Ohanaeze Secretary To Tinubu: Shelve Your Presidential Bid To Preserve Nigeria’s Corporate Existence

.Says APC leader’s attitude to South-East predicament morally repressible

National publicity secretary of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Chiedozie Alex Ogbonnia, in the early hours of Monday, asked a former Lagos State governor, Senator Bola Tinubu, to shelve his touted 2023 presidential bid to preserve Nigeria’s corporate existence.

In an open letter to Tinubu, he counsel Tinubu to key into the Igbo presidency in 2023 cause, stressing that posterity would be kind of him if he toed the “path of reason, conscience and equity” on the matter.

Describing the All Progressives Congress (APC) leader as a strategic thinker with a formidable frontier spirit, Ogbonnia noted in the document titled: Open Letter to His Excellency, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu,” that his fear was that Tinubu would be embarking on a political adventure that lacks conscience and principle if he contests for the presidency.

His words: “In the past, Ahmed Bola Tinubu would have concerned himself with the cause of the agitation in the South-East and the solution thereof, but because of the obsession to become a president, it does appear that the more turbulent the South-East the better for the Jagaban. This is morally reprehensible. However, I have my fears that Tinubu is embarking on a political adventure that lacks both conscience and principle.

Ogbonnia made a copy of the letter available to the Nigerian Tribune in Ibadan.

He warned that the huge social capital and the profiling of Tinubu as the conscience of Nigeria may suffer irreversible damage if he contests the presidency in 2023, adding: “I am persuaded that such ambition will be ill-advised and would amount to the demystification of the cult-followership, which the Jagaban has built around himself.

The letter read in part: “Your Excellency, the major cause of the agitation in the South-East of Nigeria is the obvious alienation of the people from the various centres of power which has attained its crescendo under the present APC led government. The extreme form of the agitation is the yearnings for secession by groups such as Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) led by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.

“Evidently, the ongoing activities of IPOB in the South-East should be of great concern to every patriotic Nigerian. For the avoidance of doubt, the followers of IPOB insist on leaving Nigeria for a country of their own, if the injustice against them persists unabated. On the other hand, the more deprived the South-East, the more the crises in the region. Unfortunately, some Nigerians outside the South-East are playing the ostrich.

“When confronted with danger, the ostrich instinctively buries its head in the sand dunes in the hope that it is shielded from the enemy.

“The ostrich often forgets that the entire body is exposed to the danger. In other words, it is a foolhardiness to believe that the ripple effect of the South-East agitation and restiveness will not affect entire Nigeria.

“My fear is that to deny the South-East the very opportunity and in fact, the right to produce the next president of Nigeria will increase the agitation and ultimately spell disaster for the country.

“I am convinced that Your Excellency, in your typical manner of fighting for equity and justice should be in the vanguard for a Nigerian president from the South East of Nigeria, come 2023. This is the mark of a true statesman.

“One would also appeal to President Muhammadu Buhari and all the former Nigerian leaders, namely General Yakubu Gowon, General Olusegun Obasanjo, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, Chief Ernest Shonekan, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and some others such as our only Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, Chief Edwin Clark, etc to speak up in defence of peace and unity of Nigeria by insisting on fairness to the South East of Nigeria. And they would have written their names in gold.

“I must quickly add that the difference between the progressive and retrogressive or backward societies is the presence or absence of men of courage, selflessness, justice and truth. Nigeria will forever remember Dr Alex Ekwueme and his group because of speaking truth to power and rising to the occasion when it matters most. This is a noble path that beckons.

“In the past, Ahmed Bola Tinubu would have concerned himself with the cause of the agitation in the South-East and the solution thereof, but because of the obsession to become a president, it does appear that the more turbulent the South-East the better for the Jagaban. This is morally reprehensible.

“However, I have my fears that Tinubu is embarking on a political adventure that lacks both conscience and principle. The immortal words of Othman Dan-Fodio that “conscience is an open wound and only the truth can heal it” should serve as a moral compass to Nigerian leaders. Noah Webster had admonished that all the miseries, afflictions and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the inner still voice of reason and conscience.

“It is also necessary to add that the solid foundation for a new Igbo-Yoruba relation that was laid with the blood of the likes of Col Adekunle Fajuyi will be improved upon by your large heart. I must admit that my request to Your Excellency is a very difficult pill to swallow but a more difficult pill awaits the likely post-2023 agitations, national crises, insecurity, instability and the collapse of the Nigerian economy if injustice against the South East of Nigeria prevails. On the other hand, a pyrrhic victory and calamity await those who intend to rejoice and dance for unjustly depriving the Igbo rights.

The author notes that BAT is a man whose immense political manoeuvres cannot be ignored. While interacting with the leaders of the North on Saturday, December 11, 2023, BAT is quoted as saying: I don’t need the South East and South-South to become Nigerian President. He added among others, that “the vote of the North West, North East, some largely Muslim states in the North Central as well as South West, were enough to make him president”.

“Many shortsighted Tinubu apologists will jump at the above calculation aimed at nailing the political coffin of the South-East and South-South. The question remains: Does the above political calculation promote national peace and unity?

“On the other hand, an ambition that will set Nigeria on a collision course, mutual mistrust, civil disobedience, political upheavals and violence is not only unscrupulous but morally reprehensible.

“Based on the foregoing, I most sincerely advise His Excellency, Senator Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to toe the path of reason, conscience and equity. It is important to add that posterity will be kind to Your Excellency if you reconsider your ambition in the interest of the corporate existence of Nigeria. Not only that, I wish to see Jagaban adding his voice to a Nigerian President of the South-East extraction.”

kettykings:
I think Tinubu should contest , why allow Nigeria live a second longer

kettykings:
I think Tinubu should contest , why allow Nigeria live a second longer

yorubarere:
Jokers

Frigga13:


Tinubu must contest.. no excuses..
No change of narratives...

FreeStuffsNG:
O ga o. Yet Asiwaju is yet to declare o.

It is so clear that the Ohaneze must have consulted their oracle that told them 2023 is the beginning of Asiwaju Tinubu Presidency.

Reminds me exactly of my premonition of the Biden Presidency when Trump, who obviously must have consulted a psychic, went after Hunter Biden and Ukraine President in order to discredit a Joe Biden who was not even yet to declare.

Today, Biden is President . 2023 is year two thousand and twenty Asiwaju

When Asiwaju Tinubu eventually contest, please vote for Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu for President in 2023.
He is an experienced public administrator and patriot.
On his mandate, I stand.
All the enemies of Nigeria will lose las las. They always lose.
God bless Nigeria.

AsampeteNwaanyi:
mynd44 lalasticlala Seun

Rule 2

AsampeteNwaanyi:
Tinubu na criminal

yorubarere:



I guess those you quoted know where to start from.

AsampeteNwaanyi:
the rules said
don't insult a Nairalander
Tinubu is not a Nairalander
Thanks

Abdul05:
why didn't he direct the letter to a northerner instead of directing the letter to a southerner like him.. a-won o-de


Stopping a northerner from emerging as a president in 2023 is well justified...


Since PDP is allowed to choose a Northerner as their presidential candidate then APC too can do otherwise..

seunmsg:
They have started writing open letters of blackmail to Tinubu over an ambition he has not even declared. This is arguably the most senseless thing i have read since i was born. Even Tinubu decide not to contest again, how will that decision lead to the emergence of an Igbo president? Will Tinubu not contesting also stop Atiku, Tambuwal, Bala Mohammed, Osinbajo, Fayemi etc also from contesting?

I hope all Yorubas can read this letter and understand the subtle threat and blackmail. Tinubu has never done anything to hurt the business and political interest of the Igbos yet they are threatening and blackmailing him. As governor, Tinubu appointed Igbos into the state cabinet and supported Igbo businesses in Lagos. The current DG of Budget office was nominated to the position by Tinubu as part of Lagos state political slot. Yet, this is how they are paying him back.

OlogoJ:


The letter is actually a decoy. The real intent is to persuade Tinubu to drop his ambition to pave the way for a Northern candidate of the PDP to win the election. Ohanaeze are working for the PDP by proxy and covertly. They can only fool the uninitiated. They are well aware that PDP has zoned its ticket to the North but won't direct this kind of letter at such a party. Instead they are picking on one of the most promising candidates from the South. They think they're smart.

AsampeteNwaanyi:
Tinubu na criminal