Apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council Worldwide on Friday came down hard on former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, accusing him of demonstrating unprecedented desperation in his bid to become Nigeria’s president.
The group was reacting to a post by Atiku on his social media handle.
With a photograph attached, he wrote: “The 'Ohanaze Ndibo' Youth Worldwide, led by its President, Ogbonnia Wenceslans, paid me a courtesy visit at my residence in Abuja yesterday.”
However, reacting to the development, Mazi Okwu Nnabuike, who is the National President of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council Worldwide chided the 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, accusing him of “shopping for black market support in order to realise an ambition that is dead on arrival.”
Okwu in a statement on Friday, decried what he called a resort to fake groups to curry support, noting that “no matter the antics by Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and his likes, power would remain in Southern Nigeria in 2027.”
According to him, “the photograph posted by Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is a serious insult on the sensibilities of Ndigbo.
“In as much as we are not perturbed if he wishes to throw his money around fake elements, what we shall not condone is his dragging of the revered Ohanaeze Ndigbo youths to his desperation.
“He could as well use any other name to describe his ‘fake guests’ and not as Ohanaeze youths. This is nothing else but desperation taken too far.
“We need to make it very clear to him and any other person thinking in his direction that Nigeria does not belong to people like Atiku alone.
“As an elder statesman, he should do things that would promote unity and equity in this country and to become a champion of destabilisation.
“It is not only unjust but immoral for power to return to the North in 2027, just four years after Muhammadu Buhari completed an 8-year tenure.”
He added that, “In 2031, power will shift to the North and by then, we shall all throw our support to a very credible candidate, not those who can’t even respect the zoning arrangement in their own political party.”
Meanwhile, Okwu has advised Nigerians against “dealing with faceless groups in the name of Ohanaeze youth as they will be doing so to their own detriment.
“These crop of beggars do not represent Ohanaeze youth in any form
“Atiku Abubakar's desperation to become Nigerian president made him patronise impostors and beggars masquerading themselves in the name of Ohanaeze.
“Other Nigerians should not fall victim to these merchants.”