THE AFRICAN COURIER. Reporting Africa and its Diaspora! The African Courier is an international magazine published in Germany to report on Africa and the Diaspora African experience. The first issue of the bimonthly magazine appeared on the newsstands on 15 February 1998. The African Courier is a communication forum for European-African political, economic and cultural exchanges, and a voice for Africa in Europe.
The Association of South- East Town Unions (ASETU) held a closed-door meeting with the President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Nnia Nwodo, in Enugu on Saturday, Sunday PUNCH has reported.
The extra-ordinary meeting was to strategise on the region’s to produce an Igbo successor to President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023.
The meeting, which is said to have lasted for over three hours, was preceded by a meeting of the National Executive Committee of ASETU.
The National President of ASETU, Chief Emeka Diwe, who spoke to Sunday PUNCH on the outcome of the meeting with the leader of the Igbo apex sociocultural organisation at his Enugu residence, said they discussed other issues affecting the interests and welfare of Igbo people in the country.
Diwe said, “Part of the reason for the meeting was to douse the tension in the land; there is too much tension and suspicion.
“Ndigbo will remain in Nigeria and get what is due to them in Nigeria.”
On Igbo presidency, he said, “We are still consulting, the coast is not clear yet, but we want to see how to first address the rising tension and suspicion in the country and we feel it’s necessary to send the signal that Ndigbo will remain in Nigeria to get their due.
“The meeting we had with the President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo is an outcome of the brainstorming we had before we moved to the residence of Chief Nwodo for a closed-door meeting with him.
“There are a lot of eye-opening revelations obtained from our consultation with Chief Nwodo, and that will lead us to further seek more consultations from other Igbo quarters and hierarchies.”
The ASETU chief said the union had become a formidable platform to articulate the interests and welfare of Ndigbo and galvanise them towards a particular direction which should be viewed as the metamorphosis of the defunct Igbo Union.
“The Association of Igbo Town Unions is a continuation of Igbo Union; it is not a recent development. Ohanaeze is the apex Igbo sociocultural organisation with elitist colouration,” Diwe said.
The group a fortnight ago ended a retreat in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State capital, where, among other things, they agreed to set up a joint community-based Vigilante Outfits and Security Trust Fund to check the rising cases of insecurity and invasion of Igboland.
Kola Tella
