Ohanaeze Tasks Igbos On Voters’ Registration

The entire people of the Igbo nation have been called upon to come out en masse to register in the on – going Voters’ Registration exercise to enable them vote into different political offices credible candidates of their choice during the forthcoming 2011 general elections in the country.

Members of the umbrella Socio-Cultural Organization of the Igbos, the Ohanaeze Ndi Igbo, who made the call in a 6- Point resolution adopted at the end of their General Assembly meeting in Enugu Saturday, explained that the call had become necessary because the importance of next year’s general election will define the future of Nigeria.

The election, they went on, is not only crucial, but a test case for the nation’s democracy, that going to determine to a great extent whether democracy had come to stay in Nigeria, regretting that Ndi Igbo were greatly short-changed during the last national census, because they were not properly counted during the exercise.

On the support of Ohanaeze Ndi Igbo for the presidential bid of Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan in 2011 election, the General Assembly of the body ratified the support, maintaining that of all the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), presidential aspirants, Dr. Jonathan is the best in terms of good governance and acceptability.

Commenting on the protracted ASUU strike in the South East, the general assembly endorsed the committee set up by Ohanaeze Ndi Igbo to liaise with the governors of the South East to find immediate solution to the strike, noting that education is the major industry in Igbo land, adding that everything should be done to stabilise education institutions in the zone.

In the same vein, the general assembly equally endorsed the position of Ohanaeze leadership based on a detailed assessment of the impact of the deployment of security forces to Abia state to help quell the upsurge of kidnapping in the South East states.

“The general assembly noted with satisfaction that the security forces have made positive impact as the incidence of kidnapping has greatly nose-dived. In view of this development, the general assembly appealed to the federal government to also deploy security forces to other South East states , in order that the scepter of kidnapping would be dealt a decisive blow in the run up to Christmas 2010”, they further requested.