Igbo youths have threatened not to participate in the 2037 elections unless Nnamdi Kanu, detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) is released.
The group also said this step would be the sure way for the ruling All Progressives Congress come 2027.
Chinedum Obilor, National of All Igbo Youth Forum (AIYF), while addressing the press in Umuahia, said that the group has equally extended by two months, her earlier ultimatum to President Ahmed Tinubu for an engagement with the youths or they would go into negotiation with any presidential aspirant willing to free the pro-Biafra movement leader.
Obilor expressed his disappointment that while some other arrested agitators of self-determination like Sunday Igboho of Oduduwa Republic, had since been released, the Federal Government had continued to hold unto Kanu “based on trumped-up terrorism allegations”.
Obilor, a former deputy chairman, Umuahia North Local Government Area, urged President Tinubu to consider the appeal for Kanu’s release, which according to him, is the greatest need of Ndigbo.
He advised the president to stop relying on empty hopes and assurances by some Igbo political leaders who have been promising to deliver South East votes to the APC in 2027.
He posited that it would be hard for the ruling party to penetrate the zone, if the government continues to keep Kanu in solitary confinement based on trumped up allegations against him by the government at the centre.
The youth president recalled that in the past, some eminent Igbo leaders including late Mbazulike Amaechi, Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, Ben Nwabueze, among others, made presentations for the release of Kanu before they exited the world, but the late President Muhammadu Buhari gave deaf ears to those appeals.
He, therefore, appealed to President Tinubu to right the wrongs of his predecessor in order to endear himself to Ndigbo by considering the release of Kanu.
Obilor noted this move which would facilitate the restoration of peace in the entire South East region.
The AIYF helmsman vowed to mobilize Igbo youths for a 10 million man-march, to demand Kanu’s release if at the expiration of the two months their appeal is ignored.
He explained that the youths would have proceeded with the street march following the expiration of their earlier ultimatum but for the appeals by Benjamin Kalu, deputy speaker, House of Representatives, who urged them to give him and other Igbo political leaders more time to engage with Mr. President.
He said: “The Deputy Speaker assured us that they are talking with Mr. President about Nnamdi Kanu. He pleaded with us to be calm, assuring of the positive outcome of their engagement with Tinubu. We believe that the President will listen to the cry of Ndigbo and release Kanu.
“I am here to tell the whole world that our stand is still our stand. They cannot leave Nnamdi Kanu there and be talking of 2027. We will listen to the deputy speaker as our brother and the number six person in Nigeria. But I think we will give him two more months to talk to the President to release our brother. But if they feel they will use him to do politics, we will not agree.
“We said it before, and we want to say it again that we will mobilise 10 million Igbo youths to march across the streets to tell the ruling government that Igbo youth will not vote for them if they do not release Nnamdi Kanu.
“We told Ben Kalu to tell the President to release our brother for us. If not, we are going to have a 10 million man-march to demand his release. On that day we will march to Abuja, and let them get ready to jail all of us there.
“They have released other agitators including Sunday Igboho and the so-called repentant terrorists. Why can’t they also release Kanu? Is it because he is Igbo”? Obilor said.
AIYF accused the Federal Government of treating Ndigbo with disdain and as if they were second fiddle.
The pressure group frowned at the exclusion of Ndigbo in the latest round of Board appointments by the President, describing it as provocative.
“Treating Ndigbo as not even second class but last-class citizens of Nigeria is no longer acceptable. How can we be saying we are one Nigeria but when it comes to political office, they will exclude Ndigbo? Just last week the President made Board appointments where he made the son of a former Head of State Chairman but no single Igbo person was involved,” he said.
On the building of a coalition political movement, the Igbo youths declared that it would be dead-on arrival if it failed to cede its presidential ticket to Southern Nigeria so as to complete the region’s unwritten tenure.
” For the coalition, we want to tell them bluntly that any coalition that will not cede the presidential ticket to the South will not fly. It will be injustice for the North to eye the Presidency again after holding power for eight years without allowing the South to complete its own turn.
“All through the eighth years the late President Muhammadu Buhari was in power, the North did not talk despite all the sufferings, and now it’s the time of the South they have suddenly become advocates of good governance.
“Is the North showing they cannot survive outside political power or something? We from the South-East, have not tested power again since after the assassination of Aguiyi Ironsi but we’re still surviving. So, the coalition should not make the mistake of giving its presidential ticket to a Northerner.”
” So, for us, the South should be allowed to complete their own two terms before power returns to the North,” Obilor said.
