Restructuring: Igbo leaders did not tell the presidential team the truth—Elliot Uko

Daniel Kanu

Founder Igbo Youth Movement (IYM), Evangelist Elliot Ugochukwu-Uko has flayed Igbo leaders for not telling the presidential team that visited the zone the truth that without restructuring the country there would be no peace and genuine development.

But he commended the southwest leaders who he said were frank in their position on restructuring when same team visited the region in Lagos.

He expressed worry that the federal government is ignoring to address the structural problems that gave birth to inequality, inequity, nepotism, mediocrity, and insecurity in the country.

Ugochukwu-Uko lamented that when the zone (South East) was visited by the presidential team ‘ Our leaders refused to speak truth to the government.
” Governors, legislators, traditional leaders, and clerics gathered at the government house Enugu but they only issued a terse empty communique, dancing around the truth”.

Ugochukwu-Uko who is also Secretary, Eastern Consultative Assembly (ECA), noted in a statement he signed, made available to Daily Sun on Monday noted “These are trying times for Nigeria, a country forged by the British empire, a little over a century ago, reeling under ethnic, bad governance, corruption, and an unworkable unitary constitution.
“A country suffocating from neo-colonialism, imperialism and prebendalism, a country sitting on a timed bomb.

“Instead of setting up a committee to address the structural issues that produced over 40 million idle able-bodied young folks, the Presidency sends a team to the regions to sell gagging the social media, completely ignoring the structural problems that gave birth to unemployment, inequality, inequity, prebendalism, nepotism, mediocrity, insecurity and poverty that is ravaging the land.

“The hunger and anger that rules the land as a direct result of an unwieldy unitary structure foisted by the military, forcloses any future for the teeming populations, as none of the 36 states is viable economically to absorb the great army of angry unemployed folks frustrated and crippled by the bizarre structure run on monthly allocations from the central government”.

The statement noted further” The real problem is that the first zone visited by the Presidential team, refused to speak truth to the government.

“Governors, legislators, traditional leaders, and clerics gathered at the Government House Enugu, but they only issued a terse empty communiqué dancing around the truth, but dutifully avoiding the truth, for reasons known only to them.

“Yoruba leaders to the rescue. Glory and thanks be to God, that this same Presidential delegation moved to Lagos where the southwest governors, traditional leaders, clerics, and elders told them the truth the other region earlier visited was too scared to tell them: that restructuring the country remains the only solution to our problems. God bless Yoruba leaders.

“It is this consistent rudderlessness and lack of balls from my region that has made it very difficult, if not impossible for the youth of my region to respect or look up to the pseudo leaders of my region.

“It is this shameful behaviour of the so-called leaders of my region, that inspired secession agitators to move into the leadership vacuum and attempt to take over leadership of my region.

“It is the tactless believe of the so called leaders of my zone, that guns and bullets reigned regularly on the agitators will help them regain the lost respect of the younger generation of my region that has brought us to where we are today. Sadly they refused to learn.

“With tears in our eyes, we kneel down and pray to God Almighty to touch the hearts of leaders of our zone, to learn from Yoruba leaders that truth alone heals the land, truth alone, will earn you the respect of the younger generation, truth alone will bring peace.

“The truth remains that 99 percent of the troubles plaguing Nigeria can only be solved through reconstructing the polity to true federalism and power devolution of the first republic and nothing else”.