1999 constitution designed against Igbo –Nwodo

…Says no going back on restructuring

President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Nnia Nwodo, has said the military carefully structured the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria against Ndigbo.

Nwodo who was guest on Arise TV’s live personality interview programme noted that the constitution was based on extreme discrimination and jaundiced against his people. He noted that the Igbo by every available record should not have the least number of local government areas, states andNational Assembly seats.

“The military designed a constitution at the end of the war to contain the Igbo. We have the smallest number of local governments of all the six geopolitical zones; smallest number of representatives in the National Assembly; the smallest number of local government councils, two states in the North West of Nigeria have as much local governments as we have in the South East,” he said.

The Ohanaeze leader also said the mandate of the apex Igbo body was not to actualise a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction but to push for a restructured federation where everybody would be free to achieve its dreams; an egalitarian society where people develop at their pace.

Ndigbo, he said, had been contained by the federal authorities, through its policies and programmes, but stated that their potential; energies, creativity and industry would enable them emerge at the world stage. Nwodo also said that there was no alternative to restructuring the country even as he accused President Muhammadu Buhari of not being faithful to his manifesto.

He recalled that Buhari had promised to restructure Nigeria during the 2014 electioneering but reneged after he won the election.

“The president has not been faithful to his manifesto. After he won the election, his party set up a committee on restructuring headed by Kaduna state Governor, Nasir el-Rufai and they made this report that which was accepted by the national leadership of his party.

“And when he faced interviewed by the press, he said that our problem was not structure but process.

“He swallowed his manifesto; he swallowed the decision of his national executive committee and he says we are looking for our personal interest. It’s rather the president that is looking for his own personal interest,” Nwodo stated.

The Ohanaeze chieftain insisted that the president has failed it by not resonating the aspirations of majority of Nigerian.

He further condemned the detention of convener of #RevolutionNow protests, Omoyele Sowore, and for the umpteenth time, called for the unbanning of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

He also flayed the president for recycling some members of his cabinet, especially those that have corruption cases pending in the court as well those under the investigation of the antigraft agencies.