Paul Osuyi, Asaba
The president of Al Ikhwaan Fillahi Muslim Society of Nigeria based in the South-South and South-East geo-political zones, Barr. Muhammed Ndoka Elunor, says that Igbo politicians are not yet ready to assume the Presidency in 2023.
Elunor who expressed his personal opinion in Asaba, the Delta State capital, on the sidelines of the group’s General Assembly, said it will be difficult for Igbos to actualise their presidential dream in 2023.
He added that Igbo politicians are not yearning to be President, saying that the agitation from the South-West and the North in regard to the 2023 presidential race have subtly swallowed any cry from both the South-South and South-East.
Elunor stated that Igbos are presently preoccupied with protesting against discrimination and injustice which, he admitted, the community have suffered in the past.
“As an Igbo man, [in] my personal view, we have suffered discrimination, we have suffered injustice, and that is the worst thing to happen to any living being,” Elunor said.
“So politically, and in relation to the 2023 presidential election, it will be more difficult for an Igbo man to become president of this country than for a camel to pass through [the eye] of a needle.
“I am not even sure that the Igbo is yearning because there have been these agitations from the West and from the North, people coming out to say they have an interest and playing their political gimmicks.
“I have not seen any from the South-East or South-South. I am not sure we are yearning for it. As an Igbo man, I will want it because what is good for the goose is good for the gander. But for now, I think that the Igbo are still protesting against injustice.
“And as a Muslim, everything is in the hands of our creator. As a human being, by the time I look at it I know that the Igbo are not positioned towards getting that Presidency in 2023.
“Ordinarily before now, the agitation was Igbo Presidency in 2015, assuming without conceding that other people decide the Igbo for the project, I don’t think that they are ready for it, I think that they are still protesting against injustice.”