South-East must join mainstream party, says Ojukwu junior

EMEKA Ojukwu, son of late Dim Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, on Wednesday, disclosed that his decision to join the All Progressives Congress (APC) was driven by his belief that the South-East must occupy its rightful place in the national governance and the political decision making process of the country.

He made the declaration at the APC national secretariat where he was formally received into the party by its National Chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun.

He said: “I decided to lead by example. I have been talking about this for a while and I decided it was time to take the step forward. It is a challenge. There are some people that will not be happy about that, but you have to be bold, take a step and let people understand where you are coming from and why you are doing what you are doing.

“APC have been seen in our part of the country as the ‘other’ and I believe we are now showing that the APC is a party that can contend equally with any other party in the South-East and do just as well.

“We now know that Igbo people are part of the APC, the APC are part of Igbo and Igbo are valued part of the Nigerian nation. We hit around the 25 per cent mark in terms of votes in the Anambra State election which is not bad, given where we are coming from. I think in the future, we are going to do a lot better.

“Let me say this about my father, we shouldn’t take our history and our past to be shackles that hold us in one place, rather they should be stepping stones and building blocks to get us moving towards the future. When my father came back from exile, he had the option to join an ethnic-based party but he chose to move to the centre and there was a reason for that.

While formally receiving Ojukwu jnr. into the party, Oyegun said the late Ojukwu’s son entry to the ruling party would be a major asset in the APC’s ongoing drive to mainstream the South-East in the national governance and political decision making process in the APC.