- A group of South East leaders, Igbo Leadership Development Foundation, on Thursday renewed the geo-political zone’s demand for the Presidency of Nigeria in 2023.
A group of South East leaders, Igbo Leadership Development Foundation, on Thursday renewed the geo-political zone’s demand for the Presidency of Nigeria in 2023.
It also allayed fears of secession if given the Presidency, saying the region is more concerned about the unity of the country.
Dr Law Mefor made the position of the group known at a press conference in Abuja.
Mefor claimed that the country had not been fair to the people of the South East because of their alleged continued alienation in governance.
He said when the nation returned to democratic governance in 1999, an agreement was reached on rotation of power between North and South and between their zones.
This, he added, has led to the production of two Presidents from the North West and one each from South West and South South, leaving out South East and the North East in the equation.
He said, “We believe that in the same spirit of rotation, presidential power needs to return to South in 2023, and particularly to the South East since it is the only zone yet to produce a President for the country in the present dispensation from the Southern divide.
“Our group recalls that President Muhammadu Buhari, in his maiden media chat, challenged the South East people to organise and assert their rights within an indivisible, indissoluble Nigeria.
“We also note that the five states in the South East will not make anyone from there Nigerian President. In fact, the constitution requires a spread of at least 25 per cent in at least 24 states to produce a President.
“This reality is part of what has informed the decision of ILDF in conjunction with Igbo Renaissance Foundation, World Igbo Summit Group and others to convene the debate on restructuring and rotation of presidential powers in Nigeria on January 30, 2020 here in Abuja.”
He added that the group plans to move round the country to engage other zones and convince them on the inherent benefits of Nigerian President of Igbo extraction.
