Ohanaeze Youth Council, the youth wing of the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has criticised Atiku Abubakar, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), for his alleged ethnic endorsement comments.
The group’s reaction followed a post on Atiku’s social media handle, where he shared a photograph captioned: “The ‘Ohanaeze Ndigbo’ Youth Worldwide, led by its President, Ogbonnia Wenceslans, paid me a courtesy visit at my residence in Abuja yesterday.”
The National President of OYC, Mazi Okwu Nnabuike, in a statement, accused Atiku, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), of “shopping for black-market support to pursue an ambition that is dead on arrival.”
Okwu decried what he called a resort to fake groups to curry support, noting that “no matter the antics by Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and his likes, power would remain in Southern Nigeria in 2027.”
He said: “The photograph posted by Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is a serious insult on the sensibilities of Ndigbo. In as much as we are not perturbed if he wishes to throw his money around fake elements, what we shall not condone is his dragging of the revered Ohanaeze Ndigbo youths to his desperation.
“He could as well use any other name to describe his ‘fake guests’ and not as Ohanaeze youths. This is nothing else but desperation taken too far.
“We need to make it very clear to him and any other person thinking in his direction that Nigeria does not belong to people like Atiku alone.
“As an elder statesman, he should do things that would promote unity and equity in this country and to become a champion of destabilisation. It is not only unjust but immoral for power to return to the North in 2027, just four years after Muhammadu Buhari completed an 8-year tenure.”
He added that in 2031, power will shift to the North and by then “we shall all throw our support to a very credible candidate, not those who can’t even respect the zoning arrangement in their own political party.”
He also warned Nigerians against associating with faceless groups misrepresenting Ohanaeze youth, cautioning that doing so would be at their own risk.
He added, “These crops of beggars do not represent Ohanaeze youth in any form. Atiku Abubakar’s desperation to become Nigerian president made him patronise impostors and beggars masquerading themselves in the name of Ohanaeze. Other Nigerians should not fall victim to these merchants.”
