BOKO HARAM IS NO THREAT TO THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF IGBO -VAL. AYIKA

• Ayika
In his interview with Daily Sun, Hon. Valentine Ayika, member Anambra State House of Assembly, representing Njikoka State Constituency has assured Ndigbo that Boko Haram is not a threat to Igbo presidency come 2015. Hon. Ayika is in support of creation of one additional state in the South East. He speaks on other issues.

Excerpt:
2015 election: Do you think Jonathan would run?
Recently, the president called some of his aides who wanted to kick start 'Jonathan for 2015' campaign to order. He threatened to sack any of his appointees who engaged in such campaign. Once again, Mr. President has assured Nigerians that he can be trusted. He made Nigerians to understand during his campaign, that he would rule the country for 4 years (one term), that he was not going to seek re-election and I think he wants to stand by this decision.

Though it is not an easy decision to take especially when some of his appointees and aides want to remain in power but with Mr. President's believe in continuity, I have no doubt he meant what he said.

With the demise of Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, Boko Haram menace and imbalance in state creation, do you think it will affect the chances of Igbo clinching the presidency in 2015?

Igbo presidency is realizable. Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu was still the sign post of Igbo struggle for self-determination. Through the civil war, he made a statement of fact, that Nigeria should be restructured so that too much power won't be vested in the centre rather through reforms the regions should be empowered so that the centre becomes less attractive and that is what is known as true federalism, But then our leaders did not realize the wisdom of the Aburi accord and they advised Gen. Yakubu Gowon to renege on the agreement and that led to civil war. However, all that is history. What beats my imagination is that Nigerians are still clamouring for Sovereign National Conference to discuss the Nigeria project. Most of the points listed to be discussed are contained in the Aburi accord . And as I have always said, Igbo presidency is not negotiable. It is a settled matter.

Victory at the tribunal
As the saying goes, 'you can never suppress the truth' and any idea whose time has arrived can never be suppress by any form of force. Mr. Machiavelli Chidi Okafor a former member of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) contested the primary of the party and lost. He dumped the party because one of his slogans was 'the umbrella has torn' and joined the Accord party (AP) and contested the primary and failed again. To my greatest surprise, he petitioned me at the election petition tribunal claiming that he was the candidate of the PDP forgetting that the electoral procedure as contained in the electoral Act was schedule to be in phases. The first phase is party submission of names 60 days before election but 30 days before election is allowed for final substitution.

The petitioner's name was published in Accord Party. Though the law does not protect the indolent, the law does not also protect those who sleep on their right yet if he was actually PDP candidate for Njikoka House of Assembly election and his name was wrongly published as candidate of Accord Party, who did he report to? Why didn't he draw the attention of INEC, the party and the public to that effect? So initially I filed a motion to strike out the case but Hon. Justice Adesanya who was handling the case gave a ruling against the motion.

Though I was apprehensive about the out come of the matter, by the time I obtained the ruling, and took time to go through it, I discovered that the judgment she gave was in line with what was presented before her because the law they say is an ass. My opponent constructed his petition to give the impression that INEC substituted his name and not the party. So on a face value one will say this is a pre-election matter but when you look closer you will discover that this individual constructed the petition to look like a pre-election matter. But INEC never substituted any name.