•Calls for financial support for Labour Party presidential candidate
Sunday Ehigiator
Leader of the Yoruba socio-cultural group Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, yesterday stressed the need for Nigerians to vote for the presidential candidate of Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi, in the forthcoming election.
He said this comments while addressing members and friends of Ohaneze Ndigbo Worldwide socio-cultural group, during the tribute ceremony organised in Lagos, to honour the late President General of the Group, George Obiozor who died in December 2022, at the age of 80.
In his address, Adebanjo emphasised that the Igbo presidency shouldn’t be seen as a favour to the people from the south-east, but rather a right, which was agreed to by every tribe and enshrined in the country’s federal character.
According to him, “When the call came and they told me that George passed on, I said wow, not now!
“You see, we are in a battle to save this country from the great oppression of many years and there are very few people who can stand up and be counted. Obiozor was one of them.
“These days, I don’t fancy people who talk about a Nigeria united in peace and not in action.
“Many people, even among the Igbo, pay lip service to a united Nigeria, and they are indifferent to our oppression because they give them some fringes from the table. Obiozor was not one of them.
“He (Obiozor) was a distinguished scholar, an ambassador par excellence, an intellectual of international repute; a qualified and distinguished Nigerian of whom, when we mention people who gave this country recognition and respect, you cannot miss George Obiozor.
“He is one of our points of pride and I believe he is not one of those who should have gone now when we are in the middle of a great battle.
“Unfortunately, you Igbos have not been giving us enough financial support. You have not been giving Obi financial support, I am challenging you openly.
“We are suffering from financial support. Those of us who are supporting Obi are poor people. I know you Igbos, you have billionaires in your midst, this is when to spend your money for a good cause.
“Obi must not suffer for anything financially in this course when you people are around. It would be a great shame and I have told you people in private and that is one of the reasons I am missing Obiozor.”
Speaking further, the elder statesman said: “Obiozor was a man of courage, a man who will call a spade a spade, very diplomatic, courageous and distinguished. I hope we would have more and more of him in Igbo land to contribute to this struggle to keep Nigeria as a united country in peace.
“It is a cause that you must fight for, don’t be shy about it. I understand many of you may be saying it is your turn, it is your constitutional right, and it is not a favour. I have been saying this long ago, it is not a favour.
“And when people say thank you to me, you are thanking me for what? This is the condition under which we came together in 1960. It is a condition our leaders, Azikiwe, Sultana and Awolowo, agreed to before we became Nigeria.
“We were not colonised as Nigeria, we were colonised as Igbos, Yorubas, Hausas, Ijaws, Ibibios and all that. We came together and we agreed that to live in peace, these are the conditions.
“And what are the conditions: The thing that binds us together must be held in rotation and autonomy for the regions. That was all the cause of restructuring that we must have.
“We must have regional, cultural, local government, education, agricultural autonomy and all that, but the only thing that could bind us together, which we agreed, is that the presidency must be held in rotation. Therefore, there is a federal character in the constitution.”
“When my people came to me and asked me to support a Yoruba man, I said no! The presidency is not between the Yoruba and the Igbos, it is a Nigerian matter and we have agreed to be having it in rotation.”
