For stability, Buhari, APC should zone president to South East – Ex-WIC leader

Former president of World Igbo Congress and Texas-based professor of
Electrical Engineering, Kalu Diogu, has called on President Muhammadu
Buhari and leadership of All Progressives Congress (APC) to consider
zoning the 2023 presidential ticket to the South East for sake of
stability.

He also hailed the Senate Chief Whip, Dr Orji Uzor Kalu, for his visit
to Minna, home of former heads of state, General Ibrahim Babangida and
General Abdulsalami Abubakar.

He said the former Abia governor remains faithful to the nation’s
unity and should be lauded for being a true nationalist.

Professor Diogu said the Igbo in Diaspora were worried that a section
of the country wanted to cause disaffection and disunity by promoting
propaganda against the South East.

Diogu, who spoke in an interview with BBC Igbo on Saturday, said:
“Since Nnamdi Azikiwe’s close attempts to be Nigeria president, it’s
only Orji Uzor Kalu who had been allowed to venture near that position
in the 2007 presidential election. But he didn’t win. He came fourth.
The most we have had is compensation for assisting non-Igbo to get
into that position and what they gave us was a vice-president. It is
not right for this to continue to happen.

“In 2023, South East would be making a statement that could shock
Nigerians if their interest is ignored. The South West and South South
have all been in that August position.  It is only fair to give South
East the necessary support needed to clinch the tickets of the PDP and
APC. The North can no longer hide on the fear of an Igbo man dividing
the country. We have Southeasterners who believe in the unity of the
country even more than the northerners.

“I am calling on President Muhammadu Buhari, leadership of the two
major political parties to reciprocate the actions and attempts the
Igbo have made in the past; let them show us that our loyalty to them
in the past was appreciated by supporting a South easterner to become
the president of Nigeria.”

Meanwhile, an Anambra-based legal practitioner, Prince Darlington
Okeke, has advised the zone to employ dialogue to woo other
geopolitical zones rather than the use of threat, in its quest for an
Igbo president.

Okeke gave the advice, yesterday, in Nkpor, Idemili North Local
Government Area, Anambra State.

The apex Igbo sociocultural organisation and many other groups have
backed the clamor for a president of Igbo extraction in 2023. However,
some persons have threatened to join Nnamdi Kanu, IPOB leader, to
fight for Biafra should Igbo fail to produce the president.

But Okeke, who re-echoed the call for the other Nigerian geo-political
zones to allow the Igbo have a shot at the presidency said the
aspiration would not be achieved through threat.

However, a political advocacy group, Nigeria Presidential Project
(NPP) said those against the actualization of Igbo presidency are
enemies of Nigeria’s unity.