Apex Igbo socio-cultural organization, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, yesterday, threw its support behind the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi, saying, it is the turn of the southeast to produce the next Nigerian President.
Ohanaeze said that going by the principles of rotation and zoning of power in Nigeria which has been in existence since 1999, it is the turn of the South East of Nigeria to produce the president in 2023.
The group said its resolve for the 2023 general election has been constant, consistent, and very clear; without any form of equivocation whatsoever.
In a related development, Chief Charles Udeogaranya , a former presidential aspirant in the 2019 general elections, has warned Nigerians to prepare to live in poverty, concrete hardship, and acute economic austerity if they fail to vote for the right candidate in 2023.
Meantime, Nigerian students have vowed to mobilize 10 million votes across the country for the candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr. Peter Obi in the 2023 presidential election.
It’s S-East turn—Ohanaeze
According to a statement by Dr. Chiedozie Alex Ogbonnia, National Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide: “Ohanaeze Ndigbo has canvassed to various eminent persons in Nigeria, seeking their support for the president from the South East come 2023. We are delighted by the responses from various groups and highly placed patriotic Nigerians.
“Ohanaeze works in collaboration with the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF), comprising the Afenifere, PANDEF, Middle Belt Leaders, and Ohanaeze Ndigbo led by an elder-statesman, Chief E K Clarke. The group in its quest for Nigerian unity, peace, and sustainable national development has endorsed Mr. Peter Obi as their candidate for the 2023 general elections. “Therefore, on the SMBLF endorsement, we stand, most irrevocably.
“On the other hand, Ohanaeze took a commodity to the market and the world is clamouring for it. We are rather very excited, happy, and fulfilled that Nigeria is now in full possession of the commodity.
“The President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Ambassador Professor George Obiozor explained that Obi has filled what could have been a very sad gap. Therefore, Obi represents the Nigerian conscience, moral probity, generational hope, redemption epiphany, and above all, the Igbo collective unconscious.The philosophy of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide finds a cogent expression in the symbol of Nigerian unity and a beacon of hope as epitomized by Mr. Peter Obi.“
The statement added that Ohanaeze’s support for Obi is not only based on equity and justice but also on merit, competence, a track record of accomplishments, and the veritable ideas that Obi espouses for a better Nigeria.
“ A lot has been said that the Labour Party, especially as it concerns Obi has no structure. It needs to be pointed out that the Obi movement is a massive disruptive reaction against the deplorable Nigerian pathologies. People use the Obi phenomenon to express dissatisfaction with the status quo. It is a revolt against injustice, poverty, unemployment, corruption, and all forms of vicious circles that have become the trademark of Nigeria.
“In other words, every revolution is a structural change. What the Obi movement stands for is to dismantle or change whatever structure has brought us to this intractable tragedy and reprehensible denouncement; the structure that has been a knee on the neck of Nigerians. Importantly, ideas rule the world. Ideas, as you know, possess the potency to develop into an ideology, a movement, and finally to a structure. Lastly, the impotent debate on the structure has long been overwhelmed and rested by the recent events in Nigeria.”
Ohanaeze further stated that the double endorsement by the Afenifere; one faction to Obi and the other to Tinubu is a repeat of history.
“Even in the kingdom of God, there was a faction. One represents light, truth, equity, justice, reasonableness, and a bright future while the other represents the very opposites. But, surely, history will always vindicate the just.”
Severe suffering awaits Nigerians if …. —Udeogaranya
The former APC chieftain warning came barely 72 hours after the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, disclosed that 133 million Nigerians are multi-dimensionally poor, a status that exceeds the World Bank projection on Nigeria.
In a release yesterday in Abuja, the politician warned the Nigerian electorate who are not taking the issue of electing a credible leader seriously to have a rethink about imminent severe sufferings and poverty-related deaths that will envelop Nigeria, if they fail to elect Mr. Peter Obi of Labour Party, LP, in the 2023 presidential election.
The ex-presidential aspirant urged Nigerians to jettison the All Progressives Congress, APC, and Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, presidential candidates as birds of the same feather and men who have passed their time and should give way for Nigeria to survive if they mean well for the country.
The politician concluded by saying “if we do not walk away from APC and PDP presidential candidates, they will walk 99.9 percentage of us into abject poverty with severe suffering”.
Nigerian students vow to mobilize 10m votes for Peter Obi
The students, who met under the aegis of Students Obi-Datti Network (SON), in Awka at the weekend during the inauguration of the South East zonal and state executive members of the network, insisted that never again would they elect any government that would jeopardize their academic growth and development like in the last strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU.
The network consists of the current and former executive members of students/youth leaderships, including Students Union Governments, SUG; the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS; and National Youth Council of Nigeria, NYCN, among others.
The inauguration in Awka attracted students from universities, polytechnics, Colleges of Education, and other institutions of learning across the five states in the South East.
The national coordinator of Students ObiDatti Network, Comrade Kenneth Okeke, said Peter Obi and Datti Ahmed’s aspiration had taken Nigeria by storm, adding that OBIdient students were 100 percent prepared to mobilize 10 million votes from the SON structure across the six geopolitical zones to man the states, local governments, wards, and the pooling units.
According to him, the purpose of setting up the Students Obi-Datti Network in all the states of the federation and school campuses was to have foot soldiers who would be spreading the message of hope and redemption, which Peter Obi and Datti Ahmed represent.
Okeke said: “We are poised in deepening the conversation of domesticating the deployment and penetration of Students Obi-Datti Network, in the tertiary institutions through voter education, booth-to-booth mobilization, awareness and sensitization campaign in all the polling units within and around campuses across the nation.
“Our resolve to support the Obi-Datti agenda is borne out of the consistency between his words and his antecedent while holding sway as governor of Anambra State and his intellectual disposition towards the challenges facing Nigeria.
“Obi, during his consultation and campaign across the North and the South, has always dealt with issues and he has cited the vast land of the North as the new oil well of Nigeria, and his thoughts on changing the sharing formula to production formula.”
