June 12: How South East was denied opportunity to perform at Democracy
Day celebration
The South East
region was not given the opportunity to perform during the cultural display at
the National Democracy Day on Wednesday.
While the South
West, North and South-South regions all showcased their cultural values, the
South East was left.
The Yoruba of the South West were the first to
showcase their cultural display to the gathering while the Fulanis of the North
stepped in.
This was followed
by the South-South which displayed their fishermen traditional dance steps.
However, we
observed that as the South East prepared to take the stage with their
masquerades and dancers, the guest of honour, President Muhammadu Buhari was
ushered in for his inaugural speech.
One of the dancers,
who spoke to us but in condition of anonymity, expressed
disappointment, lamenting the time and resources she had invested into
practising and rehearsing for the event.
Asked on how she
felt about not coming out to perform, she said, “Well, at this point, there’s
nothing I can do about it.
“There were four
regions that prepared for the traditional dances in this event but I wonder why
the Southeast was subsumed into the South-South.
“Maybe they were
running out of time, I can’t tell.”
While the
South-South dancers were performing, the moderator had said, “People of the
South East and South South are mostly fishermen. Fishing is a tradition in the
regions.”
The event host
stated this when the Igbo dancers were still seen hanging around waiting to be
called on stage.
Former Abia State
Governor, Orji Uzor Kalu, has insisted that he would run for the position of
Deputy Senate President even if the All Progressives Congress (APC) opposes his
ambition.
He said this when
he appeared on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Thursday.
“Let me be honest
with you even if the party asks me not to run, I will run on the floor of the
House, this is one position I have to run for because you cannot leave the
Southeast alone, you can’t leave them behind,” Kalu said.
He further stressed
that giving the Southeast a worthy position is in line with ensuring that the
nation is ruled with equity.
“We are in the
process of doing the right thing and the East will be given a place in the
scheme of things. I am asking that the East should be given the Deputy Senate
President.
“There is a high
level of discussions about that and I’m sure that by partisan it would be a law
in the House,” he added.
2023: You can’t stop Tinubu from becoming president – Salvador warns Afenifere
A former chairman
of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Moshood Salvador, has insisted
that pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, cannot stop the National
Leader of All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Tinubu, from pursuing
his ambition to contest the 2023 presidential election.
Salvador, speaking
to journalists in Lagos on Tuesday, stated that those fighting Tinubu and any
other Yoruba leader from contesting were fighting a lost battle.
According to him,
if it is the wish of God for a Yoruba man to be the next president of Nigeria,
Afenifere leaders cannot stop him.
Salvador was
reacting to a statement reportedly made by a leader of the Afenifere, Chief Ayo
Adebanjo, that the 2023 presidency should be ceded to the South-East and that
Tinubu would be day-dreaming if he thought he would contest or be the president
in 2023.
He said the
argument of Adebanjo that the South-East has never produced a president was
false, as the first President of Nigeria, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, was from the
region.
The former PDP
chairman described the posture of the Yoruba leaders as “rabble-rousing,
inciting, offensive, illogical and terrible”.
Salvador reiterated
that it is the people and not the Afenifere leaders, that would decide who
becomes the President.
“These leaders
forget that Nigeria is practicing party politics and in a party politics, any
candidate can emerge.
“It is left for the
party and the presidential candidate to reach out to other tribes for support. It
is the people who now decide who becomes the president not an individual or
group of people,” he added.
2023 Presidency: Afenifere leader, Adebanjo reveals what’ll happen to Nigeria if
Igbo don’t produce next president
Elder statesman and
leader of the Yoruba apex socio-political organization, Afenifere, Chief Ayo
Adebanjo, has declared that Nigeria risks disintegrating if the South-East is
not allowed to produce the next President in 2023.
Adebanjo noted that
it was dishonest and invidious for anybody to be talking of the presidency
coming to the Southwest, adding that those making such utterances are not
serious about keeping the country together.
We had
reported that the Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, in a recent interview,
asked the Southeast to forget about the 2023 presidency.
The Afenifere
leader has now described the Minister’s statement as a propaganda and wondered
how the Southeast would be denied the presidency when all the units in the
federation are equal partners.
Asked by The Sun to
react to Amaechi’s statement, Adebanjo said, “This is just the propaganda we
are talking about. The Southwest has said it is for them, and we have been
hearing things like this long ago.
“First, the
constitution, before any other thing must be revisited, and if the president
doesn’t do that, this country will break up. Let us get constitution first, not
to continue with this injustice.
“Why is IPOB saying
they want to break away? Because they said they were not included.
“The West has been
president, the South-South has been president and the North has been president,
while the Southeast has not, but you want peace.
“I don’t believe
any region or any section is to be given the presidency on sufferance; you are
not doing anybody any favour, the constitution we are asking for is for anybody
to become president constitutionally as applied, not out of sufferance or
favour that you vote for me. Is that why and how we were amalgamated, is that
the condition for our unity? Absolute nonsense and deceit!
“Those of them they
are deceiving are deceiving themselves. The North doesn’t want to leave power.
There are sensible people in the North, even among the Fulani.
“We are talking
about unity, peace in the country, and you are talking of people wanting to
disturb you, is that the immediate thing, while the economy is going down?
“There is no
progress until the constitution is rectified. Senator Sola Adeyeye came down
with the problem of this constitution and told them that until we change it,
there can be no peace and there can be no progress.
“What is the
problem? If there is any change this country needs now it is the change of this
nebulous constitution that is imposed on us by the military.
“I don’t buy into
this propaganda. It is dishonest and invidious for anybody to be talking of the
presidency coming to the Southwest, then you are not serious about keeping the
country together.
“For unity, for
peace and equity how would you exclude, Southeast, a part of the country from
the highest position of the country, as if it is not a part of the country?
“Are we dominating
or overruling them? We have to be together in peace and in unity. All those who
are gathering because they want to be president in 2023 are cheats and
dishonest people, and they are deceiving themselves by trying to keep us to be
disunited, so that they come to rule again, and say because we don’t agree. I
don’t beg anybody to give me presidency, but give me the right constitution.
“It will be stupid
of any Easterner to be thinking of joining Buhari or APC so that they can be
president, or any Westerner for that matter to be stupid and foolish enough to
be welcoming the idea he can be president in 2023.
“Arrant nonsense.
That won’t be fair. How can you deny the presidency to a unit of the federation
when we are equal partners? Is there sense in that? That is the question we
should ask ourselves if we are honest in this country.
“That is why I say,
let us have a constitution, which will guide us. We don’t want to be ruled by
the favour of a section of the country, that is, you are my friend, and I give
you your right. It will not happen, but if it comes to that, everybody will go
to his father’s land. There is no doubt about that.
“We can’t be forced
together and be ruling the units of the horse as the rider; they are the rider
and we are the horse. No unit will accept it.”
