A first-class traditional ruler in Yewa Division of Ogun State, the Eselu of Iseluland, Oba Akintunde Akinyemi, has asked the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), to facilitate the emergence of the next president from the South East in 2023. The monarch also called for amnesty to the Yoruba nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo, popularly called Sunday Igboho, who has been declared wanted by the Department of State Services.
Oba Akinyemi, who stated this in an open letter addressed to Buhari, said the move would reduce the tension in the country. The monarch said this in a three-page letter titled, “Open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari: the need for the emergence of a Nigerian president of South-Eastern extraction comes 2023”.
Akinyemi urged Buhari to adopt dialogue rather than clamping down on the secessionist agitators in the country.
According to him the tension in Nigeria can be traced to alleged injustice and inequality from the South East.
He said the tension will disappear if other regions in the country could rally around the South East to produce the next president
“I want to state without equivocation that the entire security challenges bedevilling this country from the South-East will disappear within a twinkle of an eye, if and only if, all sections of this great country can come together to pave the way for the emergence of a Nigerian President of Igbo extraction in the year 2023. In the light of this, I want to appeal that your excellency should use dialogue rather than clamping down on the secessionist agitators in the country, especially in the South East which now looks like a war zone.
“It is a fact that the Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, has been rearrested to face the charges against him, but dialogue with all sections of the country will help to nip in the bud, the various security challenges which have sprung up in the South East and other sections of the country. If dialogue is adopted, it will definitely prevent more of Nnamdi Kanu from springing up in the South East and the country in general. If your Excellency can be magnanimous to support and enthrone a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction in the year 2023. It will not.”
On Sunday Igboho, Oba Akinyemi while fielding questions from newsmen, appealed to Buhari to consider granting amnesty to Igboho.
He said, “Amnesty happened in the South-South and in the North, even Boko Haram members got amnesty and I don’t think Sunday is as deadly as Boko Haram.
“We need to rise up and appeal to the President that this issue can be resolved at home, we will bring all of them together and appeal to the President to temper justice with mercy and let him give them a kind of amnesty, let everyone put down their arms and let’s move the country forward, he is still our son we can’t deny that.
“Sunday Igboho came to my palace, I know his motives and I like him, he is coming out from his shell to say enough of these killings in Yorubaland.”
Source: The Punch
