South East case is sufficiently self-evident and persuasive to jolt the conscience of the Nation to do justice to our people.
By Emma Ogbuehi
South East politicians have been warned never to compromise, under any circumstance, the determination of the zone to get the presidency of Nigeria in 2023.
This warning was handed down at a South East leadership press conference organized by leaders of thought from the zone at the Kobb Event Centre, GRA Enugu, on Thursday, March 31.
The conferees that included Chief Onyema Ugochukwu, former chairman of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Prof ABC Nwosu, former Minister of Health, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo, former governor of Enugu State, Chief Achike Udenwa, former governor of Imo State, and Senator Ben Obi, said the people of the region shall view with sternness, any South Easterner who works against the resolve.
Reiterating that the demand of the region for the presidency was sacrosanct, the elder statesmen admonished citizens of the zone, across all parties, to work in unity to achieve the objective of South East Presidency in 2023.
The South East Leadership Press Conference tagged “Ahamefuna 11,” also strongly demanded “for the various political parties to zone the presidential ticket of their parties to the south eastern zone of Nigeria.”
They said their demand that all political parties should zone their presidential ticket to the region was “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.”
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Insisting that the South East has suffered monumental marginalization since after the civil war, and noting that the marginalization has reached new levels in the last seven years, they asked rhetorically, “What can Ndi Igbo do?”
The South East 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.
“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 region has many persons with the capacity, patriotism and passion to govern Nigeria.
Beyond that, they asserted that a president from the zone will usher in unity, peace and progress in Nigeria.
Some of the conclusions reached at the end of the conference include:
“A president from the South East will guarantee the cessation of agitation by youths for breakup 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 South East, across all parties must work in unity to achieve the objective of South East Presidency in 2023
“That political leaders of the South East should not, under any circumstances, compromise the determination of the zone 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.”