Amaechi tells Buhari to stop taking Ndigbo for granted and let them leave Nigeria if he does not want them

FORMER aviation minister Chief Mbazulike Amaechi has told President Muhammadu Buhari to stop taking Ndigbo for granted and let them leave Nigeria if he does not want them in the federation rather than use them as cannon fodder.

 

Chief Amaechi, who served as a minister during the First Republic, was reacting to the recent statement by President Muhammadu Buhari in which he indicated that the political future of Ndigbo depended on his 2019 ambition. Seeking to woo Ndigbo, President Buhari reportedly asked them to vote for him and in return, he would back an Igbo candidate for the presidency at the right time.

 

Responding, Chief Amaechi said it was a pity that the presidency should be associated with ethnicity and religion, adding that Igbos should be allowed to go instead of being taken for granted in Nigeria. He added that he doubted if the presidency meant what was said about the political future of Ndigbo.

 

Chief Amaechi said: “I know they do not mean what they said concerning an Igbo presidency. Even though it looks certain that a northerner would become the next president, such a president should not take Igbo for granted as it is at present.

 

“Instead of taking Igbo for granted, they should allow Igbo to go, even though I do not support any breakaway. I love Nigeria and that was why I fought for her independence and even went to prison, although all that I did was not appreciated by successive Nigerian governments.”

 

Lamenting the current plight of Ndigbo in Nigeria, Chief Amaechi said President Buhari’s performance over the last three years was filled with feudalistic tendencies, which only succeeded in breeding disharmony among Nigerians. Since President Buhari assumed office in 2015, calls for Ndigbo to break away from Nigeria have grown very strident.

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