BY MOYINOLUWA BAMIDELE-LUCAS
President Muhammadu Buhari, has described his recent one-day historic visit to Imo State as very successful.
He noted that his coming to the Eastern heartland would bring peace, foster unity, encourage good and better understanding among the citizenry.
The president, in a statement by one of his spokesmen, Femi Adesina, regretted that his concluding remarks at the meeting with South East leaders during the visit was being deliberately contorted and twisted out of context.
Adesina said different meanings have been adduced to what the president said during his dialogue with leaders of thought from Igbo land.
According to him, when the president arrived at the banquet hall of Imo State Government House for his last assignment in Owerri, he was welcomed by over 50 leaders from the South East who had waited patiently for him for a Town Hall engagement, after commissioning strategic projects in the state.
“The President began his extempore speech by acknowledging the caliber of personalities present at the dialogue including the President-General of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Prof George Obiozor, former Chief of General Staff, Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe (Rtd), former Senate President, Ken Nnamani, former military governor in old Imo State, Senator Ike Nwachukwu, the Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Alfred Achebe, Chairman of the South East Governors Forum and Governor of Ebonyi State, Dave Umahi, Deputy Governors of Abia, Anambra and the SSG of Enugu State, who represented the Governor, the Anglican Archbishop of Owerri Province, Most Rev David Onouha and his brother Bishop of Enugu, Archbishop Emmanuel Chukwuma, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, Ahaejiagamba Ndigbo, just to mention but a few.
“An elated President Buhari made it clear that he was expressly overwhelmed by the reception and galaxy of personalities that travelled from the five South Eastern States to have a heart-to-heart discussion with him in Owerri, the Imo State capital,” Adesina explained.
Quoting what president Buhari said at the reception, Adesina said: ‘‘I am overwhelmed by this reception, overwhelmed in the sense that when I accepted the invitation by the Imo State Governor, who wants to justify investments the government has done to the people of Imo State, I thought I would see the bridges, the roads and a few renovations.
‘‘He didn’t tell me he was going to get the whole Igbo leadership here. So in the future when he invites me, I’ll know what to do. But I think he has done what the military didn’t like. He has achieved surprise. He has surprised me beyond description.’’
Later, in his concluding statement at the same event, Adesina said the President made reference to his earlier remarks on the ‘‘surprise’’ action pulled by the Governor. On a lighter note, he quipped: ‘‘Governor of Imo State, I cannot thank you enough, but I will be careful with your future invitations.’’
Adesina said the President’s historic visit to Imo State was very successful and the Igbo leaders who met him shared the same enthusiasm that his coming to the Eastern heartland would bring peace, foster unity, encourage good and better understanding among the citizenry.
