The Deputy National Youth Leader, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Jones Onwuasoanya, on Thursday said Former Minister of Works, Adeseye Ogunlewe has started falsehood propaganda to shrink the agenda of the 2023 Nigeria Presidency of Igbo extraction.
Onwuasoanya said this to newsmen in Owerri, regarding the statement credited to Senator Adeseye, that the Igbo people have not invested much in the major political parties to be able to control the structures and actualise the position of the Presidency.
But, this statement has angered the Ohanaeze Deputy Youth Leader, who said Adeseye, was on a mission given to him by some selfish political leaders to whittle down the Igbo agenda.
Onwuasoanya said in order to end political injustice and unfair treatment that it was politically right for Nigerians to allow the Igbos a chance to produce a president in 2023.
He said: “This is one falsehood that is both cheap and debasing to the personality of Chief Adeseye, even though we understand that he is on a ‘job’ to advance the selfish agenda of some group of politicians who believe that the only way they can thrash the “Nigerian Charter of Equity.”
Adding that “Which squarely places the right to the presidency on the doorsteps of Ndigbo of Southeast, is by propagating falsehood against Ndigbo and attempting to mutilate history. Let me quickly make it clear that Ndigbo of the Southeast has more than 1,000, 000 eminently qualified, financially capable and politically equipped to vie for and win the Nigerian presidency, at the next election. The only thing that will rob us of this chance is political injustice.
“Igbo politicians are at the helm of the two major political parties in Nigeria, and except, the injustice being currently rehearsed by Adeseye and his sponsors are allowed to succeed, Ndigbo should be able to comfortably determine the shape and outlook of the structures of not just the two major political parties, but that of any Political Party in Nigeria, at the moment.
“However, Ndigbo are also not interested in hijacking power, but believe that no matter who is in charge of these structures, we will have to engage every section of the country and reach a beneficial understanding in order to produce the next President.”
“As a Senator, elected on the platform of the defunct Alliance for Democracy, Adeseye is aware that his kinsman, former President Olusegun Obasanjo did not have access to any political structure in this country when he came out of prison and was practically piggybacked to the presidency by a combination of Southeast and Northern Nigeria support. It is on record that President Obasanjo’s presidency was a product of political concession by the Southeast especially, and other parts of Nigeria, on the basis of the principle of equity and fairness.
“Therefore, even if there is no Igbo of the Southeast with the capacity and political spread to influence political Party structures and leadership, it behoves on leaders like Adeseye, who by his natural age and political experiences, qualifies eminently as an elder statesman, to be at the forefront of the campaign for all Nigerians to unite behind Igbo presidential candidates across all the registered political parties, especially, given that he had conceded that Ndigbo is “so endowed,” Ohanaeze said.
