A coalition of Nigerian ethnic nationalities has thrown its weight behind President Muhammadu Buhari to emerge as president again in the next Saturday presidential election.
The group at a world press conference in Lagos also called on the international community to respect the wish of Nigerians as they go to exercise their freewill on the election day.
Members of the coalition include Ohanaeze Ndigbo; the pan-Yoruba group, Afenifere; Oodua Nationalist Coalition; Middle Belt Leaders and Niger Delta Alliance for Justice.
Addressing the press on behalf of the group, Dim Uche Okwukwu, secretary-general of Ohanaeze Ndigbo explained that the event had become necessary because of the opportunity offered by the Buhari-Osinbajo ticket for Nigerians to work together as one people with shared history and common future.
“We cannot continue to recycle evil…Ibos, Yoruba, Hausa/Fulani, Tiv, Nupe, Ijaw, Ibiobio and others must all unite to re-elect President Buhari as that will ensure that Nigeria remain great and relevant… and the fight against corruption and insurgency is sustained”, he said.
Okwukwu who decried the strategy of exploiting ethnic differences to keep Nigerians divided by Nigeria’s past rulers argued that as a new generation of Nigerians, there was the need to think of the greater future that laid ahead; the children and the future that beckoned on them and the humanity as a whole.
The outcome of the presidential election, he said, was very crucial to Nigeria and the rest of the world, particularly to the stability of Africa adding that it was therefore imperative that the nation organized a peaceful, free, transparent, credible and violence-free election.
