Ohanaeze urged the people to pray for a better leader that is not bigot in dealing with the affairs of the country.
The apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has stated that the next Nigerian leader should accommodate all ethnic nationalities unlike the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Ohanaeze urged the people to pray for a better leader that is not bigot in dealing with the affairs of the country.
The group also said that Nigeria had peace during the democratic governments of former Presidents Shehu Shagari and Umaru Yar'Adua than what is being experienced today due to worsening security challenges.
Ohanaeze Vice President, Damian Okeke-Ogene, revealed this during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in commemoration of Nigeria’s 61st Independence anniversary.
He argued that inter-ethnic relationships among Nigerians have become worse under Buhari's watch when compared to previous presidents of his ethnic Fulani origin.
“Nigeria needs a leader who will accommodate all the ethnic groups of the nation. During Shagari and YarAdua, we had relative peace, so Nigerians should pray for good leadership,” Okeke-Oghene said.
Buhari has long been criticised as an unapologetically biased leader who has refused to outgrow his primordial sentiment despite leading the country as a military dictator nearly four decades ago.
Many citizens believe that his nepotistic disposition has aggravated secessionist agitations around the country with Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) threatening a breakaway and Yoruba Nation agitators clamouring for separation.
In the North-Central state of Benue, a state predominated by ethnic Tivs and Idomas, Governor Samuel Ortom has several times accused the President of pitching his tent with his ethnic Fulani herdsmen to kill and maim farmers in his domain over their stance against invasion by the nomadic pastoralists.
Okeke-Ogene said that Nigeria as a nation still yearns for good leadership, and that the moment it gets quality leadership, peace and development will naturally exist.