The Nigerian Minister Of State 1 for Foreign Affairs, Prof (Mrs.) Viola Onwuliri has called on the Igbos not to take Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State serious in his attempt to woo them into the new All Progressives Congress, APC, saying the governor cannot be trusted in any venture.
Onwuliri’s call was coming on the heels of the call on the Igbos by Governor Okorocha to see and join the APC as the only party where their hope of ruling Nigeria would be realized, urging them to reject PDP where they had been marginalized over the years.
But addressing a press conference in Owerri on Tuesday, Onwuliri described Governor Okorocha as a rolling stone that gathers no moss.
In her own words, ‘let me use this opportunity therefore to condemn in unmistakable terms, the misleading and pervasive opinion that the Igbos are marginalized under the present PDP-led government of President Jonathan. Let me call our people of the East to redouble their support and followership to the PER. I vehemently implore our people to shun discord and disregard the denigrating call on them to join a fledging new party by whatever name’.
The minister warned the Igbos that they would be used and abandoned midway in APC by Okorocha who she described as a man ‘in pursuit of personal vain glory’.
‘Our people have been used in the past in pursuit of personal vaulting ambitions of one man who abandons us at any pleasurable point he may have achieved his desired selfish goals.
‘Lest we forget, our people were called out to join UNCP. They were abandoned midway. They were also called to join ANPP and they were also abandoned halfway for AA. We were again called out to join AA as a promised land, midway, we were abandoned in AA. We neither saw the Promised Land nor the self-acclaimed prophet explain to us why he abandoned the ship midway into the ocean. Again, our so-called Messiah found favors in PDP, only to abandon it again for APGA.
‘It is ridiculous therefore that this self-acclaimed Moses has presently abandoned APGA and is now calling our people again to join him in another wild goose chase under the new name called APC. How can we trust our destiny in this man who cannot be trusted in any venture… A rolling stone, my people say, gathers no moss. How are we sure that this time around, we shall not only be abandoned but consumed in a hell fire because ”frequent U-turns at too many roundabouts are equal to a crash or no movement at all’. We reject the unstable movement. We reject the present call for us to join a new party’, Onwuliri posited.
Onwuliri, who was the deputy governorship flag bearer for the PDP during the 2011 gubernatorial election in Imo State, insisted that the PDP was where Nigerians were and that the present government under the party would guarantee the full enthronement and entrenchment of the Igbos into the leadership of Nigeria.
