By Lukman Olabiyi, Lagos
The United for Better Nigeria Initiative (UNBi) has berated Chairman Emeritus of DAAR Communication Chief Raymond Dokpesi over his comment on the politically fraught subject of an Igbo Presidency.
Dokpesi, a leader in the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), said in a statement on Monday that Nigerians are afraid that a president of Igbo extraction would allow the country’s breakup over what he called the overwhelming influence of the founder of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, in the region.
UBNi, an advocacy group working for the election of an Igbo President in 2023, in a statement signed by its national coordinator, Mrs Nkolika Mkparu, called Dokpesi remarks a ‘divisive statement’, saying the media mogul is using his media platform to drag venom against the country.
The group went on to urge former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to dissociate himself from comments capable of overheating the polity.
UNBi stated that a large number of people from the South East believe in one Nigeria and they have investments all over the country, working and developing anywhere they find themselves and call the place home.
The group insisted that the emergence of a Nigerian president of South East descent will not only unify and progress the country but also engender cohesion in the polity.
‘Our attention has been drawn to a very offensive and divisive statement issued by media businessman, Dopkesi, where he was playing a racist cum ethnic card against the people from the South East.
‘Dokpesi is using his business to drag venom against the art of this country. When the South-South agitation was going on, where was Dokpesi to say the South-South cannot be trusted, but Jonathan was elected to be president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Where was Dopkesi when the people from Northern Nigeria were elected as presidents irrespective of the problems in the North? We have seen Dokpesi use his media outlet against the people from the South East for a while, without being challenged, this time he has gone overboard,’ Mkparu said.