From Everest Ezihe, Owerri
The Ohanaeze Youths Congress (OYC), has warned that denying the the South Esat the opportunity to produced the nation’s next president after President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023 would increase the tension and encourage more separatist agitations in the country
OYC argued that now is the time to give the Igbo nation of Southern part of the country a sense of integration in a united Nigeria by picking a president from the zone, adding that the ongoing agitation for the recognition of the sovereign state of Biafra has been ;limked to the denial of a Nigerian President of the Southeast extraction for 56 years of the nation’s democratic dispensation.
Ohanaeze Youth Council, in a press statement endorsed by Comrade Igboayaka O Igboayaka, the National President and made available to newsmen in Owerri at the weekend noted that the Biafra agitation was incited by the protracted injustice and marginalization against Ndigbo in the Nigerian project.
Igboayaka said that the Biafra agitation took a new dimension under the leadership of Indigenous People Of Biafra, IPOB led by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, who he noted has been in the custody of the Department of the State Services, DSS while undergoing trial for terrorism charges filed against him by the Federal Government.
He insisted that Nigeria President of South-East extraction in 2023, is a perfect solution to the political differences and errors as allegedly perpetrated by the nation’s leaders
According to him, “It’s obvious that the new generation of Igbo, those below 57 years old didn’t experience the genocide against Ndigbo, but they have inquired and feel aggrieved why an Igbo person has not governed Nigeria in the past 56 years.
“This prolonged marginalization, injustice and economic strangulation against Ndigbo have formed the opinion in over 80 million Igbo people between the age of 15 to 57 years that Nigeria is not their country. Therefore, they seek actualization of the state of Biafra as were they legitimately belongs to” Igboayaka stated.
He argued that a Nigerian President of Southeast extraction, ought be a patriotic call for all right thinking members of the Nigerian society, to pave the way for a new Nigeria.
“It is not in doubt that Southeast has credible and competent presidential aspirants that can unify Nigeria to the path of reintegration, economic development and political stability.”
“Nigerians should come to the path of the present political reality that Biafra agitation is opposite of Nigeria President of Southeast extraction, which the likes of Ogbonnaya Onu, Orji Uzor Kalu, Rochas Okorocha, Anyim Pius Anyim, Sam Ohuabunwa, George Moghalu and many others have the patriotic capacity to unify Nigeria” he said.
