Adebanjo & Yoruba’s call for Igbo president gladdens my heart, Archbishop Obinna tells Osinbajo to shelve ambition
The retiring Catholic Archbishop of Owerri, Obinna told a large congregation at Assumpta Cathedral Owerri on Saturday, April 30th, 2022, that Pa Adebanjo and the Afenifere have gladdened his heart by calling on the nation to zone the 2023 presidential position to the Southeast.
Archbishop Obinna made the statement at the Christian wedding ceremony of Governor Uzodimma’s daughter, which he officiated.
“Not since the end of the Nigeria/Biafra war have seen such grand, patriotic gesture of brotherhood, fairness, justice and equity towards us,” Obinna said.
“Vice President Osinbajo, and Tinubu, please take note,” he added, with Osibanjo present in the Church service as a guest of Governor Uzodimma.
Obinna said that he was a passionate Biafran from 1967 to 1970. “It took me about 12 years to begin to feel Nigerian again after the war. I started cultivating Nigeria after 12 years, but Nigeria has failed to cultivate me.”
Obinna told his audience that he was grateful to be asked by Chioma Uzodimma to officiate at her wedding, thereby giving him the opportunity to speak to a national audience with the Vice President and Senate President of Nigeria present at the service.
“I don’t know Adebanjo but I have heard him clearly. Let the Yoruba know that we are grateful for their demand for justice for the Igbo in 2023.
”The Middle Belt, the Niger Delta, and even some of our brothers in the core North say it is time to end the war by reaching a consensus to have a Nigerian patriot who is Igbo as President in 2023.
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“Please, our Vice President, heed that call for justice and equity. It will serve you well. It will serve the Yoruba well. It will serve Nigeria well.”
Obinna opined that 2023 might be Nigeria’s last chance to pull back from the brink.
He said he is hearing the loud clamoring of young people for Biafra again, in addition to separatist movements in other parts of the country.
If the right thing is not done in 2023, the nation may reach a point of no return, he argued.
Obinna suggested that the president of Nigeria who is Igbo in 2023 is in the best interest of not just Nigeria, but the African continent as a whole.
“There is a limit to how long you can hold a people down by design and national policy. We demand fairness and equity; we are not begging for it.”
Other dignitaries who were in the Church to hear Obinna’s homily during the wedding ceremony included the Nigerian Senate President, Ahmed Lawal, former Governor Theodore Orji of Abia State, General Ike Nwachukwu, Minister of Labour, Dr. Chris Ngige, and several others.
