The youth wing of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the Ohanaeze Youth Council (OYC), says it is better for Ndigbo to remain in Nigeria and fight for her rights and against the percieved injustice being meted to the Igbo nation rather than seceding from the country.

National President of OYC, Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro, who canvassed this view in Umuahia during a chat with newsmen against the backdrop of agitation by the Movement for Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), however said his group has sympathy for the freedom fighters because of the constant clampdown on the activists who have been non-violent by the federal government.

Isiguzoro maintained that the Igbo nation being the only section that has not been opportune to taste the Presidency stands a better chance in 2019 to produce the President of the country.

He said: “So, we have a sort of sympathy for our brothers who are agitating for Biafra because of the perceived injustice and marginalisation Ndigbo have been suffering since after the war.

“We are calling on the federal government, as a matter of urgency, to release unconditionally, all the agitators in the name of Biafra.

“But also, we are telling them (MASSOB activists) that it is better we remain in Nigeria and fight for our rights in Nigeria than looking for another nation for now. It is better because in 2019, it will be the turn of Ndigbo to rule Nigeria because other tribes have had their own fair share. So by 2019, Ndigbo, like what our good friend and former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon said, it is only Igbo Presidency that can heal the wounds of the Biafran civil war. On that note, I believe Ndigbo have a brighter opportunity to capture the highest seat in Nigeria, that is the Presidency in 2019.”

Isiguzoro said the federal government should equally offer the Olive branch to the Biafran agitators as it has done to others in the Niger Delta and the North East

“What we mean by saying that we have sympathy for them is that currently, the federal government has started negotiating secretly with the Boko Haram terrorists in the North East, and the federal government has expedited action on amnesty for the ex-Niger Delta militants.. So it is fair enough that the federal government should release unconditionally, the MASSOB activists being held unlawfully. That is the sympathy we are having for them.,” the OYC leader said.

He added: “We are telling the federal government to extend the same hands of friendship they have extended to Boko Haram insurgents and the ex-Niger Delta militants, to the MASSOB people because MASSOB is not violent and this their non-violent approach has made them to be law-abiding than other agitators.”

the OYC leader said that OYC was fully in support of the anti-corruption stand of President Muhammadu Buhari “because a lot of things had gone wrong in this country.”

He disclosed that recently, OYC “compiled and submitted a list of people who refused to render account of their stewardship to Igboland to President Buhari,” to probe them, “because most of them looted a lot of resources,” adding that their actions impacted negative on the South East.

He expressed hope that the federal government would grace the Second International Igbo Youths Day celebration holding in Umuahia Monday and use the opportunity to reassure Ndigbo that the present administration would not marginalise the South East geo-political zone.

•Photo shows, L-Ŕ; National President of Ohanaeze Youth Council,, Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro and the Deputy National Treasurer, Dr Kingsley Dozie who is also the Chairman, Planning Committee, Second International Igbo Youth Day during a Press briefing in Umuahia yesterday.

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