Leader of the Pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, has lambasted former President Goodluck Jonathan for mulling the possibility of contesting the presidential position in the forthcoming 2023 General elections.
The elder statesman who spoke when Southern and Middle Belt leaders converged in Abuja, Monday, said Jonathan should not allow President Muhammadu Buhari to deceive him into throwing his hat into the ring for the next presidential election.
On Monday, Southern organisations met at the International Conference Centre, Abuja to further push agitations for a South-East Presidency in 2023.
Among the organisation which supported Igbo presidency were Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, Pan-Niger Delta Forum and Middle Belt Forum. They reiterated their calls for the presidency to be micro zoned to the South-East for equity, justice and fairness in 2023.
Speaking at the event, Pa Adebanjo said the South-East region should produce the next president though the body language of the Northerners suggest that they would support the region.
He also recalled how he told Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu not to put his trust in President Buhari as the latter would never support his ambition.
According to him, the President is plotting to divide the West by asking his Vice president, Yemi Osibanjo, Governor Kayode Fayemi and others to contest against Tinubu.
In his words, “We all know the truth. They don’t want the South-East. It is not because they don’t know what is right.
‘’I only like to point to the fact that they are just deceiving you. All you are hearing, that they (the North) are supporting the South-West is an element of deceit to deprive you, to be able to rule you. They don’t like anybody.
“I told Tinubu himself, not in the papers, face-to-face. ‘You believe this man (Buhari) will make you President?’ He said ‘yes’. I said ‘he wants to make you President and yet he asked (Yemi) Osinbajo to contest? He asked (Kayode) Fayemi to contest, he asked Amosun (Ibikunle) to contest?’ All in the West, why? He wants to divide the West first.
“The unfortunate thing is that President Goodluck Jonathan allowed himself to be disgraced by mentioning the fact that ‘I am considering whether to be president or not. For what?
“Now that it is the turn of the South-East, they are propounding a new theory, it must be based on merit and all that. If it is the question of merit, who in the North qualifies to lead Nigeria? If it has been based on merit, the East alone would produce the President.
“I am saying all these because of the talks about ‘go and sell yourself, go and campaign, go and lobby’, it is all rigmarole. They know the truth.
“Although I don’t like all the people that came out from the East, for the fact that they are saying you have no people, I am happy you have demonstrated that you have people. But go and unite. A house divided against itself will not stand. The North doesn’t want to leave power. While the South is slugging it out, they put their candidate up”.
In his address, titled “The Nigeria I knew”, leader of PANDEF, Chief Edwin Clark said the South-East region has been largely marginalised since 1960, when Nigeria gained independence.
The elderstatesman lamented that at almost 95, he is still worried about the South-East being marginalized and oppressed.
In his words, “Nigeria has been independent for about 62 years now but before then, Nigeria became self-governing in 1957. Any child in any part of the country, when he or she grows to 17, 18, 19 and becomes independent of his parents and is able to reason for himself, has the right to ask whether he is truly part of this country when all that he sees is discrimination, hatred, injustice, unfairness in the offices, in the streets, at workplaces and even in institutions of the government. It is pathetic.
“We can no longer describe Nigeria as a pot anymore because we now have 36 legs and if any part of these 36 legs gets broken, the country will not be at ease and that is exactly what we are experiencing today. The young ones who belong to the disadvantaged legs are fighting and people are pretending not to know why.
“What right does the antagonist have that the protagonist does not have? What right do you have that the man you are accusing of disturbing you does not have? The reality is that the man who wants to destroy and the one who is preventing the destruction have equal rights.
“Why the South-East should have Presidency is because the children from that geopolitical zone are asking whether their own leg is k-legged, or deformed or broken, thus resulting in the inability of their zone to present the President.
