Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri
More reactions has continued to trail a recent comment by former governor of Benue State, Gabriel Suswan, that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), will not zone its presidential candidate to the South East.
Leader of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign States of Biafra (MASSOB), Uchenna Madu, in his response, said the former governor’s utterance has justified that neither PDP nor All Progressives Congress (APC), would be trusted to align with to achieve Igbo presidency in 2023.
Madu said: “PDP and APC, as major political parties in Nigeria, will always imbibe and stick to the political grand plot against Ndigbo in Nigeria.
“After the Biafra war, the British, in an evil plot with the people of Hausa Fulani and Yoruba, secretly resolved that Igbo man will never preside over the affairs of Nigeria again.
“In the light of the hypocritical plot against the people of Biafra, MASSOB described Suswan’s statement as the mind of PDP.”
He said though there are many qualified candidates from Igbo land that their administration will set Nigeria to a higher glory, still he doubted “it will be very difficult for PDP and APC to field an Igbo man as their presidential candidate unless there is a heavy pressure and spiritual manipulations.” Madu said.
However, he said MASSOB does not care if the parties field an Igbo man or not in their next presidential election, but insisted it is only the actualisation of a Biafra nation that will end the marginalisation of the zone.
“Though many Igbo and other Nigerians are clamouring for Nigeria president of Igbo extraction, MASSOB only support Biafra. Our existence, activities and struggle is for the actualisation and restoration of Biafra sovereignty, not Igbo man emerging as president of Nigeria.
“MASSOB is not against those clamouring for political justice and equity in regards for a Nigeria president of Igbo extraction, but such emergence of an Igbo man being the Nigeria president will never stop our self-determination for Biafra actualisation.” he said.
Meanwhile, a chieftain of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Rommy Ezeonwuka, has made a case for a president of the South East extraction in 2023.
Ezeonwuka, who made the call yesterday, in a telephone chat with Daily Sun, said such situation would heal the wounds of the civil war as well as end agitation for self-determination in the region.
He said: “In 2023, power is supposed to return to the South. The South West has had its turn; South South had its share, remaining the South East. This is why prominent Igbo people and well-meaning Nigerians are lending their voices to the call for president of Igbo extraction in 2023.
“Since after the civil war, and, of course, since 1999, when Nigeria returned to democratic rule, presidency is still eluding the South East; a region for the Igbo, which is a major ethnic group in Nigeria.
“If Nigerians would consider Igbo man for president in 2023, it would heal civil war wounds. I also believe it will minimise continued agitations by the Indigenous People of Biafra and MASSOB.
“Igbo presidency is never more apt and timely now than ever before. As soon as there is Igbo president in Nigeris, this whole agitations from the South East will end,” Ezeonwuka said.