The Chairman, Council of Elders of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, has called on the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, and other political parties yet to hold their congresses not to truncate the zoning arrangement, urging them to elect a south-easterner as their presidential candidate in the spirit of justice and fairness.
The nationalist and elder statesman said it is politically expedient for all the five zones in the country to support the southeast to produce the next president of the country in the 2023 general elections.
Iwuanyanwu stated this in a release signed by his Special Adviser, Media and Publicity, Ben Osuagwu, and made available to DAILY POST in Owerri, Imo State.
He said the southeast supported the other zones in their bid to produce the president of the country and they all succeeded. He wondered why the wind would turn the clock anti clock wise when it was the southeasterners’ turn.
He further said that the founding fathers of the nation maintained the tenets and principles of the regional system of North, East and West in the distribution of power-sharing and advised that the system, which is based on equity, fairness and accommodation, should be maintained.
Iwuanyanwu called on the various political parties in the country to keep faith with the zoning system in the election of the next President of Nigeria next year.
He said that at the end of the congresses, Nigerians will elect who amongst them is the best candidate. Iwuanyanwu, who had at several meetings and fora maintained that it is the turn of the southeast to produce the President of Nigeria in the 2023 election commended some patriotic Nigerians who have been supporting the clamour for a president of Igbo extraction.
He expressed gratitude to the former President of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo; the leader of South-South Elders Forum, Chief Edwin Clark; the leader of Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo; the fiery Prelate Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, Alhaji Tanko Yakasi, and many others who have insisted that justice and equity should be maintained by allowing the southeast to produce the President of Nigeria come 2023.
Chief Iwuanyanwu described these Nigerians as heroes of a new Nigeria, where justice, truth and equity will prevail as a supreme virtue.
He disagreed with those of the opinion that the southeast should wait for 2027, maintaining that the southeast should have its slot in 2023 while others should have theirs in 2027.
