In response to the ongoing suffering in the nation, the Pan-Igbo apex socio-cultural group, Ohanaeze Ndi Igbo, has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to put the suggestions and resolutions from the 2014 conference into action.
Ohanaeze requests that Tinubu follow the 2014 Confab recommendations due to hardship
This was said even as it praised South East residents for staying away from the nationwide demonstration against President Tinubu’s administration.
The Secretary General of Ohanaeze, Okechukwu Isiguzoro, praised South Easterners for their composure in refraining from participating in the rallies against the President due to the financial struggles that the populace is undergoing.
He said that during the former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, the South-East has consistently been neglected by the government.
Given the difficulties the nation is facing, he thus asked Tinubu to put the recommendations of the 2014 constitutional conference into action.
In a statement made available to South-East PUNCH in Owerri on Tuesday, Ohanaeze stated: “A resolute calmness emanates from the old Eastern Nigeria comprising the South-East and South-South regions, following nationwide uproar and agitation sparked by escalating living costs, economic distress, and famine.”
“Many, including the Presidency and the North, have been shocked by the remarkable calm and unwavering silence amid the widespread rage and turmoil in the North and South-West.”
“In the face of economic hardship, the people of the old Eastern region, especially the South-East, are to be commended by a prominent Igbo socio-cultural organization and steadfast advocate for the Igbo people for their extraordinary wisdom and discernment in not leading protests against President Tinubu and the Federal Government.
The South-East has been disproportionately affected by prejudice and neglect on the part of the government since the beginning of the Buhari dictatorship in 2015 and the present Tinubu administration.
“The injustices meted out to the South-East are glaring, whether it be the exclusions of the center, the wanton demolition of Igbo properties in Lagos without federal intervention, the systematic burning of Igbo markets in the South-West, minimal federal appointments, or the unjust incarceration of Nnamdi Kanu, juxtaposed with the preferential treatment of figures like Sowore and Igboho.”
The lack of protester deaths or injuries as a result of security intervention during the current wave of protests in Niger, Kano, Lagos, Osun, and Abuja stands in stark contrast to the tragic Obigbo (Oyibo) massacre in Rivers State and the eerie memories of South-Westerner lives lost during previous protests against Kanu’s detention.
Ohaneze urges the Federal Government to replace Tinubu’s failing economic team with capable individuals in order to save the collapsing economy before it completely collapses. We are inspired by the people of the South-East for their unwavering bravery and uncommon uprightness in enduring the storm.
Remember how Nigerian women and youths in Niger State and a few other states recently staged protests over the country’s growing cost of living by taking to the streets?
After Tinubu’s termination of the gasoline subsidy on May 29, 2023, the country’s economic position had become intolerable.
