Magnus Eze, Enugu

One of the groups pushing for a president of Nigeria of southeast extraction in 2023 has said that would engender peace and progress in the country.

It, therefore, tasked the apex Igbo sociocultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, to immediately mobilise Igbo groups for the actualisation of the project.

Co-founder of South East 2023 Presidential Mandate, Prince Benedict Onyewuenyi who gave the charge in Enugu, Tuesday, also advised those campaigning for restructuring to stop wasting their time because the body language of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Government was not attuned to a restructured Nigeria.

He stated that Igbo civil society and sociocultural organisations had been meeting at different forums but urged that Ohanaeze should quickly give direction to the various engagements.

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Onyewuenyi added that the foremost Igbo body should further be in the forefront of reaching out to other ethnic nationalities to make the Igbo president a reality.

On the agitation for the actualisation of Biafra by the Nnamdi Kanu-led Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), he said that it was the South East people’s way expressing displeasure with goings-on in Nigeria.

He said: “Biafra agitation is good for Nigerians to know that Igbo people are not happy; we are  people that have been stampeded to the wall. That agitation is to let the world and indeed Nigerians know that there’s no equity, fairness and justice in this country. The Igbo are marginalised. A lot of things are happening against our will in Nigeria; look at infrastructural development, the Southeast is nowhere. And I believe that if IPOB’s agitation is consolidated, we can never be together in this country.

“But if what we are pursuing is embraced and the presidency is ceded to the Southeast; there would be a sense of belonging and all this tension would be doused. Then, there would be national cohesion and the country would begin to witness progress and development.”