Nigeria Will Be Good If Everybody Is Given Equal Citizenship Rights — Umeh 

Raymond Ozoji, Awka

Former national chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) Chief Victor Umeh says Nigeria will be good again if everybody is given equal citizenship rights and opportunities.

Umeh, who stated this at the weekend shortly after the swearing in ceremony of new commissioners by Governor Charles Soludo at the Government House Awka, maintained that the neglect of complaints from people by the federal government was unnecessary as he believed that a day would come when the federal government would no longer have the means of resolving the problem and the situation would become so unmanageable.

The former APGA national chairman noted that there was no time left to listen to grievances of Nigerians from various parts of the country as he pointed out that people were complaining not only from the Southeast but also from the South-South, Northeast, Northwest and other parts of the nation.

That injustice was not suffered only by a section of the people as he stated that those from the Northwest alleged that those patronised by the federal government were those from Katsina, Kano and Kaduna while those from Kebbi state were grossly marginalised.

Umeh said it was important that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government should endeavour to make the ground even for all Nigerians as nobody or no part of the country should be cheated in any form or disguise.

He said the impact of exclusion from the affairs of government was really adverse and there was a dire need for a change of attitude by the powers that be to end banditry in the Northwest, insurgency in the Northeast, IPOB problem in the Southeast and fighting in the middle belt.

The former APGA national chairman who is currently aspiring to represent Anambra-Central senatorial district at the 10th senate noted that he has been unequivocal in espousing ways of containing spate of insecurity across Nigeria.

He said fact remains that people who are in authority have refused to employ the appropriate mechanism to resolve conflicts in Nigeria. Umeh who stated that the appropriate mechanism was dialogue, said the only way Nigeria could be peaceful was to have a policy of inclusiveness.

He said, “If you carry all parts of Nigeria along in the government without discrimination, everybody will be happy but when you continue to discriminate against certain people, they will continue to agitate for their rights and the only way to resolve it is by employing the mechanism of dialogue because justice does not hurt anybody but injustice hurts everybody.”