…Backs Southern Govs
By Emma Ogbuehi
Pan-Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze, has taken swipe at the Northern Governors and traditional rulers of the zone over their stance against power shift in 2023, describing their position as portending bleak future for the country.
The Northern governors had a meeting with leading Emirs and chiefs in Kaduna on Monday, September 27, faulted the resolution by their Southern colleagues for the presidency to return to the South in 2023, describing the demand as unconstitutional.
The Kaduna meeting was a response to an earlier gathering by the governors from the South in Enugu and Lagos, where they argued that it was necessary for the position of the President to shift to the South in 2023 for the sake of decency, justice and equity. At the Lagos meeting, the governors specifically asked all the major political parties to field politicians from the South as their presidential candidates as they did in 1999.
But in a riposte, the governors from the North dismissed the request as running contrary to the provisions of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
In faulting the hardline posture by the North, Ohanaeze remarked that it is regrettable that the North is undisturbed that Nigeria is fast collapsing under its leadership, blaming the leaders of the zone on their failure to recognize that at the moment, Nigeria is confronted with the most precarious omens full of uncertainty, doubts, insecurity and bloodshed.
Ohanaeze expressed its reservation to the North in a statement by is National Publicity Secretary Chiedozie Alex Ogbonnia, made available to TheNiche. It listed challenges currently facing Nigeria such as Boko Haram insurgency, terrifying banditry in Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna and Jigawa States, regular attacks on farmers and indigenes in Benue State, nationwide abduction of school children, spiraling unemployment among the youths and crashing value of the national currency, wondering that rather than finding solution to these ugly developments, the governors of the North and traditional rulers were only bothered with retaining power in 2023.
“Let it be made abundantly clear that if Presidency is a panacea to people’s problems, the North would have become the Netherlands of Africa. This is because the North had Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Yakubu Gowon, Murtala Mohammed, Shehu Shagari, Muhammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Babangida, Sani Abacha, Abdulsalam Abubakar, Musa Yar’Adua, Muhammadu Buhari, yet the problems of the North are on the increase”, the release stated.
Ohanaeze threw support to the position of the Southern Governors on power shift, stressing that it is simply restating the obvious. “Therefore, the least that is expected from the North is a show of profound gratitude to the entire South for their large heart, equanimity and sportsmanship. Furthermore, it is in the interest of every Nigerian that there should be a paradigm shift to governance techniques.
“Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide unequivocally stands with the 17 Southern Governors and any black leg among them will incur the wrath of history”, the organisation added.
It expressed disappointment over the unholy maneuvers and alliances by the members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to zone the presidential seat for the 2023 general election to the Northern Nigeria, warning that such move may spell doom for the party. According to Ohanaeze, “If by way of politics without principles the Southerners in PDP place their personal narrow interests over the interest of their people, the verdict of history will surely be harsh on them”.