Senators goofed on Ojukwu –CRC president

Posted by admin Legislature, Senate Saturday, December 3rd, 2011

Barely 24 hours after the Senate turned down calls for the late Ikemba Nnewi, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, to get a state burial, President of the Civil Rights Congress (CRC), a coalition of human rights and civil society groups in the 19 northern states, Comrade Shehu Sani, has condemned the decision.

After torrents of eulogies, Senate, Thursday, rejected a request from Chairman of the Education Committee, Senator Uche Chukwumerije, that Ojukwu be accorded state burial, a position the Deputy Majority Leader, Abdul Ningi, opposed, citing the case of the late Obafemi Awolowo as an example.

Reacting to this, Shehu, who spoke to Saturday Sun in a telephone interview, yesterday, accused the Senate of bad faith and hypocrisy, saying the rejection of a state burial for Ojukwu was regrettable and lamentable.
The CRC President said: “It’s an insult on the sensibilities of Nigerians and all advocates of peace, unity and national reconciliation for the Senate to deem Ojukwu unqualified for state burial.”

He asked the Senate to explain to Nigerians what qualifies a Nigerian to be a statesman and further queried: “must he be a former president or a member of the ruling party?”
According to Shehu, the rejection of the state burial only reinforces the fact that the condolences and encomiums showered on the late Ikemba by the Senate, in a Special Session for him recently, was nothing but hypocrisy and media opportunism.
He said: “The rejection of the state burial reveals the deep resentment and grudges most members of the political establishment hold against the late chief and clearly made nonsense of Gowon’s no victor no vanquish proclamation.
“If Gowon or any Nigerian president can qualify for a state burial, Chief Ojukwu should also. The Senate has bungled an historic opportunity to demonstrate to the people of the South East and, indeed, all Nigerians that Nigeria is one, united and indivisible nation.
“Telling the governors of the South East to bury Ojukwu is telling the people of the South East that their future lies in their past. Chief Ojukwu has led a war of secession but he is also a role model for peace and national reconciliation.”

-Sun

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