Ohanaeze youths kick over alleged South West’s 2023 presidential plot

• Obi of Onitsha chides politicians for tribalism, sectionalism, others
Ohanaeze Youth Council (OYC) has faulted the alleged plot by the South West to produce Nigeria’s president in 2023, insisting that it was the turn of Ndigbo to occupy the most exalted office in the land.

In a statement by its Secretary General, Okwu Nnabuike and Deputy Public Relations Officer, Ado Osaka, after a meeting yesterday in Abakiliki, Ebonyi State, OYC frowned on the reports that a cabal in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) had perfected plans to return power to the South West when President Buhari completes his terms.

The youths maintained that the 2023 Igbo presidential project was not negotiable, warning that any maneuvering could spell doom for the unity of the country.

The statement reads in part: “Ohanaeze youths frown on the report that a cabal in the APC had perfected plans to return power to South West instead of South East immediately President Buhari quits office. We still insist that the presidency should refute the negative plot or it will make Ndigbo to consider other political options in 2019.

“OYC insists that the APC has not fulfilled its political promises to the people of the South East, including the campaign pledge of President Buhari to revamp Enugu coal mine that had been politically closed for 45 years.”

Senate President Bukola Saraki, had while reacting to the allegation by the party’s National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, that he dumped the APC due to his presidential ambition and political spoils, claimed that the latter was supporting Buhari’s re-election with the hope of succeeding him in 2023.

Saraki said the former governor of Lagos state told him that he would support the president even on a stretcher.

The group also canvassed the restructuring of the nation as a sustainable basis for the resolution of her myriad of problems.

“If the APC leaders actually believe in one cohesive, indivisible and indissoluble Nigeria, they will not be contemplating returning power to the Yoruba at the expense of Ndigbo, taking into account all the sacrifices they have made to keep the country united,” OYC stated.

Also, a Second Republic politician and chieftain of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Guy Ikokwu, told The Guardian yesterday that the only solution to the nation’s problem was restructuring.

He disclosed that Igbo would not vote Buhari if he fails to heed the calls for the alteration of the foundation of Nigeria’s nationhood.

Ikokwu added that it would be better for the president not to contest the forthcoming polls.

Also yesterday, the Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Alfred Nnaemeka Achebe, chided the political class for putting the country on the edge through their divisive politics of partisanship, ethnicity, sectionalism and religiousity. He thus urged patriotic Nigerians to rescue the nation.

Speaking when he visited Governor Simon Lalong at Government House, Jos to mark the Anambra Day in Plateau State, the monarch noted that the damage done by politicians through unhealthy politicking had given rise to the call for a regional president.

The move, according to him, was gradually striping citizens of national identity.