Anybody saying Nigeria’s stronger now is living in fool’s paradise - Mbazulike Amechi

Elder statesman and first Republic Aviation Minister, Chief Mbazulike Amechi, said yesterday that anybody saying Nigeria was alright and stronger at present is not only sick but also living in fool’ s paradise.

Reacting to a recent statement credited to President Muhammadu Buhari that Nigeria was stronger when united than divided, Amechi stated that with the present economic downturn, insecurity and instability, Nigeria was not as strong and united as it should be.

Amechi, who spoke in an exclusive interview on the sidelines of the meeting of Anambra Elders and Stakeholders’ (ANELDERS), Forum for Good Leadership, held in his country home, Ukpor, Anambra State, said nobody was against Nigeria’s unity but Buhari himself who he said was dividing the country through his leadership style.

According to Amechi, “Buhari is the one dividing Nigeria through his leadership style and if he does not want it divided,  he should stop what he is doing”.

ANELDERS Forum for Good Governance had after meeting in his house, come out with a 7-point communique which insisted that the next president of Nigeria must come from the South East.

In the communique, jointly signed by their National Leader and former civilian governor of Anambra State, Dr Chukwuemeka Ezeife (Okwadike) and Prof. Mike Aghadiuno, National Secretary, the forum maintained that the 2023 Igbo presidency was non-negotiable, saying it was sacrosanct.

The meeting was attended by prominent elders and stakeholders of Anambra State, including Ezeife himself, former Chief Judge of old Anambra State, Justice’ Anthony Iguh who is the national president, past Chief Judges of Anambra State, Justice G. U. Ononiba, Justice Paul Obidigwe and Justice Peter Umeadi and; First female Professor of Mass Communication and Director of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, UNIZIK Radio station, Prof. Stella Chinyere Okunna who compiled the communique.

The communique said there must be a clear leadership structure in Igbo land, to disprove the negative branding of Ndigbo as Igbo Enweze (Igbo have no king).

It commended South-East governors for proposing to establish a security outfit, code-named Ebube Agu.

Noting that the Eastern Security Network, ESN established by the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPoB, was necessitated by the fact of a regional security network, the forum urged the South-East governors to do more in the area of security by encouraging the vigilante group with adequate logistics and at the time, equipping schools and markets with CCTV and other surveillance gadgets.

The forum described the ban on open grazing as commendable and urged the governors to enforce the law, even as it vehemently condemned the new wave of insecurity and appealed to the perpetrators, whoever might be, to stop the senseless acts.

It called on the federal government to carry out discreet investigations to fish out the perpetrators of these dastardly acts and bring them to book, rather than pointing accusing fingers at IPoB, thereby giving a dog a bad name in order to hang it.