Igbo should have toed Azikiwe’s footsteps by supporting Buhari – Osifo

BARRISTER Eddy Osifo, a veteran politician from the South South and political ally of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, yesterday declared that the Igbo of the South East will regret not toeing the footsteps of their political leader, late Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe by supporting the President-elect, Gen.Muhammadu Buhari, who is from the North.

Osifo who is one of the leaders of the defunct Action Group, pointed out that the Igbos have always aligned with the North in the politics of the country, saying that it is regrettable that they abandoned their history by supporting President Goodluck Jonathan who allegedly did nothing for the people of the South East in his six years presidency.

He noted however that they may have been deceived due to the dominance of Yorubas “because they find it difficult to trust Yorubas”, adding however that they should have looked at the candidate rather than the people behind the party.

His words: “The South East will learn their lessons from what just happened and I feel sorry for them. Next time they will vote more on principles than on sentiment and emotion. The South East have always made this mistake because their first leader, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe led them to believe that the West was not reliable and gave them the impression that the North was more reliable based on his experience in 1952.

“Dr Azikiwe had to walk out of the Western House of Assembly and became internally bitter against Awolowo and the Western region. So his alliance with the North was born out of this experience. Azikiwe was prevented from becoming the Premier of Western Nigeria by reason of ethnicity, he also used ethnic majority to push away Eyo Itta as Premier of Eastern Nigeria. That caused the Eastern Nigeria crisis of 1953.

Source: Vanguard