South-East politicians intensify moves for Igbo presidency

THERE are political moves by the South-East zone to ensure that somebody from the area becomes the country’s president in 2015.

Political bigwigs from the zone, including First Republic Aviation Minister, Chief Mbazulike Amaechi, and former Governor of Anambra State, Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife, among others, met behind closed-doors at the weekend to evolve strategies that would enable it actualise this objective.
The Juristlaws gathered that the major agenda of the meeting was the issue of Igbo presidency and how to get Ndigbo united on the project.

To this end, the zone is finalising arrangements to start an Igbo Corporate campaign that would take it to all the zones and groups in the country to let them know why the Igbo should be allowed to produce the next president and solicit their support towards actualising this course.
Ezeife told The Guardian that equity, justice and fairness demand that the South-East zone produce the president by 2015 or whenever Jonathan completes his tenure.
He observed that the only way to destabilise the country is to deny the Igbo their turn of producing the next president of the country.

He said: “Injustice creates problems, and if you tell a people that they do not count and annoy them beyond boundary, they would react. If you deny the South-East their turn, the reaction would be enormous and even the elite may not control it”.
According to him, by 2015, five out of the six geo-political zones must have produced the president and only the South-East has not.

He went on: “This is an argument that is very straight. Any way you look at it, it is the turn of the South-East to produce the next president. Let the South-East take its turn after which we can now say no more rotation or zoning. Let it now be on merit.
“In the South-East, we inherited egalitarianism from our grandparents and that social system has mobility in it.”

He contended that no other part of Nigeria has demonstrated vested interest in Nigeria than the South-East, dismissing insinuations that the Igbo, if allowed to occupy the number one position, would break up the country.

He added: “Since after the civil war, the Igbo are the only people who voted for one Nigeria and embraced it in its totality. That is why they have their investment all over the country. Do you think that after all these huge investments the Igbo have made, they will think of dividing the country? It is a propaganda that other zones are using against the Igbo. The Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) is not different from the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC), the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) and other forces fighting against injustice.”