A delegation of Igbo chiefs under the Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide has taken its consultation to the North in a bid to gain support for the candidacy of the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, ahead of the 2023 presidential election.
The secretary general of the group, Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro, who led other executives on an advocacy visit to the leadership of Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF) yesterday in Kaduna, disclosed that N10bn has been set aside to support an Igbo candidate.
He said the delegation had met with some religious and traditional leaders in the North over the presidential project and assured that the Igbo delegation for the 2023 presidency will continue to lobby all parts of the country for the power shift to the South East geo-political zone.
Responding, the National President of AYCF, Alhaji Yerima Shettima, said the North has come of age and gone are the days when blackmail, intimidation and harassment were used to negotiate for politics or power.
He said: “Politics is about negotiation, it is about meeting people, discussing and lobbying, you don’t just sit down in your little enclave and make noise, some of us are here and we don’t know what a sit-at-home means because it does not affect us in the northern part of the country but it affects the economy of the South directly or indirectly.
“It is left for the Igbo kinsmen to rise up above board and checkmate the excesses of these elements for your betterment.
“Nobody will entrust you with power when you make it obvious that you are putting fear in the minds of people.”
