Igbo youths reject Obasanjo’s call for S’East presidency, say it’s mischievous

The recent call by Nigeria’s former President Olusegun Obasanjo on the Igbo people to take a shot at the presidential position of the country has drawn anger from youths in the region. 

Youths under the aegis of South East Youth Vanguard on Friday criticized Obasanjo and his call, saying it rejected “the suspicious and patronising declaration of support by Chief Obasanjo for a President from

the Southeast come 2019.”

The group said it was mischievous and an act of double standard for an Obasanjo, who according   to the group, frustrated the emergence of an Igbo president in 2003 to now advise the people to target the post of presidency in 2019.

 The group in a statement by its national coordinator, Jason Njoku, added that Chief Obasanjo’s advice could lead to tension, ill-will and confusion in the country. It argued that the advice would have been regarded as a friendly one from a statesman had Obasanjo treated Ndigbo fairly throughout his eight years reign as Nigerian president.

 Further accusing Obasanjo of discarding a “gentleman’s understanding of the then ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP), to do one term of four years” but instead took two terms”, the youths wondered how Obasanjo, who instituted the two-term culture, can be calling on the South East and other zones in the country to get the Presidency at this time “when a northern president is still in his first term”.