Apex Igbo socio-cultural group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has warned people it described as desperate politicians against violating the gentlemanly pact on rotating Nigeria’s presidency between North and South, insisting Igbo should succeed President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023.
In a statement in Abakaliki, Secretary-General of the Chidi Ibeh-led faction, Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro, said Nigerians should be aware that changing the narrative with falsehood for inordinate ambitions will have disastrous consequences.
The statement reads in part: “The North must consider the security implications of retaining power beyond 2023. Without any options, (it should) voluntarily concede power to the South in the interest of peace and stability, except if they have decided to set the nation ablaze and sink it.”
It alleged: “Ndigbo has been pushed out of Nigeria, based on the fact that the owners of Nigeria craftily designed policies and procedures to enslave people of the Southeast politically and economically. Only a 2023 Igbo presidency will assuage the perceptions that Igbo are still part of Nigeria.”
Taking a swipe at former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, the group said he “shouldn’t have sent his foot-soldiers to come up with tales by moonlight, as it is arrogant, absurd and disrespectful to come to the Southeast and look at us in our faces and vomit fallacies that North’s tenure has not expired.
“We wish to categorically state that it’s Igbo’s turn to succeed President Buhari in 2023 and Atiku should reciprocate the support Igbo gave him in 2019 and support one of his most trusted Igbo allies for 2023.”
It added: “Endeavours to bring another Northerner as president in 2023 will be a disaster and will sink Nigeria. Many Southern ethnic groups will join Igbo to walk away from Nigeria, as ethnic domineering and intimidation will end the union.”
Meanwhile, a presidential aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa, has assured Nigerians the nation will be more united than ever if he emerges victorious in the forthcoming presidential election.
He said this at the weekend in Akure when he paid a courtesy visit to the Ondo State chapter of the PDP and also met members of the New Nigeria Group in the state.
Contrary to speculations that any person from the Southeast, who gets to power, will actualise Biafra Republic and break the country, Ohuabunwa said people of the region are the greatest proponents of a united Nigeria.
He said: “The Southeast didn’t want to break Nigeria. The civil war was not because the Southeast wanted to break Nigeria. I fought in that war as a young army officer. The persons that want Nigeria to be together, more than others, are the Igbo.”
“They killed them in hundreds in Kano State and they are back in Kano; same in Sokoto and they are back. Are these the people who want to break the country? It is not in the interest of the Igbo to break Nigeria. They are global citizens.” —The Guardian
