Afenifere, Ohanaeze attack Junaid Mohammed | Nairalaw

CONTROVERSIAL Second Republic member of the House of
Representatives, Dr. Junaid Mohammed has come under attack from
prominent socio-cultural groups; Afenifere and Ohanaeze over his
statement that the North will present a candidate for 2023
presidential election.

National Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze, Prince Uche
Achi-Okpaga said that Mohammed was chasing shadows by his
declaration that Igbo can’t have the presidency in 2023. Mohammed
in an interview with Saturday Sun, today, stated that zoning and
rotation of power had collapsed, and as such power must remain in
the North in 2023. He also accused Ohanaeze of collect- ing
millions of Naira to support Atiku Abubakar during the just
concluded presidential election.

Achi-Okpaga said, “Junaid is leaving substance to chase shadows.
In the first place, you can recall that Obasanjo brought a debt
relief for Nigeria, now Nigeria owes about 24 trillion naira and
you can imagine how much this government has accumulated in debts
for Nigeria. He should be talking about substance and not chasing
shadows.”

“He wants to use Ohanaeze’s name to gain cheap popularity, what
kind of nonsense is that? He should talk about changing the status
of Nigeria, we are no longer the giant of Africa, now we are the
6th most miserable nation in the whole world and yet he is not
talk- ing. When the government closed the account of opposition
politicians, we know how a bullion van entered one person’s
compound and nobody talks about that.

“Where did Atiku get money to give Ohanaeze? It was the present
executive of Ohanaeze that started the issue of restructuring in
2017 when they were sworn in. We were able to galvanise other
regional bodies, Afenifere, the Middle Belt Forum and Pandef. You
can’t just begin to say things that are inconsequential.

“We didn’t vote for him because he is in PDP, we didn’t vote for
him because he is a northerner. We voted for him be- cause he was
disposed to restructuring and that has been our standpoint from the
onset. How can somebody wants to divert attention now and begin to
say how Ohanaeze collected money?

“When we started, we told him that if he restructures Nigeria,
the clamour for presidency would subside appreciably. If you are
able to restructure Nigeria, people will find their feet and

provide enabling environment for people to surge on economically
and the struggle for presidency will subside, because everybody
wants to go into presidency with ethnic chauvinist, with prejudiced
sentiments on how to displace persons and perhaps place his region
at an advantage. If the rule of law is obeyed, human right is
observed, why will people begin to struggle and agitate. People
will find their feet and forget that there is a government. This is
what we are clamouring for; restructure this country and the
agitation will subside. The Movement for the Actualization of
Sovereign State of Biafra will stop.

“Agitations here and there even in the North will stop. Clamour
by OPC will also stop; likewise restiveness in the Niger Delta will
come to an end. People will shift attention in getting what is
legally theirs. Junaid is not serious when he begins to say that
Igbo should forget 2023. Is he God? The re- sources belong to the
people. People are the employers, while those in government are
their employees. Politics belongs to the people; every four years
people will raise an employee through voting.

“If you have a very genuine electoral process, people will
choose who will lead them, but when make a caricature of the system
because you are in authority, that becomes shameful. The Igbo are
race you can- not just do without. When Obasanjo was in power, he
assembled the cream of Igbo intelligentsia into his government and
they had to put things in place. Their wealth of experience and
ingenuity were brought to bear on the government, and they were
able to get debt relief and the economy boomed.

“When Jonathan was there, Nigeria became the biggest economy in
Africa, but today, Nigeria’s economy has nosedived; we are the
poverty capital of the world and the sixth most miserable place to
live. For decades that the North has been in power, what difference
has it made in the lives of Northerners?

“About three days ago, Dangote lamented that over 60 per cent of
northerners in the Northwest and Northeast live below poverty
level. What of the educational level? If you go there, people are
suffering. These are issues that Junaid should be addressing, and
not this rubbish that Ohanaeze collected money from Atiku, and
power remaining in the North. No matter how you see it, after the
war, with 20 pounds, the Igbo man started life all over, but can
anybody believe that such thing ever happened to them. We are not
worst hit in this country.

“What we are clamouring for, which is restructuring that is even
to the advantage of the North because of its land mass and fertile
soil for agriculture.

Once you just mention restructuring, the people will think that
you want to take government from them because they think that it is
the only thing they have and once they leave it they are out
completely. That is not true, and it is diversionary. It is just
that people are clamouring to be in power without knowing what to
do with the power. Until you empower people economically, your
being in power for years, is meaning less.”

In the same vein, Spokes- man for the Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin,
said Mohammed’s statement is evidence that some people are power
mongers.

According to him, Nigeria is in serious trouble and only
restructuring of the country will bring solution.

“Juniad’s position shows that some of our countrymen are just
power mongers.

In the midst of what Nigeria is passing through now, is it
ceding power that should be our concern? As a matter of fact, what
have they done with the power? Even Dangote was lamenting three
days ago about the abject poverty in the North, when he said that
over 60 per cent of people in the Northwest and Northeast live
below poverty level.

“As at the end of March 2015, Nigeria’s total debt portfolio was
N12 trillion and in four years of Buhari administration, it is N24
trillion now. Nigeria today is among the sixth most miserable
countries in the world and we are the world headquarters of
poverty. See the way our country is – kid- nappers and killers are
on rampage all over the country. There is no direction for the
economy, and for the polity.

All they are concerned about is how to rig and hold on to power,
but for what purpose. They can aspire to rule forever, but as far
as it is to misrule the country, and at some point other people are
bound to ask, ‘what in- heritance do we have in this,’ and that
will be the defining moment.

“The solution is that we have to restructure this country and
allow people to run their lives, but to think that a group will
continue to misrule all of us for eternity, something will give up
at a point.

“They should not expect those of us who are fighting for
restructuring will continue for the rest of our lives, our children
will grow up and start shouting restructuring also again. Other
people will rise after us and say we have had enough of it, and say
to your tents. They want to control power and turn the rest of us
to Almajiris.”