A coalition of youths in Anambra state has urged the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, to abandon his desire to lead Nigeria and join forces with progressive forces in the South-east to negotiate a better political future for the Igbo people.
According to the Coalition of Anambra Youth Leaders, there are concerns that Obi’s insistence on running for president will have a detrimental impact on Ndigbo and increase the chances of the All Progressives Congress (APC) retaining power at the center.
Noting that the APC experiment has been devastating for the country, the youth alliance stated that all efforts must be directed toward rescuing Nigerians from the party, and that another four years with APC at the helm may be disastrous.
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Dr. Chinedu Ekwealor, National Leader of the Coalition, told media during a press conference in Awka, the Anambra state capital, that Ndigbo had a greater chance of regaining central control through the Peoples Democratic Party.
Obi, he believes, should rethink the damaging influence of his personal ambition on the future of the Igbo nation and withdraw his support for the party whose vice presidential candidate he was in 2019.
Ekwealor stated that Obi’s Labour Party has no mathematical chance of winning the 2023 presidential election, but that emotions will not bring in the required numbers to be declared the winner of the presidential election in Nigeria.
Though he admitted that people were upset over Obi’s ambition, the youth leader noted that “emotions don’t win elections.” Superior figures do.”
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Stating that “Obi does not have a mathematical chance of making victory possible”, the youth group said “let us not be emotional about it. No Igbo man can be President of Nigeria without a formidable alliance with the other major regions that make up Nigeria.”
He argued that “in the early ’60s and late ’70s, Ndigbo understood this point quite frankly and maintained a robust relationship with our northern brothers. Our brother Peter Obi does not have this alliance and knows very well that an irate social media mob does not, and cannot, make him President.”
Warning that Obi’s ambition may work against the Igbo nation in the near future, the youth coalition said: “Obi’s presidential run is sabotage to Ndigbo. What he has only succeeded in doing is increasing APC’s chances of winning the election by depleting the votes of the southeast for PDP. The implication is that the Southeasterners will have to stay out of power for a minimum of another 16 years. This is because after Tinubu (if he wins), power would return to the north for another eight years leaving Ndigbo out for another 16 solid years.
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“If Mr. Peter Obi truly loves Ndigbo, he should step down forthwith and strategize with other well-meaning Igbo elites in charting a way forward for the Igbo nation. We repeat, the presidency is not won on the premise of wishful thinking and hullabaloo of an untamed mob, who probably do not even understand the need for a pathway for the Igbo nation”, Dr. Ekwealor added.
Pushing for a new narrative for the Igbo nation, the youth coalition said that “Ohaneze Ndigbo and prominent Igbo leaders, including Obi, must now without any further delay, engage seriously with the frontliners in the forthcoming presidential election, and secure bankable negotiations for Igbo political renaissance and pathway to the presidency of Nigeria”.
The group praised Anambra state governor Prof. Chukwuma Soludo for his courageous display of statesmanship in speaking the truth to Obi, saying the governor “stated the facts as if they didn’t care whose ox was gored” in his essay.
According to the group, Soludo demonstrated courage and leadership in his treatise because the fate of the Igbo nation is jeopardized as a result of Obi’s ambition.
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The group said: “It takes a lot of courage and political will for any politician from the southeast to make the very firm, bold and factual statements as Governor Soludo did. This timely intervention by the prudent thinker has given leeway to other prominent Igbo leaders, who for the avoidance of the shameful macabre dance by a mob, swallowed their hallowed bank of wisdom and refused to air an opinion on this matter, now to come forward with critical thinking and analysis.”
The group called on the Igbo nation to rise in favor of the formation of stronger alliances with other sectors of the country for political benefits, saying Ndigbo can no longer afford to isolate themselves from Nigerian politics by engaging in exclusionary politics.
It was stated that the Igbo country should now take a leaf from one of their treasured sons, late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, who built bridges that many Igbo people scaled to become national political heroes, according to the organization.
“History repeats itself only to those who do not learn from history. Ndi Igbo must now wake up and adopt the political sagacity and gusto of late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe. The Zikist politics of bridge building gave Ndigbo our best chance in the political history of Nigeria when an Igbo man was President of Nigeria in the ’60s, and another Igbo man as Senate President, the same Zikist politics of alliance gave Ndigbo the Vice Presidential and House of Representatives speakership slots in 1979. That is what Ndigbo have forgone for wishful thinking and mob action which has repeatedly gotten us nowhere”, the group stated.
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