Igbo youth under the umbrella of the South East Youths for Equity Alliance (SEYEA), has carpeted the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, in opposition to the demand for liberation of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
The Northern group spoke after a meeting between President Muhammadu Buhari and the Igbo elders led by Chief Mbazulike Amaechi.
The president of the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, AYCF, Yerima Shettima, in an interview with Newslodge, stated that allowing Kanu to go unpunished would be detrimental to Nigeria and the Federal Government.
However, SEYEA, in a statement from its president, Comrade Ekeh Ifeanyi Chimezie and made available to Newslodge on Monday, regretted that the youth of Arewa have become a tool of the disintegration of Nigeria, as they have always been viewed themselves and the north as Nigerians while others are not through their actions and inactions.
The southeastern group accused Arewa youth of promoting disunity, bigotry, ethnic and religious differences and was always quick to kick anything that promotes peace and unity.
SEYEA also noted that it lied in the institutionalization of peace and unity in Nigeria through the genuine practice of tolerance, justice, fairness and equity, reiterating its previous stance and calling for the unconditional release of Nnamdi Kanu.
The youth organization supported the visit of the Igbo elders and their honest request from President Muhammadu Buhari, which is a sure way to ease tension in the country.
According to SEYEA, “the liberation of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is a means of national healing and anyone who is against it should be seen as an enemy of the country.”
The sociocultural organization of the Southeast, further stated that the demand of the Igbo elders will in no way jeopardize Clarion’s call for 2023 Nigeria President of Southeast extraction as the Arewa youth claim, but would go down the road to tell the Nigerians who can Do the right thing in the nation’s selfish and regional interests by allowing fairness and justice to prevail through collective support and the election of a Southerner as successor to President Muhammadu Buhari.
Parts of the SEYEA statement read: “For us, the South East Youths for Equity Alliance, an integral part of the Nigeria Youths for Equity initiative, we are prepared for a united Nigeria where peace, equity, justice and equity reign. In that, we have stayed away from provocations and that is the reason why we have refused to react to some of these unhealthy and provocative positions of our brothers from the North under the auspices of the Arewa Youth.
“We are not surprised to see them condemn what has received wide national acceptance and praise for the request of the Igbo Greats (a delegation of eminent Igbo leaders) of President Muhammadu Buhari and the assurance of the President when the former visited the latter at Aso Roca.” .
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