The National Chairman of the United Progressives Party (UPP), Chief Chekwas Okorie has disclosed what President Muhammadu Buhari and the late warlord, Odumegu Ojukwu discussed in Daura, Katsina State in 2013.
Okorie, who was the then National Chairman of Ojukwu’s party, All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, said both Buhari and the late war lord discussed issues bordering on “Nigerian unity, oneness and indivisibility and in this unity, oneness and indivisibility; it will be anchored on justice, equity and fair play.”
The current UPP Chairman, however, dismissed Buhari’s recent claim that he, Buhari and the late warlord agreed that the unity of Nigerian is “non-negotiable.”
Speaking with Vanguard, Okorie maintained that a communiqué, Ojukwu gave him on issued discussed during the meeting the “word non-negotiable was never used and it did not appear in that communiqué whose copy I still have.”
Okorie insisted that Ojukwu had never believed in the kind of unity that Nigeria has and has variously described Nigeria’s unity as the “unity of Jonah and the whale; that Jonah was in the belly of the whale, a very dark environment, very uncomfortable and the whale carried him and you wouldn’t call that unity.”
According to Okorie, “First of all, I was the chairman of Odumegwu Ojukwu’s political party, that is, I was the chairman of APGA that fielded the late Odumegwu Ojukwu as a presidential candidate; so I can tell you authoritatively that I was privy to that meeting in Daura. Chekwas Okorie Equity and fair play I was not there physically but upon his return he gave me a copy of the communiqué. It was not an agreement as such.
“It was a communiqué actually and that visit was to reciprocate an earlier visit that Gen. Buhari paid to him at Enugu, accompanied by late Dr. Chuba Okadigbo who was his running mate at that time.
“And he reciprocated that visit by going this time with Dr. Tim Menakeya because I was very busy with party matters and then, they had to go. Yes Gen. Buhari was not entirely out of place about what had transpired but the word “non-negotiable” was never used.
“As I said it was a communiqué which two of them signed. The key words in that direction were that they called for Nigerian unity, oneness and indivisibility and in this unity, oneness and indivisibility; it will be anchored on justice, equity and fair play.
“The word non-negotiable was never used and it did not appear in that communiqué whose copy I still have.
“He, Ojukwu, always wanted a unity where everybody would breathe the same air of freedom, the same air of justice, of liberty and of equity. I want everybody to know that I am talking authoritatively outside of politics.
“I had a very close liaison with late Odumegwu Ojukwu for 22 years and there are so many things that he said repeatedly that I can very easily quote him on word for word.”
Similarly, Okorie had view days ago said the Buhari-led Federal Government has succeeded in diving Nigeria.
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