The apex sociocultural Igbo group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, youth wing has said that the governors of the south east and the National Assembly members, as well as political leaders should be blamed for the increasing marginalization, poverty and hunger in the zone.
The National President of the group, youth wing, Mr. Igboayaka, made this known while addressing journalists in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State capital.
He stated further that 75% of marginalization and hunger the people of the zone faced were caused by Igbo leaders, who according to him, give little or no attention to the people’s demands.
Igboayaka, however, tasked Igbo leaders to rise up to their responsibilities and take positive measures to ensure that the seaports in Igbo land are opened, adding that such would pave way for more development in the region
“We are being marginalized by our brothers and our sisters, we are being marginalized by those that are representing us at the Senate, House of Reps as well as the governors. They should wake up to their responsibilities. That is why I said that 75% of the marginalization in Igbo land is caused by our leaders, they should sit up.
“There is hunger in the land, they should create the enabling environment for us to survive. If we have a seaport now that is in full operation, you will see that the level of unemployment would be taken care of. Is it Buhari that would talk about seaport for us? No, it is our governors, our senators that should start making it an issue. And you can see the economic value of seaport.
“We say we are being marginalized by the north, look at the population of Ndigbo, do you know that Ndigbo constitutes 42% of the population of this country? And you are saying that you are being marginalized by Fulani that is not up to 7million.
“We have up to 120 million of Ndigbo living in this country. And you are telling me that people that are 7 million are marginalizing us. It is unacceptable, we need to sit up and that is why I’m mobilizing the youths so that we can transform our population into a political capital,” he reiterated.
He stated further that, Igbo presidency will not solve the problems going on in the South East zone; “after all, the South has produced a president for six years, but the problem of an Igbo man is not president, but good representative l. For us to have modern rail way, for us to have industrial gas pipeline .
“These are the problems that when they are solved, we will all benefit from it. So anybody that is saying that the problem of Ndigbo is to produce a president is lying. The problems of Ndigbo are these things that I have touched. We need a seaport and that is fundamental.
”We can have a president for more than 8 years, still we will continue to live in abject poverty. But if we have a good representative, our economy will improve,” he said.
