Director-General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), Mr. Osita Okechukwu, on Monday said that residents of Enugu and other Southeast states refused to take an active part in the ‘Revolution Now’ protest held across the country as it would jeopardise their interest.

Okechukwu, who spoke to journalists in Enugu after a meeting with WAWA Farmers Association, said that Ndigbo are aware that “2023 is the date we are waiting for to produce Nigeria’s president of Igbo extraction.

“That’s why Enugu people didn’t participate in the protest. All I hear from the people I discussed with in the meeting with WAWA Farmers Association was their anger over incessant killings like that of Rev. Fr. Paul Offu. Instead of protest, they are urging Mr President to overhaul the security architecture and upgrade the security infrastructure. They cried that insecurity is hampering their farming activities.”

Asked why he thinks Ndigbo considered 2023 more important than the dire insecurity in the land, Okechukwu said: “They know that in a democracy, street protest will neither alter the crisis on the ground nor provide solution in the short run; for gains made in democracy throughout the world history were evolutionary and incremental – not Revolution Now.

“Nigerian president of Igbo extraction is our goal, which street protest will not enhance. We are in constitutional democracy, no matter the challenges, it is better to adhere to the cycle of elections provided in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended.”

On the arrest of Omoyele Sowore, the coordinator of the movement, by the Department of State Services (DSS), Mr Okechukwu appealed for his release on compassionate ground.

According to him, “with time Sowore will come to terms that the huge gains democracy made in United States of America and in particular New York, where he resides, were made incrementally over the years via periodic and cyclic elections – not via revolution.

“In this evolutionary connection, one reasons that it is more pragmatic for us to continue to support President Muhammadu Buhari, appeal to him to speed up the development of critical social and physical infrastructure for peace and prosperity of our dear citizenry.”