From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
In the run-up to the 2023 general elections, one of the major issues, which has been generating varied reactions in the polity is whether or not the presidency should shift to the South as President Muhammadu Buhari, who is from the North would be completing his two tenures of eight years. However, the South-East Renaissance Assembly (SERA), a political pressure group in the South East, believes that not only should power shift to South in 2023, but that the next president should be from the South East.
The National Coordinator of the group, Chief Gbazueagu Nweke Gbazueagu, in an interview with select journalists in Abuja said that it is hypocritical for anyone to oppose zoning of the 2023 presidency to the South. He spoke on various issues.
There are agitations for power shift to the South East in 2023. And we are witnessing many aspirants of Igbo extraction contesting across party lines. Are you looking at the area of consensus?
We at SERA believe this is our finest hour and our finest moment to have a South easterner as the president of this country. And we believe that we deserve the aspiration for many reasons. We are not against the aspiration of individuals. These are legitimate aspirations of individuals across board, across political parties, across geopolitical zones. These are legitimate aspirations. This is democracy. But beyond that, we from the South east, every Nigerian knows that we deserve consideration this time around. We have three major ethnic groups in Nigeria. We respect all ethnic groups. But it is obvious; We don’t shy away from it; we are the only ethnic group who have not produced the president of the this nation since 1999. We have not and the current president is from the North. He will be completing his 8years by the grace of God, so automatically the next president of this country should come from the South and from the South we have had our brothers from the South west and South south produce the president and we have supported those elections.
We supported Obasanjo. We supported Jonathan. So, we have supported the two geographical zones. We have supported the west. We supported the South west as one of the major ethnic groups from the South. We supported the South-south as another ethnic group from the South. I think equity and fairness demands that the South east should be supported and if you watch carefully, you will realize that there is no aspirant from these geopolitical zones that is saying “we deserve it”, “it is our turn” , “we have not served” , “it is the turn of the North east” , “South south , South west” , what individuals are saying which is universal, is “I am competent”, “ I can serve” , “I know the problem of Nigeria”. But when you talk about equity , justice and fairness, we stand on that to say it is our turn. And we have competent sons and daughters who are qualified in all the parties to run this country and run it very well.
There are several Igbo presidential aspirants. Is there a plan to settle for any aspirant as the consensus candidate, to brighten the chances of the Igbo in the 2023 polls? Secondly, one would expect a group like yours would be bipartisan.
That aspect is ongoing. As an APC member, I won’t speak for PDP. But I know that the PDP personalities or contenders and membership are as vocal as we are. First of all, I said South east, we did not start by saying APC South east. But I can influence voting; as a delegate I can vote in the APC presidential primaries. But I cannot vote in PDP. But the PDP is as vocal as committed and all the parties are as vocal as committed to the cause. It is not limited to us. There is no justifiable and sensible South easterner of note, who is not being individualistic, who will say it is not our turn to produce the president. I can tell you that 95% of every eligible South easterner believe and accept that it is our turn to produce the president of this country.
When people say we are looking at the best; please give us what you have and we will give you what we have and empirically, you will see that we have everything that is required to run this country. So, the issue of narrowing down on a candidate, we are working on that. We just finished purchasing of forms. We can’t work on something that is not available. The APC just concluded their purchase of forms, so if you work on this earlier, you may not even know those who will purchase forms. So, now that we have successfully completed the purchase of forms, we will now know the sons and daughters of the South east APC, who have purchased forms.
One augment that people have made over the years, is that we should de-emphasize the issue of zoning or where the president comes from, and emphasize more competence. Would you say that for the APC family, maybe to the PDP too, South easterners that have indicated interest to lead Nigeria are the best 11 that the South east can produce?
Let me take you from the point of view of de-emphasizing zoning; it amuses me when for altruistic reasons /personal reasons people say let’s de emphasize zoning now, but in their respective states , they are emphasizing zoning. In their respective local governments, they are emphasizing zoning. When it comes to the turn of Igbo in the nation, then we de-emphasize it. Charity begins at home. Go and de-emphasize zoning in your local government and your state. There is no outgoing governor, who wants the next governor to come from his own zone. There is none. I am a politician of 30 years. There is no outgoing governor who wants the next governor to come from his own zone. There is no chairman of any local government of the council , when he has served 2-3 tenure who wants the chairman of the council to come from his own community.
It is a national process. Now is the turn of the South east, people are saying we should not talk about zoning. If we don’t talk about zoning, then don’t talk about zoning down the ladder; de- emphasize zoning at all levels. The people who are running election, trying to stop the South east from running because of zoning are doing zoning in their respective states; that is hypocrisy. And we are talking about South east , we are not giving you people who do not have track record of performance, give me their names, those who have brought tickets in the two political parties, I tell you 2-3-4 individuals who have track record of performance, credible records. I do not say there are people who do not have issues, but I can give you clean gentlemen that we will present to Nigerians, alongside contestants from other zone and they will tower above them. You know and I know.
I am just talking the issue of zoning. And I see hypocrisy. They are doing zoning in the state, all of them are doing zoning in their respective states. They are doing zoning in their local governments. They are doing zoning even in our wards. In every ward, there are councilors, they will rotate the councilors. In every local government, there are chairmen, they will take the chairmen, in every state there are 3 senatorial zones, they rotate the governor. In every election, House of Reps, Senate, state Houses of assembly, they rotate among the constituencies.
What is the level of your consultation with North and other parts of the South to actualise your goal?
We are reaching out, both ourselves and individuals. We are reaching out. For APC and for PDP and for Nigeria, the presidential candidate of the parties will come from the South. No two ways about it. There is no state you will go, when a candidate is finishing his 8 years, the party will say oh, he is not a member of our party, therefore we are producing a candidate from that place; it doesn’t happen, go and check including your various states, that somebody has served 8years and he is going and other parties will go there and begin to run around for candidates because our party did not produce a candidate.
Nigeria is made of micro states, there is no Nigeria without states, it doesn’t happen. We are talking to them; as far as I’m concerned, for APC is already taken, don’t bother about the gerrymandering of some individuals. They are entitled to it. Remember in our convention, it was not officially, but it was conventionally zoned to the North central; it was North and micro zoned to North Central, we have people from North East, we have people from North West, running for the same chairman, is it not true? At the end of the day, the candidate still emerged from North central through consensus. This is democracy.
What is your advice to the top echelon of the APC ahead of the presidential primary?
My advice to Mr President who is the leader of the party, and the leadership of the party is to remain focused; the President has an unfinished project. Remember there was a time he was sick and God gave him a second chance. He said he has never been sick before, part of the second chance God gave him is to make sure that the South East of Nigeria produces the president of this country in 2023. I was equally given a second chance , I died 3 times in 2013, God gave me a second chance for a time like this; to speak for the South East. He was given a second chance for Nigeria. I think that second chance for him is to make sure equity, justice and fair play is done, and that is making sure president of this country in 2023 come from the South East.
Why the emphasis on South east presidency. Why not Igbo presidency?
Well, it is very interesting that when it comes to presidency, then the geographical zone does not matter anymore. When you talk about Yoruba presidency, can somebody from Kwara run as a Yoruba man? When it is South west, can somebody from Kwara run, can somebody from Edo area run because he is a Yoruba man, or we don’t have Yoruba in kwara? Can somebody from Kogi run because he is a Yoruba man from Kogi, when it is South west. In 1999, who from the Kogi/ Kwara was in the race? Even (Olusola)Saraki was in the race, wasn’t he asked to allow the South west to run?
I was part of APP. Saraki was running in APP. So why is it that when it is now the turn for the South east that we now remember that we have Igbo in Akwa-Ibom, in Benue? But when it is time for South south, they will now become South southerners and they will hide their Igbo identity and become South southerners. Did Emefiele become governor of Central bank because he was Igbo? He became the governor of Central Bank, because he was from South South.