VON Boss Tasks IPOB, NDA On Peace

The Director General of
Voice  of  Nigeria (VON), has renewed his call on members of the Niger Delta Avengers, Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB and Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB in Nigeria to sheathe their swords in the interest on the nation.
He stressed the need for the separatist groups to support the President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government in its efforts to rid the Nigerian nation of corruption which had been the bane of her development.
The VON boss, subscribed to Mr Buhari’s position that if Nigerians failed to kill corruption; corruption would kill Nigeria, saying ethnic merchants and religious bigots hide under ethnic and religious fault lines to corruptly enrich themselves.
Speaking in Enugu at a reception put together for him and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, by their kinsmen under the auspices of Ekeh Progressives Forum (EPF), Okechukwu, insisted that President Buhari meant well for the nation.
Delivering a speech entitled, “True Federalism: Panacea or Placebo to Nigeria’s Paralysis? Eke Town as a Case Study,” at the event, Okechukwu, blamed greed and corruption for the gross inequality in Nigeria.
The VON DG, recalled that President Buhari had in his 2015 Chatham House speech, vividly described this gross inequality in the country as the tiny Island of the affluent in the ocean of misery.
He said: ”Corruption in all its ramifications, not just the fleecing of the state fund, includes petty human frailties like jealousy, hate, stereotypes and prejudice.
“We shall presently return to these two opaque pages of the same epitaph of greed and corruption and commonly misunderstood theme.
“These two opaque pages may help us to show that ethnicity and religion play less crucial roles in our dysfunction than greed and its grandson, corruption.
According to him, Ethnicity and religion are more of the tools of scavengers and predators. It would amaze us to look closely at our communities, local council areas and zones. We are most likely to find that they are the victims of the cankerworm called corruption.
“Consequently, an honest and pragmatic assessment would surely expose the popular sentiment of True Federalism as an innocuous medication to a paralysis engendered and poisoned by the fangs of corruption.
“The narrative will also show how ethnic merchants and bigots exploit our weaknesses to advance themselves at the expense of the same tribe or religion for which they claim to fly their flag” he stated.

Canice Amadi, Enugu