Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide has dismissed the position of former Minister of Works, Adeseye Ogunlewe that the Southeast is not prepared to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023.
Adeseye Ogunlewe, a former Minister of Works, had said the inability of the people of the Southeast to unite under a common leadership would work against their presidential ambition. He has said: “Another set of people that are appropriate, they are the people from the Southeast but they have the problem of leadership.
“They are so endowed that they are spread all over Nigeria and they can gather a lot of votes, but they are too divided. An Imo person, an Enugu person, an Ebonyi man will not listen to themselves.
“They have the money. If they sit down and aggregate what they can offer, they have more money than almost everybody in Nigeria.”
But reacting, Ohanaeze described his claims as “calculated attempts, crooked and provocative onslaught against Ndigbo intertwined with fallacies and falsehoods.”
This was contained in a statement issued by the Ohanaeze Secretary-General, Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro.
He said, “ordinarily, we would have ignored the man suffering from mouth diarrhea, but we call on Nigerians to know that 2023 is the not about Southeast but the repair of a country sinking deep into the abyss of disintegration and insecurity”.
He added that, “Ogunlewe is not speaking for Omo Oduduwa or Yoruba nation. Men and women of morality from the Southwest are supporting and canvassing for the 2023 Igbo Presidency.
“The survival of Nigeria beyond 2023 lies in the fact that every section of the country had tasted the Presidency except the Igbo, and attempts by the fifth columnist to coax and stop the Nigerian President of Igbo extraction is the quickest route to disintegration and an unending secessionist movement in Nigeria.
“We are clamoring for Igbo Presidency, not Southeast Presidency. Whether an Igbo from Niger Delta or Benue or Kogi or Southeast emerges in any major political party, we will identify with him and support him.”
Isiguzoro said contrary to Ogunlewe’s claims, “Igbos are united in the pursuit of the 2023 Presidency.
“For the first time since the return of democracy in 1999, a lot of consultative meetings and backstage activities are ongoing to convince Nigerians ob the need for the 2023 Igbo Presidency Project.
“Igbo leadership is at the forefront of this Noble Project, and Igbo presidential hopefuls are putting finishing touches on the 2023 Presidency.”
