The Coalition of South East Youth Leaders (COSEYL), a group of Igbo youth, has denounced the All Progressives Congress (APC) plan to zone the Deputy Speaker’s position to the South-East, calling it “an insult to the political sensibility of Ndigbo.”
According to the organization, Benjamin Kalu, a member of the House of Representatives who was supposed to benefit from the deal, won in “the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections mired in a lot of controversies.”
These were made known by COSEYL in a statement released on Monday that was signed by the organization’s president general, Hon. Goodluck Ibem, and the publicity secretary, Okey Nwaoru.
The Coalition of South East Youth Leaders, COSEYL, the leading sociopolitical youth organization in the South East geopolitical zone, released a statement saying they were worried about the latest sham by the All P
“There are still many unresolved issues regarding the circumstances of Benjamin Kalu’s rise to prominence after the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections. There are still claims in certain quarters that Chief Iheanyi Frank Chinasa, the Labour Party candidate, would have won if it weren’t for the misconduct of INEC officials in Bende Local Government Area of Abia State.
further, clarify the situation, the presidential and national assembly elections were held concurrently on February 25, 2023. In Abia State, for instance, Benjamin Kalu, the APC House of Representatives candidate, was controversially declared the winner of Bende Federal Constituency with 10,020 votes while Peter Obi, the Labour Party (LP) candidate, received 6,688 votes. Ahmed Tinubu, the APC Presidential candidate, received 8,914 votes.
Now that both the presidential and parliamentary elections were held simultaneously throughout the country, the issue that begs an explanation is how the votes cast in the whole Bende Local Government Area for representatives would be greater than the presidential votes cast in the other 16 local government areas of the state. Does this not reveal the dishonesty and illegal activity of a supposedly honorable member engaged in such behavior? Nigeria’s political environment is well-known, particularly in the South East, where people support parties in large numbers. COSEYL questions how a single local government can have more votes than the whole state. Only Benjamin Kalu is qualified to provide an answer to this.
It is also known that the APC previously followed a script that was poorly written when it appointed and attempted to impose on the populace Benjamin Umunna, Benjamin Osisiogu, and Benjamin Kalu to represent the South East, in the same way, that the party hired fictitious bishops to represent the Christian Community in their covert move to appear to include the notion of illegality typified by Muslin. “Ndigbo cannot be brought down to such a level!”
The organization claims that Kalu deceived both President-elect Bola Tinubu and Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, the Senate’s Chief Whip, who had supported him in his bid to be elected to the House of Representatives in 2019. Tinubu and Kalu were both in the APC’s plans to be the Deputy Speaker.
“Benjamin Kalu, it should be known, betrayed the APC’s candidates for president, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and governor of Abia State, Chief Ikechi Emenike, which is evident in the votes the APC received in Bende LGA. He also betrayed his political boss, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, who chose him and provided him with all the support and assistance he needed to be elected to the federal House of Representatives in 2019.
The statement continued, “While the political goal and aspiration of Ndigbo are beyond the position of the senate president, we cannot identify with a character like Benjamin Kalu, not to mention endorsing him to represent the political interests of the entire South East as a federal parliamentarian holding the post of Deputy Speaker.”
For emphasis, it said, “The Igbo are a significant ethnic group in Nigeria and, according to the “WaZoBia” plan, one of the tripodal arrangements upon which the country itself sits. No matter its plans or objectives, the APC-led federal government cannot make us invisible. The Igbo race has members dispersed across the 36 states that make up the federation, more so than many other geopolitical zones in the country. The Igbo race encompasses the South East area as well as the South-South and North Central regions. With the exception of the South West, other areas feature diverse ethnic populations.
The Fulani, the Hausa, and typically other minorities all claim each of the three zones in the North as their home, regardless of whether it is east, west, or center. The Ijaws, Ibibio, Anangs, Ogonis, and Itshekiri are just a handful of the ethnic nations that make up the South-South. If not for the phobia that the APC has toward the Igbo nation, which the party has continued to uphold throughout the disastrous Buhari presidency and which is probably going to be repeated by a Bola Ahmed Tinubu presidency, how can a region like the South East, with its homogeneous makeup, be relegated when it comes to sharing the spoils? What regard does the APC have for its South East Asian founding members, including Rochas Anayo Okorocha, Dr. Ogbonnaya, who registered the party as a political entity?
“The position of Deputy Speaker is beneath the aspirations of Ndigbo in politics, and we reject it and will keep fighting against it. We urge well-intentioned Igboland descendants to ignore Okwu Nnabuife’s support for Benjamin Kalu, who falsely claims to be the leader of the Ohanaeze Youth Council. Any other remark coming from any source that jeopardizes Peter Obi’s prospects of recovering his mandate is unacceptable and inconsistent with the aspirations of the Igbo people. Ohanaeze has already made it clear that they are firmly behind Mr. Peter Obi.
“Peter Obi won the 2023 presidential election, the most important political contest in the country, according to our predictions and data. The results that are now uploading to the IRev demonstrate that INEC is not and never will be a trustworthy or impartial umpire, which is unfortunate not just for INEC but also for those who the Commission announced and declared as victors. In order to take the job of Deputy Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, which is the seventh place in the country’s hierarchy of political power and offices, one must be an outcast, a misfit, and a sellout. It makes us think of Achebe’s adage that only fools point with their left finger to their father’s home (obi). That position of deputy speaker is a muddle and an Infra dig.
After having said the aforementioned, we urge all political forces of the APC to stop their fake antics of factorizing the Labour Party by creating phantom persons and phony groupings in order to lessen Peter Obi’s legal possibilities. We reassure them and their supporters that success is inevitable, and we urge the Igbo and all Nigerians to be committed to the Obi mandate until the court issues its ruling. Nigeria is our country, and neither a person nor a group has the right to ignore the Igbo.
“Your political days are numbered, to those who wish to feed off the scraps and mess of pottage Bourdilon or Abuja continues to serve while trading off their own region.”