It’s Our For Presidency in 2023-Nwodo
Following the call for Igbo presidency in 2023, the former national chairman of People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo, has declared that Ndigbo would join Nnamdi Kanu to seek Biafra secession from Nigeria, if South East did not produce the president of the country in 2023.
This came as an Akwa Ibom elder and pioneer National Publicity Secretary of the People’s Democratic Party PDP, Senator Anietie Okon also said that Nigeria will break up if the North refuses to concede the Presidency to the South in 2023 Nwodo, who was also the former governor of Enugu State and former national secretary of PDP, said Ndigbo have suffered grievous marginalization in Nigeria and should be given a chance to produce a president for the sake of equity and national unity.
He said this during an interview on Tuesday, adding that South East geo-political zone has been persecuted for over 50 years even though the region is more patriotic than any other geopolitical zone in terms of the economic development of the nation.
He said: “Yakassi’s call is very fair and that is the correct thing. In the first republic, the country was led by Tafawa Balewa and in the second republic, it was led by Shehu Shagari.
And then, those of us in PDP made a very strong case to move the Presidency to South East because even the military people were all from the north, apart from Aguiyi Ironsi who presided for a very short time. “We managed to convince them at the party and Olusegun Obasanjo and Alex Ekwueme contested.
That was when Obasanjo won and after his tenure, he handed power to another northerner, late Musa Yar’Adua who unfortunately died in office and the Vice president completed the tenure.
President Muhammadu Buhari will complete his eight years in office by 2023. Following equity, the presidency should come to the South East because Obasanjo was president for eight years, now Yemi Osinbajo is also the vice president and would finish his eight-year tenure by 2023.
“So, in Southern Nigeria, it would be a total disaster if we do not produce the next president because we have been terribly marginalized since the end of the civil war. For 50 years now, we have been persecuted for having fought for freedom. When will this marginalization stop?
Anybody who loves Nigeria and who wishes Nigeria well should go for Igbo Presidency in 2023 for unity, fairness, equity, and for Nigeria to move forward. “It is only an Igbo man that will not marginalize any part of Nigeria because we constitute the semen that holds the country together.
We are the only tribe that you find in every nook and cranny of Nigeria, doing business and developing wherever we are as if it was our own place. “I don’t believe that the Igbos are not united. There has never been a time when any region produced a consensus candidate. Everybody emerged through primary elections.
The last election was zoned to the north and Atiku Abubakar contested with other aspirants before he emerged PDP’s candidate, so did Buhari contest with other candidates before emerging the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC. There is no zone that has produced a candidate by consensus. It doesn’t matter how many people are interested. They will be subjected to party primaries and the person with highest vote will win.
“I agree with Nnamdi Kanu in everything he says about the marginalization of the Igbos. He, more than any other person, has put it on the international map. If Nigeria tells the elites from South East that they would be treated as second class citizens in Nigeria and that they can never be president, almost all of them will go with Kanu to fight for Biafra.
“Anybody who wants to be a second-class citizen can support whoever he wants. Any Igbo man who wants to bequeath secured future for himself and generation yet unborn should support this call for Igbo presidency. In the spirit of fairness and equity, Nigeria should give the presidency to the South East in 2023, otherwise, we will join him and fight for Biafra.”
Ayooluwa Joshua