2023: Igbo has excellent presidential aspirants that will unite Nigeria -Igboekulie
…tasks APC, PDP to micro-zone presidency to S/East
Paul Ogbuokiri
As the 2023 general election draws nearer, and the nation worries over a president after President Muhammadu Buhari who will unite the country and put it on the path of sustainable economic growth, foremost Igbo socio-political group, Igboekulie Association has said it has identified aspirants from the South East geopolitical region have excellent credentials that would give Nigeria what it needs most at this time-unity and economic growth.
The group which disclosed this in a statement in Lagos, threw its weight behind calls on the two major political parties in the country (APC and PDP) to micro-zone the presidency to the South East Zone for equity and justice.
Igboekulie in the statement by the president and secretary of the association, Prince Ben Onuora and Mr. Benjamin Obidegwu respectively, said the expectation is that after eight years of President Muhammadu Buhari, the presidency should naturally return to the South in the spirit of equity and rotation principle.
“Based on this same principle of equity, Igboekulie believes it should not just return to the South, but indeed to the South East Zone, since the South West and the South South Zones had produced the president in 1999 – 2007 and 2010 – 2015 respectively. What is good for the goose is certainly good for the gander!”
The statement titled: ‘Zoning: Justice for Igbos will Foster National Unity’, noted that while it is obvious that APC has agreed to the presidency coming to the South, the PDP appears to be mischievously indecisive.
It lamented that instead of the PDP expressly reinforcing the application of its zoning policy as clearly enshrined in Article 7(3) (c) of the PDP Constitution, “it resorted to playing dangerous games by selling presidential nomination forms to both northern and southern aspirants. Thereafter, it constituted a bogus Gov. Ortom Committee to advise it on zoning! The pertinent question is: which committee advised the PDP on zoning before all its twelve presidential aspirants that contested for the ticket in 2019 emerged from the North? Was this an accident? Does it mean there were no qualified or interested Southerners then?”
It affirmed that equity and national stability demand that the two leading political parties of APC and PDP should work to strengthen the unity of Nigeria, saying the quest for that unity will be best served in both of them presenting Igbo persons as presidential aspirants the way two Yorubas were presented in 1999 by a deft political arrangement.
It stated that all that is required is for the rest of the nation to demand that credible and competent Igbos be presented. “As of today, Igboekulie has identified excellent aspirants of Igbo extraction among the two political parties. Others may yet join the race,” the statement averred.
The association noted that no political zone can alone determine who becomes president. “Not even the entire North or South can do it without the support of the other. This is therefore a clarion call on all Nigerians to consider this proposition in the interest of fairness, unity and national stability. In any event, since the Igbos supported others in the past, it is time for those others to reciprocate the kind gesture now.”
Igboekulie stated that despite recent agitations for separation, borne out of frustration, the Igbos are known to have shown faith in Nigeria by living and investing heavily in all parts of Nigeria.
It also said that Nigeria needs healing, peace and progress, adding that a presidency by a competent Nigerian of Igbo extraction will promote and sustain these.
It said that politicians should foster nation building, saying that is why S.14(4) of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria stipulates that Nigeria should be governed.
The group further said that the field of aspirants in the two dominant political parties of PDP and APC is so crowded that it expects the party leaders