Ohanaeze constitutes action committee to partner other ethnic groups on south east presidency.
By Emma Ogbuehi
In a bold move to actualize the dream of president of South East extraction in 2023, apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has formed a national action committee for the project.
The Committee is headed by President General of the organisation, Prof George Obiozor, with its Secretary General, Amb. Okey Emuchay as secretary. The body is to reach out to key political actors across the country as well as other critical stakeholders and leaders in persuasive manner.
This was part of the communique of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of Ohanaeze issued in Enugu on Wednesday night. Obiozor who presented the communique, disclosed, that a team saddled with the task of persuading other Nigerians on the need for a south east president, would soon be unfolded. Its main agenda, he added, would be to recognise those that are critical in Nigeria including the Igbo.
The team will also dialogue with south easterners aspiring for the Presidency. The team is nonpartisan and none political.
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Obiozor described President of South East origin as an idea whose time has come.
He argued that the Igbo were prepared and deserved the Presidency because it was politically defensible and morally justifiable.
“If the truth must be told, the nation has made two consistent mistakes that have worsened the nation’s other problems; leading the nation to near breaking points.
“Those two devils in Nigerian politics are power sharing and social injustice. In all we drifted into these two problems with nonchalance or with ease, and sometimes oblivious of their consequences until what we think is a simple or easy problem develops into a national disaster or catastrophe. For those who can remember, how did we get into the western region crisis in the 1960s? How did we get to the civil war (1967-1970)? How did we get to NADECO (Abiola crisis) and even South-South Avengers?”
Obiozor argued that today, the situation in the country is even more complicated, adding that the way things are, with communication and modern technology, Nigeria is facing a national crisis which will be more difficult to be controlled or contained, if not properly managed.
Obiozor noted that Nigerian nationalism is receding with ethno- regional nationalism on the rise. He called for restoration of the Nigerian nationalism and national spirit, adding that it will require Pan Nigerians like Igbo to reinvigorate the nation’s path to unity.
“A South East Igbo president of Nigeria in 2023 will be one of the most critical but positive decisions of the nation’s history because, it is the right decision and an idea whose time has come”, he said.
A south president, Obiozor added, will focus on what can be done instead of arguing over what is impossible.”