Igbo leaders rose from a meeting in Enugu Thursday insisting that it is the turn of the South-East to produce the next President of Nigeria.
The leaders under the aegis of Ahamefuna Socio-cultural organisation, on Thursday reiterated that allowing Igbo man to be president of the country in 2023 will put to an end to agitations for a separate republic.
The leaders also said that Nigeria president of Southeast extraction will usher in unity, peace and progress in the country.
The leaders who comprised elder statesman, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu; Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo and Chief Achike Udenwa, former governors Enugu and Imo States; the Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Alfred Achebe; former ministers, senators, clerics, traditional rulers, women leaders and youth leaders, charged Southeast politicians to stand firm in demanding that their political parties zoned 2023 presidential tickets to the region.
The leaders stated this during a Conference in Enugu tagged “the need for Nigerian Presidency from the Southeast Nigeria come 2023”.
They asked all the political parties especially the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party to zone their presidential tickets to the Southeast, in demonstration of the equity and fairness, adding that without that efforts at nation-building would be futile.
In a resolution read by former chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Chief Onyema Ugochukwu, said “A president from the Southeast will usher in unity, peace and progress in Nigeria. A president from the Southeast will guarantee the cessation of agitation by youths for break up of the Nigerian state.
“That our case is sufficiently self evident and persuasive to jolt the conscience of the Nation to do justice to our people.
“That citizens of the Southeast, across all parties must work in unity to achieve the objective of Southeast Presidency in 2023.
“That political leaders of the Southeast should not, under any circumstances, compromise the determination of the South East to get the Presidency of Nigeria in 2023.
“That the people of the South East shall view with sternness, any South Easterner who works against this resolve.”
They noted that Southeast had supported other zones to produce the president of Nigeria and in fairness other zones should reciprocate by supporting region in 2023 to produce the president.
“We urge Southeasterners in all political parties, especially the All Progressive Congress (APC) and the People Democratic Party (PDP), to stand firm in demanding for equity and fairness. Indeed we do need to hear the South-East demand resonating in all political fora across the country. We believe that we shall get justice in the end”, the resolution read.
The leaders maintained that the demand of the 2023 presidency “is predicated on the fact that the zone has not produced a President of Nigeria, except for only Six months. It has also not produced an elected Prime Minister or President since Nigerian Independence in 1960”.
“The South East has suffered monumental marginalization of the zone since after the civil war. This marginalization has reached new levels in the last seven years. What can Ndi igbo do?
“The Southeast leaders noted that Nigeria has a zoning and rotational culture for the Presidency of Nigeria. This agreement on rotational Presidency was reached at the 1995 Constitutional Conference. That rotation favours Southern Nigeria at the end of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure in 2023.”
They added, “When that Presidency rotates to southern Nigeria, the zone that most deserves it is the South East, as other zones have occupied the seat before.
“The meeting noted that the Southeast has many persons with the capacity, patriotism and passion to govern Nigeria”
Those at the meeting were Prod Anya O. Anya Engr. Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, Senator Ben Obi, Chief Achike Udenwa, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo, Prof ABC Nwosu
Onyemuche Nnamani, Obi of Onitsha , Alfred Ashebe, Onyema Ugochukwu, Dubem Onyia
Prof Uche Azikiwe, Mrs Beatrice Ekwueme,
Senator Azu Agboti among others.
