The President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief John Nwodo, has described Nigeria as a “federation in name and not in practice.”
Nwodo, whose house was hit by explosion last weekend, also took a swipe on a national leader of the All Progressives Congress, Bisi Akande, for not speaking the truth to President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, which according to him, is tribalistic.
The statesman said this on Wednesday at the 10th anniversary symposium of the late Senator Abraham Adesanya held in Lagos.
He said, “The essence of a federation is that it is a group of people with diverse characteristics who come together as different people and different units and donate their powers to the Federal Government.
“That is what we did in 1963; it means that whoever must lead our country must be someone who is prepared to see himself as an Adesanya, who is Yoruba, but also a Nigerian.
“Our patriotism is destroyed when you have a tribal leadership, more worrisome is when I watch statesmen who when issues of this nature exist, would rather be diplomatic than confront it.
“If you don’t have leaders who are detribalised to stand up for truth, who have the fearlessness to tell their closest friends and people from their ethnic configuration – you got it wrong here – then something is wrong with our country.
“If we have people like you, Chief Akande, who cannot speak to power, if because you belong to the APC, you cannot say to our head of state (sic) you are wrong here, then something is wrong.”
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