From Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
ONYENDU Ndigbo of Ibadan in Oyo State, Chief Alloy Obi, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to implement the recommendations of the 2014 national conference.
This, he said, will calm the nerves of aggrieved people and groups from different geo-political zones and make the much-desired restructuring of the federation become a reality.
He also called on the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), Independent People of Biafra (IPOB), Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and Boko Haram to drop their weapons and embrace dialogue with the Federal Government.
Chief Obi made the call in Ibadan last Wednesday when he played host to the management team of The Sun Publishing Limited. The team comprised the Executive Director, Mr. Bolaji Tunji; Editor, Daily Sun, Mr. Onuoha Ukeh; and Deputy Chairman, Editorial Board, Mr. Robert Obioha. Obi, who was elected as Onyendu Ndigbo of Ibadanland by the Igbo General Assembly (IGA) in 2010, said: “Government should, on the other hand, come to the roundtable with all sincerity and be ready to implement all agreements as will be stipulated.”
He said it was obvious Nigeria was passing through a period of hardship and urged Nigerians, irrespective of political, ethnic and religious inclinations to pray for the country and its leaders for God’s mercy and divine direction.
His words: “I also wish to commend the Federal Government for seeing dialogue as the best option to bring together every aggrieved person or zone to move Nigeria forward.
“Besides, government needs to do more by listening to the yearnings of the populace for the implementation of the 2014 national conference report without delay. This will go a long way in calming the nerves of so many and that will bring about that much-desired restructuring of Nigeria federation. It is better to jaw-jaw than to war-war. Nigeria needs dialogue instead of force.
“The effort of the present administration in the fight against corruption is a welcome development. However, the Federal Government must do everything possible not to be perceived as being selective in its fight against corruption. This fight should be holistic no matter who is involved.
“What we need is all the public money to be returned, not the names of those concerned and that those found guilty of emptying public money into private pockets should face life imprisonment.”