Ben Ezechime, Enugu
The Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide has lambasted the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Chief Bayo Onanuga, for alluding that “the malcontents planning to stage nationwide protests were supporters of Peter Obi.
Obi was the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 presidential election.
In a statement signed by Dr Alex Ogbonnia, the Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze Worldwide, the body also dismissed the call by Onanuga that Obi “should be held responsible for whatever crisis that emanates from the protest.” And that the Obidients are “plotting to unseat President Bola Tinubu under the guise of protests.”
Ogbonnia further stated that, several gullible undiscerning persons have joined Onanuga to state specifically that “the Igbo are the propellers of the forthcoming nationwide protest.
“Ohanaeze views the above remarks by Onanuga as true to type.
“On March 19, 2023, Onanuga was reported by several news media to have issued a serious warning to the Igbo stating, “Let 2023 be the last time of Igbo interference in Lagos politics. Let there be no repeat in 2027.”
“When many well-meaning Nigerians including Mr. Festus Keyamo cautioned Onanuga on the ignoble path he had chosen for himself, he was quoted to have stated: “I owe no one apology for ethnic slur against Igbos,” Ohaneze said.
According to the Statement: “Ohanaeze Ndigbo views Onanuga’s bizarre dispositions towards anything Igbo as unthoughtful, loathsome, cantankerous, uncouth, repugnant, inflammable, and full of deep-seated hate.
“It may be necessary to inform Onanuga that Nigerians of all persuasions, North, South, East and West are in pains of diverse forms: excruciating hardships, poverty, Naira downward spiral, incessant kidnappings, banditry, farmers-herdsmen conflict, most terrifying insecurity, joblessness, rising food prices and cost of living challenges. And that the prevailing hardship in Nigeria is blind to ethnicity.
“It is necessary to inform Onanuga that this is a time for the Presidency to initiate policies, programmes, activities and a body language that will appeal to or assuage the downtrodden, dispossessed, oppressed, the deprived, including Obidients.
“And to also inform the Onanugas that issuing threats to the masses, the hungry and angry, the vulnerable and indeed those who no longer fear any fall is the most inconceivable line of action for any government in a fragile society.
“In other words, instead of broadening the minds to creative thinking and welfare programmes for the masses, the Onanugas are chasing rat when the house is on fire.
“Ohanaeze Ndigbo seizes this opportunity to reiterate our position with respect to the widely publicised nationwide protest scheduled for the days of August, 2024.
On February, 20, 2024, the President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Chief Engr. Dr. Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, MFR; directed the Igbo not to join in the protest against President Bola Tinubu.”
The apex Igbo organisation stated that there could never be peace, progress and national development in Nigeria in the face of deliberate government policies of “injustice, tantrums and brimstones against a vibrant, capacious, resourceful, resilient and populous ethnic group such as the Igbo.”
