The Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria, VON, Osita Okechukwu, has reacted to claims that the agitations by Nnamdi Kanu and the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, would affect the presidential ambition of the Southeast.
Okechukwu described Kanu and IPOB’s agitation as fringe elements.
Speaking with Daily Post in Abuja, the All Progressives Congress, APC, chieftain, said he would have been angry if Kanu and IPOB were responsible for what the Southeast is suffering politically.
There have been speculations that the Biafra agitations being championed by Kanu and IPOB would prevent the Southeast from producing Nigeria’s president in 2023.
The Arewa Youths Consultative Forum, AYCF, had said the Southeast should caution Kanu and his group, so they can successfully lobby other regions for the presidency.
However, Okechukwu, when asked if Kanu and IPOB’s agitation would affect the chances of the Southeast in 2023, said: “Those are fringe elements. How many are they? They are fringe elements.
“It’s very easy for me to throw stone in this venue and everybody will run, they are fringe elements.
“Are they the Igbos in Mubi? Are they the Igbos in Dutse? Are they the Igbos in Shaki, Oyo State? Are they the Igbos in Ukeb – Cross River State? Go there you will see us, they are minority groups; they never asked anybody there questions.
“Agreed that there are certain messages like marginalization, but we are telling them marginalization can’t continue indefinitely, and you don’t fight it by force.
“Yes, it happens all over the world, the black Americans have been humiliated but they later became president, the Jews in Germany have been humiliated, but they didn’t go that way.
“We are telling them that this is their country where the Almighty God found us in, and we must all rally around President Muhammadu Buhari to salvage the country together.
“I could have been very angry with them (IPOP) if any part of the country is developed and they are the people making Igbos not to develop. If Jonathan had ruled Nigeria and Bayelsa is developed and he felt that Enugu will not develop, I could have been angry; or Obasanjo had developed Abeokuta or Lagos while in power and left Enugu undeveloped, I could have been angry. But when I know as a socio-scientist that the country is highly underdeveloped in every parameter, measurement, and barometer; then I feel worried, and not to be envious. What have we done that we will envy each other? Unless we are acting like beer parlour players that bought two bottles of beer and said you are higher than those who could not buy.”
