From Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri
Former Military Administrator of Delta State, Air Commodore Luke Ochulor (retd), has said that the Igbos will not accept being a vice presidential candidate to a candidate outside of the South-East in the 2023 presidential election.
Ochulor, while interacting with our correspondent in Owerri, said that 2023 is the right time to prove to Nigerians that the Igbos have the capacity to lead the country aright more than any other zones in the country.
According to him, ‘the time of playing a second fiddle to anybody is over, they should just go for the slot instead of the political calculation of being a vice and becoming a president afterwards,’ Ochulor said.
He continued: ‘It would be wishful thinking saying let’s be vice to this person, do you know what will happen in the next two years, I think it’s better for an Igbo man to stand his ground to go straight for the presidency, does it means that they have the intellectual capacity to manage the country more than the Igbos.’
However, he further advised that to achieve this, the Igbos should be more united ever than before irrespective of their party affiliation and muster the courage to present a worthy candidate.
‘Igbos should be able to stand together no matter the party they belong, they should shun politicians who defect at will to parties for selfish reasons, these kinds of leaders cannot make it if we can muster courage and eschew party differences and support one worthy person, even if they fail at that attempt, they would be respected.
‘We do not need somebody who has a checkered history, somebody crosses over to party A from party B after 8 years realising that he has made a mistake of joining that party, if we present such a person, we would have problems, they might not even vote for such a person,’ Ochulor advised.