Ibekimi Oriamaja Reports
OHANAEZE Ndigbo has chastised a Katsina-based activist, Mallam Mahdi Shehu, for using hate speech against Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s Presidential candidate.
In a viral video in which he addressed a group of Northern elements, Mahdi stated that voting for Peter Obi is voting for Biafra, and that votes are synonymous with the destruction of the North.
Ohanaeze called Mahdi’s claims “disingenuous,” but also “distasteful, mischievous, provocative, incendiary, and capable of igniting ethno-religious tensions across the country.”
The video has received a lot of backlash on social media. The apex Igbo body responded to the video via its spokesman, Dr. Alex Chidozie Ogbonnia, saying, “The attention of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide has been drawn to a video clip that has gone viral, propagated by one Mallam Mahdi Shehu, a Katsina based activist, to the effect that a vote for Mr.
Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s presidential candidate for the 2023 general election, is a vote for Biafra.
“In the video, he also claimed that voting for Obi would result in the destruction of the North. He asked his audience what they stood to gain by voting Obi, a southerner, and so on.
“After watching the video clip, I was astounded that such narrow-minded ethnic bigot who clings tenaciously to old grudges is still in our midst in this millennium.”
“Mahdi Shehu’s uncivilized remarks are not only deceptive, but also distasteful, mischievous, provocative, incendiary, and capable of igniting ethno-religious tensions across the country.”
“The rabidity, thoughtlessness, and hollowness that characterized the video signaled the dying and end-of-the-rope propagandist’s last wish.” People who harbor such heinous thoughts and mindsets are the pernicious cancerous social incubus that has long held Nigeria back.
“The Ohanaeze Ndigbo urges the Federal Government of Nigeria to arrest, prosecute, and eventually imprison Mallam Mahdi Shehu as a deterrent to other ethnic inflammatory chauvinists.”
“If such deep ethnic jingoism is allowed to play out in the upcoming campaigns, the eagle’s fledgling wing may be irreparably damaged.”
“Mallam Shehu and his ilk should be made aware that the ethnic cards played in the past to the detriment of the country’s unity, progress, and corporate existence have become loathsome, unserviceable, and anachronistic.”
“In life, there are two primary choices: accept the conditions as they are or accept responsibility for changing them.” Evidently, no Nigerian, big or small, rich or poor, northerner or southerner, Christian or Muslim, is satisfied with the country’s current state of affairs.”
“Mallam Shehu, in his complete blindness, lacks the basic social reflections to recall that Christian Southerners willingly voted for President Shehu Shagari, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, and President Muhammadu Buhari in the past because of the manifestos they presented to the populace.” The most recent was President Buhari, who promised change, vibrancy, a ruthless fight against corruption, and the annihilation of the nefarious Boko Haram insurgency during our historical slumber.
