Apex Igbo socio-cultural organization, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, on Tuesday, berated the Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), over the latter’s attack on Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi.
It recalls that the Enugu State chapter of MASSOB, in a statement by its State coordinator, Mazi Daniel Onyebuchi, had passed a poor performance verdict on Governor Ugwuanyi. He went ahead to ask the electorate to reject the Governor at the polls in 2023.
While reacting, the National President of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council Worldwide, Mazi Okwu Nnabuike, said it was quite strange that a Biafra agitation group had constituted itself into a performance rating agency.
He said Governor Ugwuanyi remained the most youth-friendly governor Enugu ever produced, going by the number of youths currently holding one position or the other either at the State or at the Local Government level.
Okwu, who wondered about the criteria used by the MASSOB to arrive at its verdict, described those behind the publication as “agents paid to destabilize Enugu State.”
He said: “political jobbers now hiding under the banner of agitators are at it again. This time their signatures and identities are everywhere for everyone to see.
“Is it not curious that just after their recruitment, their first assignment is to launch a virulent attack on the Governor of Enugu State? This is the first-ever press statement from this Enugu coordinator of MASSOB, and it was on Gov. Ugwuanyi and not on Biafra.
“Their assertion is even petty as according to them, ‘some of the roads in the capital city are in a mess. The New Market Road roundabout, Gulf Estate Garden Avenue, etc, are all at the mercy of God. How on earth does the bad state of the two roads translate to a total failure by the Governor? What of the hundreds of other roads done by the Ugwuanyi-led administration?
“When did MASSOB abandon their push for the realization of Biafra and now resort to analyzing the performance of Governors in the zone? It will be better for them to join their funders in political parties rather than hide under the banner of MASSOB”.
He went further to say that, “Enugu has remained second to none in terms of peace in the entire South-East but some persons who are comfortable in calling white black would not appreciate that. They want to return Enugu to the past.
“Enugu youths have never been so favoured by any other government prior to this administration, in terms of appointment and empowerment, both within and outside the shores of the country, yet they didn’t find it a good reason to commend the Governor.
“The State also came tops recently in the area of primary health care, beating all other States except the FCT. This is in addition to sterling achievement in the area of education as reflected in the last SSCE result. All these are products of massive investments in the area of health and education.
“In as much as we are not holding the brief for the government, we cannot feign ignorance of these achievements that are in the public domain. We would also not fold our hands and watch anyone set Enugu State on fire. The Ohanaeze Youths, therefore, caution political jobbers and their known pay-masters to leave peaceful Enugu State alone”.