Yakassai blasts Ezeife over 2023 presidency

Second Republic Presidential Adviser on National Assembly Matters, Alhaji Tanko Yakassai, has literally thrown hard punches at a former governor of Anambra State, Dr Chukwuemeka Ezeife, for threatening that Ndigbo would pull out of Nigeria if denied the presidency in 2023.

In a text message he sent to the Tribune Online in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital on Sunday, Yakassai said such “blackmail” should not come from an elder statesman like Ezeife that should appreciate the place of dialogue and persuasion in a participatory democracy.

The octogenarian said he was disappointed that Dr Ezeife ascribe to the style of the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu that indulged in weeping up ethnic sentiments, despite the dire implications.

Asked on his thought on the ongoing horse-trading preparatory to the 2023 presidency, Dr Ezeife had told a tabloid published on Sunday that the Igbo would no longer be part of the country if the next president did not come from the South-East.

His words: “I have said it before, if the South-East is denied presidency in 2023, Igbo citizenship of Nigeria should be forgotten. It is automatic. Olusegun Obasanjo from the Southwest had done it; Muhammadu Buhari is the president now.

“There is no other tribe except the minor ones that has not done it. So, if Igbo cannot do it, Igbo citizenship of Nigeria is lost automatically. And it will be Nigeria pushing the Igbo out of the country like Buhari has been doing. In every way, Nigeria is pushing the Igbo out. The final push is to allow the presidency elude the Southeast in 2023.”

Calling for uttermost restraint and caution, Yakassai said similar utterances in the past caused the Nigerian civil war, with the concomitant massive destruction of lives and properties.

“While I all along have been advocating for a President for Nigeria from the zone, I would like to advice that issuing threats as was reflected in a view ascribed to my good friend, Dr Eziefe is, in my views, not the right approach to achieve that objective in a multi-dimensional country such as Nigeria.

“Besides, the normal way of political advocacy is done through persuasion rather than threats and black mail. At his age, national standing and exposure, I am not happy to hear a person like Dr. Eziefe speaking in the same vain as Nnamdi Kalu and his likes. Nnamdi Kalu is only engaging in rhetoric to appeal to the sentiments of young Ibo people who are oblivious of the consequences of what they do.

“We have experienced this kind of careless mantra that led to the loss of many lives and destruction of many properties during the unfortunate civil war in our recent history.

Dr Eziefe as an elder by right and a former elected governor of the most populous state with more enlightened and advanced people in the entire South-East geopolitical zone, a retired and seasoned civil servant of note, should be above this kind of rhetoric.”

Yakassai said the Igbo remained the major beneficiary of the huge population of the country through commerce and industry, stressing that it was incomprehensible for anyone to contemplate the Igbo pulling out of Nigeria.

“Dr Eziefe is undoubtedly aware that the people of the South-East are the major beneficiaries of the 200 million people market that made up of today’s Nigeria. No other ethnic group in the rest of our country are in competition with the South-Easterners in the field of commerce and industry today, and this is likely to be the case in the foreseeable future. For anyone to be thinking of any situation that will lead to the pulling out of the South-East people from this huge market is without any doubt making a wrong calculation.

“I am an ardent supporter of seeing the emergence of a Nigerian president from the South-East geopolitical zone.  My stand is informed by my patriotic desire to see equity and justice is done to Nigerians from that area so that like their bretherens from the North and West, they too got the opportunity to have one of their own emerges as the president of Nigeria.

“But, this can only be achieved in a democratic setting through persuasion rather than threats and black mail. Politicking is about debate and exchange of ideas so that holders of different political viewpoints can win the support of their rivals by advancing superior arguments and reasons.

This is what democracy is all about. There is no other way of going about it. The sooner this is appreciated and respected, the better in a civilised discourse. All Nigerians should appreciate the need to subscribe to its sustenance,” Yakassai said.