A frontline politician in the Niger Delta region and an ex-detective, High Chief Elijah Elebe Ogodo has viewed Nigeria’s unification as a tale if certain contributing elements to its disintegration are not immediately nabbed in the bud, alleging that the Northern leaders are all knowledgeable of the operations of the dreaded sect, Boko Haram while the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), are beating the drum for Nigeria’s disunity.
The high Chief Elijah was speaking on the current issues on Nigeria’s polity during a press briefing in Port Harcourt.
The Andoni born politician and chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party accused the leaders of Northern Nigeria to have been fueling the operations of the Boko Haram arguing that if were not so, the entire Northern leaders should have come together to proffer solution to the problem the sect is posting to the Nigerian society.
Chief Elijah who recalled the efforts, involvement and role played by the South-South leaders during the militancy era in the Niger Delta region, which had genuine reasons to demand and press home their request via any means challenged the Northern leaders to borrow a leaf from the South-South leaders to quell the insurgency in Northern Nigeria.
He noted that if anything falls short of fishing out the criminals, then the leaders of the region are culpable of the situation in that part of the country, emphasizing that leaders of the south-south region were able to identify those aggrieved youths and mediate between them and Federal Government on account of their genuine agitations.
The Chief Elijah further accused the Northern leaders of instigating the disintegration of the country when they are allowing their children to vie against the sitting president rumoured second term bid.
According to him, during the 1999 general election which ushered in ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigerians allowed only the south Western Nigerians to vie for the presidency, but wondered why it is so in this era of President Goodluck Jonathan, positing that a fight against President Jonathan’s second term in office amounts to an element of Nigeria’s disintegration.
Buttressing his claims Chief Elijah asserted that the All Progressives Congress choice of producing a Northern president is a ploy understood by the northerners and APC to destabilize Nigeria, and call on the leaders of the region to resist such temptation as to allow the needed peace.
Elijah again argued that, if there was no plot to destabilize the country, the APC as a political party though with the right to zone its proposed elective offices to anywhere of its choice, could have zoned their presidential seat to the south-south geo-political zone to compete with the sitting president, adding that the APC and Northern agenda was to disintegrate Nigeria.
However, Chief Elijah has called on the Northern leaders to desist from avoiding responsibilities and take the bull by the horn by doing the needful to place Nigeria on the path of peace and development.
On the governorship of Rivers State, Chief Elijah posited that whatever might be the case, the issue of dichotomy or whatever was never a constitutional matter, therefore any person from any part of the state can vie for the plum job, adding that whatever been the case, it is the political party that holds the final decision on where its candidate emerges.
But, he emphasized that whoever must seek for an election in any political party, must have the requisite structure to propel his ambition or desires, saying that something cannot stand on nothing. ###
