Chief Chekwas Okorie addressing the participants during the Town Hall meeting in Enugu
As Nigerians prepare for the 2027 general elections, the convener of Igbo Agenda Dialogue(IAD), Chief Chekwas Okorie(Oje Ozi Ndigbo), has tasked eligible voters of Igbo origin to quickly arm themselves with their permanent voter cards to enable them to participate in the upcoming national elections.
Speaking on the sidelines of a Town Hall meeting held in Enugu on Wednesday, Chief Okorie challenged the electorate to vote for candidates of their choice during the 2027 elections. Okorie said that the Town Hall meeting themed: “What Do Igbo People In Nigeria Want Today And Tomorrow?” will be held in all the thirty-six states of the federation, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
Some participants at the Town Hall meeting
According to him, “We are going about getting the opinions of Igbo people, leaders of associations, women organizations, and groups, on what Igbo people want in Nigeria, today and tomorrow. This is just the beginning of it. We’re going to do it in the 36 states of the federation and the FCT. And when we get all these opinions, and we get them in good enough time before the next election, we will build up a compendium on what the Igbo people want, and that will become the Igbo consensus as to what Ndigbo want.”
Okorie, who is the founder of both the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), and the United Progressives Party (UPP), said that at the end of the exercise, “what we want will be very clear and unambiguous, and it will be something that is not unreasonable. Give us that which is due to us, or we review our relationship with Nigeria.”
Answering questions on calls by some prominent Igbo politicians to the Igbo electorate to re-elect President Bola Tinubu in 2027, Chief Okorie said that while such politicians are entitled to their opinions, they will see the difference between the power of the people and the “voice of a few selfish persons.”
He restated the urgent need for all those who do not have a permanent voter card to go and obtain one, stressing that “if you do not vote, you have voted for the person you don’t want to represent you or rule you. But you have to vote so that you can hold somebody accountable.”
