IGBO Leaders of Thought (ILT) has adopted the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Goodluck Jonathan for the February 14, presidential election and urged Ndigbo to vote for him.

   According to a communiqué issued yesterday after the plenary meeting of the group held in Enugu January 30 and endorsed by its chairman, Professor Ben Nwabueze, ILT said even though Jonathan did not fully address the core promises he made to Ndigbo, the interest of Igbo’s would be better served when Jonathan is supported.

    “We are fully aware that Jonathan’s Administration has not seriously addressed the core promises and commitments made to Ndigbo during the 2011 election campaign. In spite of the above, ILT believes that the best interest of Ndigbo would be better served by our people supporting the re-election of President Jonathan come February 14, 2015. We, therefore, recommend that Ndigbo should adopt this position accordingly,” it said, adding that absenting from voting tantamount to voting for or facilitating what Ndigbo do not want.

  They therefore urged Ndigbo to go out and collect their permanent voters cards (PVCs) and cast their vote for the PDP.

ILT said: “The ILT noted that the two foremost Presidential candidates are the incumbent President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Rtd Major General Muhammad Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

“The ILT deliberated on the choice for Ndigbo between the two candidates, what the candidates stand for and, if elected into office in 2015, what each one holds out for Ndigbo. For Ndigbo, we recognize that the choice is as follows: Between the supremacy of Sharia law and the Nigerian Constitution as supreme overriding law, between constitutional dictatorship and constitutional democracy, between rule of an oligarchy of retired Generals and constitutional government.”

    The group noted that Buhari has unequivocally declared publicly in a speech in a seminar organized by the Supreme Council of Sharia in Nigeria in August 2001 and in other public fora that he is committed to implementing Sharia law all over this country.

   “His background as a former member of the military, reared in the regimented tradition of giving orders and unquestioning obedience of such orders as well as his antecedent as former Head of the Federal Military Government (FMG) inclines and acclimatizes him to absolutism and autocracy with the danger it poses, of the re-emergence of a constitutional dictatorship if he is elected as a civilian President in the February election, as happened before in the eight years civilian regime of 1999 – 2007, which practically aborted the country’s transition to constitutional democracy.

   “A clique of retired Generals which, together with other reactionary forces opposed to democracy, has, for long and unseen, manipulated the affairs of the country from behind the scenes, the invisible government of Nigeria, as it is called, has already declared support for him, as appeared in a national newspaper of Tuesday January 20, 2015.

   In view of the foregoing, the ILT is of the firm conviction that the interest of Ndigbo, at this point in time in our history, lies in – one, united Nigeria under a Constitution as supreme law and as the glue, however weak, holding us together as one polity; a government whose powers are limited by a supreme Constitution; free mobility of people throughout the country and full residence rights, unshackled by Sharia law as well as an open (not an invisible), corruption-free government that is responsible and accountable to the people, and is responsive to their needs for security, development and welfare generally, provided that the war against corruption is waged with due regard to the law of the Constitution, in particular its guarantee of rights,” it declared.