Igbo votes sizeable enough to win Presidency – Nwodo

Val Okara, Owerri

President-General of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Chief John Nnia Nwodo, has urged those who think that the Igbos have no population to become the President of Nigeria to have a rethink because, according to him, the Igbo votes are sizeable enough to win the presidency.

He said that the Igbo will not become President in a skewed country as it is presently constituted.

Chief Nwodo, who spoke as a keynote speaker in Owerri at the Imo State 2019 Inauguration Lecture, said going by the population of registered Igbo voters in the North and other parts of the country, Igbos have population and sizeable votes to win the Presidential election.

“When we were given quit notice by some northern youths, none of our governors acted. I went to the North and asked them to give me the data of our people in the North and the number they returned was 11.8 million people of adult age.

“Also, during the governorship campaign in Lagos, the current governor-elect, Sanwo-Olu told our people there that they were important to him because they have 3.3 million registered voters in Lagos”, Nwodo said.

According to him, in spite of the obvious population advantage, the Igbos would continue to insist on restructuring of the country because it is through which the nation could be saved from total eclipse.

He said: “So long as the Federal Government continues to deny South East the level playing opportunity, there would continue to be agitation for self determination.”

Nwodo used the opportunity to debunk the insinuation that the North would go hungry if the country went into restructuring.

He said the fear that without oil revenue, the North could not be developed was erroneous because, according to him, most economically viable nations in the world had no oil for export.

“The North has highest agricultural potential but unexploited. The Netherlands is the 14th strongest nation in the world, but gets over $100 billion from vegetables and diary.

The country is just 34,000 square kilometers just less than half of Nigeria State. So, the North can do better than these countries in the area of agriculture alone.

“In fact, the richest companies in the world are not oil companies but agro and technology-based companies.”, he said.

Speaking on the theme, “The problems of governance in today’s Nigeria: The Imo challenge”, Nwodo said the essence of governance fizzles out when government cannot protect its citizens.

The Ohaneze leader urged the new governor of Imo State, Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, to be different from the outgoing governor and that for him to achieve his goals, he must develop the will to be tenacious in his decisions.

He therefore advised Ihedioha’s family members and friends to allow him space to work for the state, stressing that the new governor should avoid sycophants as they were already locking around.

Nwodo used the opportunity to urge Ihedioha to ensure that Imo Airport becomes international in reality while concentrating efforts to champion Oguta Sea Port to enable business flow in the state and South East in general.