The President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief John Nnia Nwodo, has said the people of the South-east region have been at the receiving end in the Nigerian federation.
He said that though Igbo have sizeable votes enough to win the presidency, the prospect of Igbo becoming the president will be elusive in a skewed Nigerian federation as it is presently constituted.
Delivering a keynote speech in Owerri at the Imo State 2019 Inauguration Lecture on Tuesday, Nwodo said going by the population of registered Igbo voters in the North and other parts of the country, the Igbos are popular and have sizeable votes even to win the Presidential election.
He said that injustice meted to the Igbo has made the region a fertile ground for all kinds of agitation.
Nwodo said, for instance, the Igbo have not been given fair representation in the composition of the hierarchy of the Armed Forces while the people of the region are given the slightest chances in the public service.
According to him, as long as the federal government continues to deny south-east a level-playing field, there would always be agitation for self-determination.
According to the Ohanaeze Ndigbo President, “When we were given quit notice by some northern youths, none of our governors acted. I went to the North and asked them to give me the data of our people in the North and the number they returned was 11.8 million people of adult age.”
“Also, during the governorship campaign in Lagos, the current governor-elect, Sanwo-olu told our people there that they were important to him because they have 3.3 million registered voters in Lagos”, Nwodo said.
He said in spite of the obvious population advantage, the Igbo would continue to insist on restructuring of the country because it is through that the nation could be saved from total eclipse.
He blamed the country’s woes on the military, stressing that it was only in the administration of Shehu Shagari that the military had minimal role in government.
Nwodo used the opportunity to debunk the insinuation that the North would go hungry if the country went into restructuring.
He said the fear that without oil revenue, the North could not be developed was erroneous because, according to him, most economically viable nations in the world had no oil for export.
Speaking on the theme, “The problems of governance in today’s Nigeria: The Imo challenge”, Nwodo said that the task before the administration of Emeka Ihedioha is enormous.
He urged the incoming administration to always put the people first in every decision to be taken.
