Igbos in Nigeria will not vote for Goodluck Jonathan if promised projects are not fulfilled-Pan Igbo

IKOYI, Nigeria - Feb. 25, 2014 - PRLog -- The Nigerian political scene is witnessing a massive shift in the landscape following a campaign initiated by a Pro-Igbo, non-partisan global coalition of Igbo groups from the South East political zone. The group, Igbo Awareness Movement (IAM), a coalition of young professionals of Igbo extraction in Nigeria and in the diaspora has launched a massive campaign aimed at getting politicians to fulfill all the campaign promises they made to the people of the South East if they want the support of the electorates in 2015. The No Projects, No Action, No South East Votes movement is aimed at ensuring that no politician will get the support of electorates from the South East Nigeria in 2015 without fulfilling the electoral promises that brought them to power.

The campaign is structured in a way that has never been seen in Nigeria before. There is a massive online following as well as offline participation which will culminate in mass protests across all major cities in Nigeria. The first protest march took place on Saturday 22nd February when President Jonathan visited Owerri, the Imo State Capital. Another major rally and peaceful protest is planned for Abuja, the Country's capital and has already received the blessings of over 100 Igbo groups. This effort and its multi-pronged pattern is poised to change the political landscape of Nigeria as it has the potential to ignite greater citizen participation especially in holding elected officers accountable for the electoral promises they made during their campaigns.

The organizers are applying similar strategies used in massive mobilization during the Arab Spring in North Africa. The major focus of the campaign is first to get President Goodluck Jonathan to fulfill his campaign promises to the South East geopolitical zone if he wants to get the full support of the region come 2015 or the group will mobilize against his supposed ambition by getting the Igbos to withdraw their support. They reminded President Jonathan of some of his promises to the people of the South East region starting with the Second Niger Bridge. A widely quoted piece was when, during the campaign, President Jonathan said he will go on exile if he failed to build a second bridge across the River Niger at Onitsha, a project that has come to become the symbol of the marginalization of Igbo people in Nigeria.

Other promises by the President included the complete rehabilitation of two of the major Federal highways in the region, the Enugu – Port Harcourt Expressway and the Onitsha –Enugu Expressway. Moreover, the president promised to dualise the Owerri-Aba road to complete the linking of the commercial city of Onitsha to that of Aba, via Owerri. He also promised to dualise the Enugu-Abakaliki Federal highway in addition to constructing and rehabilitating all federal roads leading to the South East region. Rehabilitation of ailing industries in Aba, Abia State and work towards providing the enabling business environment that will bring the city of Aba back to its glorious days was also a widely propagated campaign promise, but Aba remains in a worse state than it was at the beginning of 2011. The building of a power station in Anambra State to aid industrialization and tackling of the unique erosion problem in that state were also promises made, but yet to be fulfilled.

The major focus of the first phase of their activism is on the incumbent, President Goodluck Jonathan however other phases of the movement will include scrutiny of politicians at the State, Senatorial district, and House of Representative level. The electorates will be mobilized to ensure that all elected public office holders in the South East will be made to account for their offices. The campaign has kicked off online with the participation of over 46,000 people presently but from the momentum observed, it till hit over 100,000 people before March with plans to get to a million online and close to five million electorates of South East extraction nationally. Village heads, community leaders, religious leaders, traders, students and civil servants are also being co-opted into the project.

Igbo Awareness Movement: We are Igbo activists gathering a team of Igbo Professionals and other well meaning Igbos to form a formidable intellectual think tank for Ndi Igbo.Aim: To re-awaken Igbo consciousness, reposition Ndi Igbo in the scheme of things. We intend to raise a new form of leadership for Ndi Igbo and work for SENSIBLE Igbo republicanism. Http://www.iamigbo.org

About No Projects No Action No Votes

An initiative by a non-partisan global coalition of Nigerian Igbo professionals from various groups. The aim of this movement is to ensure accountability of politicians in office in Nigeria. They believe that every politician must be asked to fulfill campaign promises or be removed from office. Http://www.southeastnigeriavotes.org