Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri and Obinna Odogwu, Awka
Elder Statesman, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu has urged president Muhammadu Buhari to restructure the country before leaving office in 2023.
He said there was great need to restructure Nigeria for proper and peaceful co-existence of its various peoples.
He also advised that the post of president be rotated among the three zones of the country.
Iwuanyanwu also contended that Igbo are not properly accommodated in the scheme of things in Nigeria even with their enormous contribution to nation building.
“Igbos have made enormous contributions to deserve the number one seat in Nigeria. Of all the countries colonized by Britain, it is only in Nigeria that the man who pioneered the independence of the country did not become the President.
“This is because of the Igbo man’s nature of ensuring peaceful coexistence, other zones have had their turns and i believe they will support Igbo this time. It will be unfair to deny Igbo the presidency.”
Iwuanyanwu condemned what is happening in Southern Kaduna, where innocent civilians were killed every day.
He, therefore, called for the immediate end to the crisis, pointing out that it was unacceptable to ask the people to live in peace while a section was carrying sophisticated arms and hurting others not armed.
“I wonder why no one has been prosecuted since the Boko Haram disturbances in the country, who are there sponsors, Nigerians wants to know,” Iwuanyanwu queried.
Meanwhile, a political group, Nigeria Presidential Project 2023, said that it has been reaching out to prominent leaders in the country to solicit support for the 2023 presidential aspiration of the South East.
The group said it had consulted four former heads of state, current security chiefs and other notable Nigerians to woo them to support the project.
National Director of Media and Publicity of the group, Mr. Tony Nwachukwu, stated this at the weekend during the inauguration of Anambra State Chapter of NPP in Awka, the state capital.
“We have consulted four former Heads of State Gen. Yakubu Gowon, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, current security chiefs, ministers, religious and traditional leaders to seek for their unalloyed support for the Igbo presidency project,” he said.
Nwachukwu said over 46 Nigerian professors across the six geopolitical zones had volunteered to work to ensure the South East region produced the next president of the country in 2023.
Chancellor of the group, Dr. Walter Obiora Oji, appealed to all political parties to pick their 2023 presidential candidates from the South East.
He said the emergence of Nigeria’s president of South East extraction would help to promote unity, ensure equity and fairness in the country and help in the promotion of socioeconomic development of Nigeria.
“We have assured Nigerians that the South East will provide formidable candidates for the 2023 election and will continue to work for the peace and unity of the country. We are also calling on those men and women of South-East extraction interested in contesting for the office of the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2023 to commence consultations aimed at actualising their ambition,” Oji said.
Chairman of the group in the state, Mr Ifeanyi Ozigbo, assured that the executive under his watch would do everything possible to ensure that their target was actualised.