospective look at his tenure as APGA national chairman, Umeh said he was happy that despite the turbulence that trailed it he was able to keep the party focused and within the attention of the Nigerian political class.
He also recounted the contribution APGA made in the judicial process of Nigeria which included tenure interpretation, and the fact that court had no jurisdiction in internal party matters.
He said it was due to the contributions the party made to the nation that he was conferred with the national honour of Order of the Federal Republic (OFR).
He said that his doggedness which many people misunderstood APGA as a party would not exist today, adding that his tenure ensured an additional state of Imo for the party as well as former Governor Peter Obi’s second term in office and the election of Willie Obiano as Governor after eight years of APGA reign in Anambra.
He said, “I was laying the foundation for the party, just as the missionaries when they came here they were resisted. But they were able to preach the good news in order to convert those who were resisting them.”
He thanked his supporters saying that the climax of his achievement is that he was able to organise a national convention which ushered in a new leadership and asked the people and stakeholders in the party to support it.
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