INTERVIEW: Why Tinubu Should Step Aside For Igbo In 2027 — Ohanaeze Youth

…Says President Can’t Get 2% Igbo Votes

Igboayaka O. Igboayaka, President of the Ohanaeze Youth Council (OYC) — the youth wing of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide — has remained a prominent voice in conversations around Igbo unity, political inclusion, and youth mobilisation. Known for his outspoken positions on national issues, particularly those affecting the Southeast, he has asked President Bola Tinubu not to contest the 2027 presidential election, arguing that political equity requires power shift to the Southeast.

In this interview with THE WHISTLER‘s Ikenna OMEJE, Igboayaka speaks on zoning debates, coalition politics, and the role of young people in electoral participation and voter mobilisation ahead of the 2027 elections. Excerpts:

You’ve Argued That Power Should Shift To S/East. Are You Asking President Tinubu Step Aside In 2027?

If President Bola Tinubu is reasonable, if he is democratic, and if he has some level of political morality, he shouldn’t contest the 2027 election. He should support somebody from the Southeast to become the next president of Nigeria.

Let me inform you that APC (All Progressives Congress) was built on tripod political parties known as the legacy political parties that formed APC.

And that is CPC (Congress for Progressive Change), ACN (Action Congress of Nigeria), and ANPP (All Nigeria Peoples Party). The CPC represents late President Muhammadu Buhari, ACN represents Bola Tinubu, and ANPP represents late Ogbonnaya Onu. So, during the formation from 2013 to 2014, there was a gentleman’s agreement that CPC should produce the president, and ACN should produce the vice president.

Then remaining ANPP that said, okay, after eight years, the Southeast should produce the next president. And that was the reason why Ogbonnaya Onu questioned them at the 2023 convention—where is the justice? After ACN took the vice presidency from 2015 to 2023, they came again. Bola Ahmed Tinubu refused to support somebody from the Southeast.

He came again and took the slot of the ANPP, and that should be the slot of the Southeast, and became the president. And this time again, he wants us to support him. This is one of the marginalisation that is causing the issue of IPOB (Indigenous People of Biafra) agitation.

Because I have said this severally, IPOB and the Nnamdi Kanu project represent the injustice against the Igbos. So, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has no business in the 2027 presidential election if he has political morality and if he is truly a democrat.

The Ohanaeze Youth Council recently declared some former governors in the Southeast as Persona non-grata. On What Grounds?

We are the Igbo people, and I represent the interest of over 50 million Igbo youth. That is our position.

Our position is that a few people cannot go and collect money or, based on personal interest to whomsoever, come to Alaigbo and tell us that this person is going for re-election. Who discussed that? On what basis are they talking about that? Even the people discussing that issue lack electoral value. Somebody like Ugwuanyi, (a former governor of Enugu State), failed a senatorial election even as a sitting governor.

Somebody like Okezie Ikpeazu (a former governor of Abia State). These are the people talking about Tinubu’s re-election. These people lack electoral value in Igbo land.

They cannot even dictate the direction of voting in Igbo land. They lack the capacity, integrity, competency, and the tools to navigate the Igbos on whom to vote and whom not to vote. Such people are not worthy to be part of Ala Igbo.

You cannot stay in our land and still victimise us, marginalise us, and push us to a high level of marginalisation and rejection. So they are supporting the rejection of the Igbos, and we are rejecting them as part of the Igbos.

Let’s look at the African Democratic Congress (ADC) coalition. Assuming Peter Obi fails to get the party’s presidential ticket, what will be Ohanaeze Youth Council’s reaction?

Peter Obi must be on the ballot in 2027. The face of the coalition is Peter Obi. Without Peter Obi, there is no coalition. If Peter Obi pulls out from the coalition, the coalition will be a dead horse.

What if he fails to get the ticket?

I said that Peter Obi will be on the ballot no matter the political party—we don’t care. Peter Obi is a political party of his own. Forget the alphabet, Peter Obi is a political party.

So wherever he is going is where the people are going, where progressive Nigerians are going, where more than 150 million Nigerians living in abject poverty are going—that is where the unemployed youth are going. So the coalition doesn’t mean anything to Nigerians if Peter Obi is not involved. Because when you look at the people talking about coalition, he is the only person whose political history is different from others.

Amaechi (former governor of Rivers State) is part of the coalition failure of former President Muhammadu Buhari. And all of them there, you can look at their political history. So we are looking at them to some extent because of the involvement of Peter Obi.

If Peter Obi is not in the ADC or the coalition, we will not be talking about coalition. Everybody will be talking about Peter Obi wherever or whatever political party he is contesting under. That is the simple truth.

So if Peter Obi pulls out from the coalition, the coalition will be dead immediately. And all of us—the progressives, the Obidients—will move out from that structure. That is the simple truth.

They should understand this fact: it takes only Peter Obi to wrestle power from Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

What’s the view of Ohaneze Youth Council on the City Boys Movement?

I have said it that some of the people who joined the City Boys Movement are saying they want to connect Ndigbo to the centre. It is very, very unfortunate. If any person wants to go into personal politics, it is a different matter. But don’t involve Ndigbo.

Like I told you what the APC did to Ogbonnaya Onu. If Ogbonnaya Onu, as part of the legacy party that formed APC, was treated like that, who is Obi Cubana and who is Chief Priest? An ordinary barman and a street fish roaster is the person that will connect Ndigbo to the centre?

This is a mockery to Ndigbo. None of the people in City Boys have electoral value. None of them can even win a House of Assembly seat in Igboland.

This is the simple truth. If it is not so, why have some of them not even contested and won elections? After all, Obi Cubana’s brother contested for the House of Reps in 2023. He couldn’t make an impact. He couldn’t win the election. So how can he be talking about getting votes from Ndigbo? These people don’t have electoral value. And as far as we are concerned, the City Boys Movement is dead on arrival.

And it is very, very important to tell Bola Ahmed Tinubu that you cannot be talking about your re-election within Ala Igbo, particularly the Southeast, when Nnamdi Kanu is still in detention. Nnamdi Kanu is a political institution in Igboland.

In fact, Nnamdi Kanu is a political party for the Igbos. So you cannot hold him and still be talking about voting in the Southeast. It is not possible.

Bola Ahmed Tinubu will not have up to 2 per cent of votes in the entire Igboland. It is not possible. We will teach them a lesson on the day of the election.

We will teach them a lesson. All of them will just have their own votes if they are registered and have their PVC. But to convince any Igbo man to vote for Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 2027 while Nnamdi Kanu is in prison is impossible.

It is an impossible task. In fact, it is like asking somebody to use their legs to cross the Atlantic Ocean.

In 2023, there were reports of intimidation, voter repression in Lagos State, especially in the Igbo-dominated areas. What are you going to say regarding protection of voters, particularly Igbos living in Lagos, so that they can be able to express themselves freely, vote freely without intimidation?

We are going to vote. There is nobody born on earth that can intimidate an Igbo man. There is nobody born by a woman who can intimidate an Igbo man at a polling unit.

They should get ready while we are getting ready to exercise our constitutional right to vote. Like I said, 2027—we call it Egwu Suru Gede. That is the code of 2027.

They tried that in 2023, and you saw what happened in Lagos. Peter Obi won massively. So, we are going to follow them eye for eye and tooth for tooth.

That is the only message I have for them. They should mobilise and convince people to vote for Bola Ahmed Tinubu, while those who believe in Obi should also mobilise and vote for Peter Obi. At the polling unit, we will know who is right and who is stronger.

That is the simple truth. But for anybody thinking they will use intimidation or violence to scare the Igbos away, that person should get prepared. Because we have said it—it is Egwu Suru Gede.

What strategy is Ohanaeze Youth Council using to mobilise voters ahead of the election?

We are not telling anybody our strategy. On the day of the election, they will see our strategy.

What we have told our people is: get your PVC. Recently, people without PVCs have been convinced to get theirs. So, our strategy is simple—we will arm ourselves with PVC.

The weapon of our political warfare is PVC.