BY: IKENNA ORIOHA
Igbo Youth Assembly Worldwide, has faulted and condemned the award given to the former President of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo by a factional National Youth Council of Nigeria, NYCN, as the “Father of the Nation”
Igbo Youth Assembly made this refutal at a Press Conference held at Grace House Hotel, Abakiliki, Ebonyi State, recently.
Signing a Communique, Mazi Ifeanyi Nwaudunna, President General and Comr Casmir Irekamba, Secretary General, Imo Youth Assembly, noted that IYA Worldwide condemned “the award given to Olusegun Obasanjo by the factional National Youth Council of Nigeria as the Father of the Nation is not acceptable by the over 5million youths of Igbo extraction.
“We say no to that leader who could not nip to the board the issues of Boko Haram at the insipient stage during his administration, but chose to ignore them, cannot be the Father of the Nation.
“A leader who failed to put to rest the issues of June 12 and yet happens to be one of the highest beneficiaries of June 12 cannot be the Father of the Nation because the Father of the Nation must be a good family man, not a man who nearly destroyed the foundation of democracy in Nigeria through the back door by the introduction of 3rd Term Agenda which failed woefully.
“A man with inordinate ambition for power as OBJ can never be the Father of the nation. But Gen. Yakubu Gowon, he remains the true and patriotic Father of the Nation to any sound mind, a firm and ardent believer of One Nigeria. He is a man with modest life style who does not tolerate frivolities and criminal enrichment, but believes in the common good of all, he is loved by all especially those who had encountered him, a good christian father.
“Gowon, an intellectual who is deeply rooted in research, having PhD from World Class University, the Boss of all the Bosses. He is the Boss of the Military Generals. The Boss of all the past Heads of States alive. A man whose godly counsel is golden and his program “Pray Nigeria” is keeping the Nation going and should be accorded reverence, not Chief Olusegun Obasanjo who nearly truncated democracy due to his over ambitiousness in politics and governance hence his failed 3rd Term Agenda. Igbo Youth Assembly Worldwide rejects such accolade to him by NYCN which is not orderly having been enmeshed by fractionalization and crisis”.
