Ikpeazu: G5 stance about inclusion — everyone has to be brought to the table

Okezie Ikpeazu, governor of Abia, says the position of the G5 governors is about promoting inclusion in the Peoples Democratic Democratic (PDP).

Ikpeazu spoke on Thursday at the public presentation of a book titled: ‘The Biochemistry of Environmental Pollution’, held in Abuja.

The book was authored by Ikpeazu and Kalu Kalu, a lecturer at the department of veterinary biochemistry and animal production, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike.

Speaking on the agitation of the G5 group, Ikpeazu said the issue goes beyond the 2023 elections.

He said it is about inclusiveness and what the governors think is one of the cause of Nigeria’s challenges.

The G5 group — which includes five PDP governors — is calling for the resignation of Iyorchia Ayu as the party’s national chairperson.

The call is said on the grounds that the party’s presidential candidate and national chair cannot be from the same region.

Meanwhile, Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers, has now said there is no chance of a last-minute truce between the G5 group and the party over joining the PDP presidential campaign.

Speaking on the group’s position, Ikpeazu said the protest was on exclusion from the party’s leadership.

“If I come to a point in my life as a politician and you produce two or three critical officers of my party and they are all coming from one particular geo-political zone, I will agitate, even if they come from my geo-political zone. Everybody has to be brought to the table,” Ikpeazu said.

“If you exclude Igbos from northern Nigeria, I will ask a question; I will also protest. If you exclude some people from western Nigeria, I will still protest. For me, it is about including everybody.

“The youths, the women, people from the north and south, all of us, we need to do social mobilisation in order for us to solve the economic problems of this country.”

Ikpeazu also said to build the country, Nigerians must unite, irrespective of tribe or religion.

“The greatest problem of Nigeria today is not security, neither is it economic. It is lack of cohesion. It is disunity. Our problem is mutual suspicion and lack of mutual respect,” NAN quoted him as saying.

“We should see the country as belonging to all of us under one God.”

On the new book, Ikpeazu said his research on biochemistry would be in vain “if I could not contribute to the body of knowledge”.

“It is this drive that propelled me to keep at it till I achieved it. When I came over to the flipside of public service, to serve as governor, I thought that would have been a point of divergence and disconnection from my first love – biochemistry,” he said.

“But each time, I look at every issue, and every problem from the perspective of biochemistry.

“Biochemistry refuses to leave me and I had to go back and pick it up. I feel very fulfilled because this is a journey I started over 20 years ago. It is not easy at all.”