BY AGNES NWORIE, ABAKALIKI
The All Progressives Congress in Ebonyi State has called on all political parties in the country to zone the 2023 Presidency to the Southeast. It claimed that time for a president of Igbo extraction to lead Nigeria was long overdue. The state chapter of the party, therefore, boldly suggested that the state governor, David Umahi, be allowed to fly the flag of the party come 2023.
But two days after the state chapter made the call, the National body of the party revealed that it would settle for a consensus candidate in 2023.
National Secretary, APC Caretaker and Extra-ordinary Convention Planning Committee, Sen. John Akpanudoehede, said this in a statement issued in Abuja.
The statement was in reaction to the Peoples Democratic Party’s recent allegation that President Muhammadu Buhari had a self-succession plan.
He said unlike the opposition PDP, the APC was a disciplined party, noting that the former was just been haunted by its past.
“After our congresses and the National Convention, we will shock them (PDP) by bringing a consensus and an agreeable candidate that will fly the flag of the party come 2023,” he said.
The Ebony State Publicity Secretary of the APC, Ogbuatu Simbad, had while speaking with The Point, insisted that time had come for Igbo people to be considered for the presidency because of all the sacrifices and contributions they had made towards nation-building in Nigeria.
Ogbuatu therefore called on all political parties in the nation to zone the 2023 presidency to the Southeast the same way all political parties zoned the presidency to the Southwest in 1999.
He said, “2023 should be the year of true healing of the wounds the Igbo nation has suffered in Nigeria. APC, Governor David Umahi is the answer.
“Teachers, students, researchers and indeed all followers of Nigerian Government and Politics will agree with me that the Igbo nation had made and is still making enormous contributions and sacrifices towards nation-building in Nigeria.
“During the era of British colonialism and imperialism, the Igbo nation was at the forefront of the nationalist struggle to wrest power from the British colonial overlords. This is where Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe’s NCNC comes to mind. The NCNC as a political party at the time became a veritable weapon for the fight against colonialism and the struggle for independence and the enthronement of self-determination and self-government which was realised on 1st October, 1960.”
“2023 should be the year of true healing of the wounds the Igbo nation has suffered in Nigeria. APC, Governor David Umahi is the answer”
The publicity secretary added, “At independence, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe accepted to form a coalition government with the NPC at the centre in what was popularly called NPC/NCNC coalition government. The late sage equally accepted to serve as a ceremonial head of state and in his words: “To join the NPC in building a strong, peaceful, united, prosperous and a virile nation.
“After the civil war, all attempts for an Igbo man to smell the perfume of the presidency has been collectively frustrated. In the Second Republic, all the Igbo could get was a Vice President in the person of Alex Ekwueme under the NPN presidency of Shehu Shagari. The third republic was stillborn, following the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election believed to have been won by Moshood Abiola of the SDP. The fourth republic saw the Igbo man at the vanguard of nation-building as Ekwueme and others formed the PDP in 1998, preparatory to the 1999 general elections.”
He said the Igbos were still denied the presidency as the powers that be preferred Obasanjo to Ekwueme. “Again, all the political parties at the time; PDP, AD and APP zoned the Presidency to the West and the presidential election became a contest between two Yoruba men – Obasanjo of the PDP and Olu Falae of AD/APP alliance. The argument then was that the arrangement was to compensate the Yoruba people for the annulment of the June 12 presidential election and the death of Abiola,” he noted.
“Time has come for Igbo people to be compensated with the presidency for all the sacrifices and contributions they have made towards nation-building in Nigeria. This is why we call on all political parties to zone the 2023 presidency to the Southeast the same way all political parties zoned the presidency to the West in 1999,” he said.
