‘Buhari mocking Ndigbo, shedding crocodile tears over Amaechi’s death’ —Ohanaeze Youth

The youth wing of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide has reacted to President Muhammadu Buhari’s eulogy on the late first Republic Aviation Minister, Mbazulike Amaechi, who passed on at the age of 93 on Tuesday.

President Buhari had, in a glowing condolence issued by his Senior Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said the late nonagenarian, “was a man of wisdom, honesty, and frankness” who was a rare breed in the country.

Recalling his encounters with Amaechi who was popularly called ‘The Boy is Good’ in Abuja and Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital, Buhari said the former minister’s advice on the situation in the South-East and the way forward for Nigeria would be greatly missed.

“I recall his words to me where he said ’I don’t want to leave this planet without peace returning to my country. I believe in one big, united Nigeria, a force in Africa. Mr President, I want you to be remembered as a person who saw Nigeria burning, and you quenched the fire,” Buhari said in the statement.

But despite the glowing eulogies on Amaechi, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youths said the President was only shedding crocodile tears and mocking the people of the South-East as he had refused to listen to Amaechi’s plea to release the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.

The late former minister had personally begged Buhari to release Kanu to him, stating that Kanu’s release would guarantee peace in the South-East and stabilise the country, an appeal the government did not consider.

In a statement on Wednesday by the National President of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council, Mazi Okwu Nnabuike, the group said Buhari was laughing “over our misfortune, over the loss of an iroko in Igboland.”

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“Chief Amaechi’s death is most devastating because he died with a most unfulfilled wish. No matter how you look at it, he did not die a happy man,” Nnabuike said.

“He begged President Buhari to release Mazi Nnamdi Kanu to him but Buhari did not oblige him. It is cruel of the present administration. This is the last surviving minister of the First Republic, but his wish could not be granted.

“Now the same President is reminding us how Amaechi’s words resonate, how he wished for a peaceful South-East and Nigeria in general. But the same Buhari government made sure that his wish never came to pass.

“So, to us, the entire youths of Igbo land, Buhari’s condolence message is a mockery of Ndigbo; the presidency is laughing over our misfortune, over the loss of an iroko in Igboland.”

Okwu, however, urged the Buhari government to honour the Igbo leader in death by releasing Nnamdi Kanu.

“What they could not do for him while he was alive, they should do now. We are expecting a posthumous honour for him, which is to free Nnamdi Kanu,” the youth leader said.

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