Ohaneze Ndigbo has thrown its weight behind the much speculated second term ambition of Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan.
In his message to Ndigbo during the Igbo Day celebration at the Michael Okpara Square, Enugu, on Sunday, Ohaneze President-General, Chief Enwo Igariwey said clamour for Igbo presidency was justifiable.
He, however, said it would be realizable after Goodluck Jonathan had served out his tenure either in 2015 or 2019.
Igariwey stressed that Ndigbo would not get the presidency by being timid, adding that they must demonstrate some level of seriousness towards the project.
According to him, Olusegun Obasanjo’s emergence as Nigeria’s President in 1999 was a result of protest by the Yorubas over the annuled June 12 presidential election.
He lamented what he described as “a deliberate act of cheating and intentional exclusion of Ndigbo from a sense of justice and equity”.
Igariwey stated that the structural imbalance against Ndigbo in Nigeria had remained disturbing, stressing that “if these had occurred in any other zone in this country, there would have been neither peace nor calm in the country until the injustice was redressed.
“The security situation in the country today has taken a big toll on our people. We have taken casualties, we have lost properties and it is on-going. This is unacceptable”.
“We wish to appeal to those who think that they can destabilize the country by use of arms, by the murder of innocent people, by the destruction of properties, to take lessons in history.
“We call on the Federal Government to deploy all resources available to put this to an end immediately and work out modalities for compensating those who lost relations and properties”, he added.
In the speech entitled “Think Home Ndigbo”, he called on Igbo indigenes to think of recreating achievements they made in other regions towards uplifting Igbo land.
He said: “As a people, we have burst the rims of the space, Nigeria, and poured out to all corners of the world. In all of these places, we have left marks of success in all fields.
“If we think home, we will put smiles on the faces of our youth by providing employment. Unemployment has been identified as one of the major causes of security breaches in Igbo land”.
Igbo Day celebration is an annual event in honour of Igbo sons and daughters massacred in September 29, 1966.
The theme of this year’s event is “Ojemba Chetakwa Ala Igbo” (Traveler, Remember Igbo Land).
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