Its year 2020 but the jostle for 2023 is already up with some prominent Nigerians already demanding that the next President after Muhammadu Buhari should come from southeast Nigeria.
The first and only Nigerian president from the eastern region was late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, who was in the saddle between 1963 and 1966. He was mainly of ceremonial status. After that brief stint, which was followed by successive military dictatorships, the region had yet to taste the number one seat afterwards.
Also, since Nigeria returned to civil rule in 1999, no indigene of the South East, which is one of the strongest regional power blocs in the country, had ruled Nigeria.
There have also been debates about whether the region was indeed interested in the Presidential seat owing to frequent agitations from some citizens of the region for secession.
Recently, a Northern Elder Statesman, Tanko Yakasai declared unequivocally that it should be the turn of the Igbo to produce the next President of Nigeria in 2023.
Yakasai based his declaration on the logic that other regions and zones in the country, except the Igbo of the South-east, had produced the country’s president.
“Nigeria had three major blocks. Two of these three names, the North and the West have had the opportunity of producing the President.
“Therefore, Igbos have a good argument because out of the three siblings, two have already succeeded at producing the President but the Igbos have not.
“They (the Igbo) deserve the sympathy of all Nigerians for them to get it in 2023 or later. My opinion is that this is not a matter that one will lie down and think that it will come to him. The effort is needed. How do you go about it? This can only be done by persuasion to convince other Nigerians about the need for an Igbo to emerge the President of Nigeria.
“I for one – I am in support of it. I did it before in the era of NPN (National Party of Nigeria) when we had an arrangement that the next president after late President Shehu Shagari would come from the East. We would have settled this problem long ago if not for the military intervention.
“So, I spoke in support of Igbo presidency. I did not want to fix a date because I am not in the position to do that. I said that the Igbo should go out and lobby other Nigerians and try to get their concern and support to produce the president in 2023 and where they are not able to do that in 2023 they will put a trajectory for them to produce the President next time.” Yakasai said in an interview with Arise Television.
Also at a summit tagged: “National Unity: Federal Character, Restructuring and Rotation of Presidential Power in Nigeria” organized by Igbo Leadership Development Foundation in Abuja, Former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Obadiah Mailafia, who represented Former Head of State, Yakubu Gowon said the Igbo race had suffered a lot of injustices in the country.
“Nigeria is big enough for all of us and I believe that the Ndigbo, Middle Belt and the Yoruba are the true Nigerians because if you look round our borders, people came from abroad and are still coming, but the Ndigbo and the Middle Belt have always been there, even the Yoruba have always been there.”
“People who came in yesterday and have a duty of respect are now the ones talking.
“Going forward, we must create a federal democracy that would respond positively to all the aspirations of our people, not about East-West but all about working together inequality, bringing in the youths and the women together to build a new Nigeria.”
Also speaking at the event, the founder of Gregory University, Uturu, Prof. Gregory Ibe submitted that Nigeria’s unitary and federal system was only in the name just as he contended that the current model was “a clear departure from the federal system bequeathed to the country by its founding fathers and colonial Britain.”
He said: “Most of the powers that will engender real growth and development is tied to the exclusive list. Solid minerals, electricity, railway, ports, security, etc. are all tied to the federal exclusive list to be executed only by the Federal Government, which has not been able to live up to the expectation of Nigerians.
“In the summary, restructuring, consequentially, is returning to the states the powers taken away by the military from the regions.” He said.
TINUBU AND THE SOUTHWEST FACTOR
While Nigeria’s constitution does not have the provision that backed up power rotation between the six Geo-Political zones, most political parties, especially the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) had at some point or the other consider zoning arrangement in their choice of candidates. However, the two parties never muted the idea of the particular zones in the region of preference.
While President Muhammadu Buhari (from Kastina, North West) will be completing his second term of eight years in office, pundits have said the APC will look in the direction of the South to picks its Presidential candidate which then throw open a contest between members of the party in the South-South, South-East and the South-West zones.
Pundits have said President Buhari’s disposition seems tilted towards the direction of the National Leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as his successor by 2023.
Tinubu played a key role in Buhari’s emergence as President with many believing that the South East does not have a powerful representation in the APC, hence the Former Lagos State Governor may beat any Igbo opponent to the party’s ticket.
BETWEEN BIAFRA REPUBLIC AND NIGERIA’S PRESIDENCY
Another integral part of the southeast clamour for the presidency which cannot be ignored is the conversation surrounding Biafra.
The clamour for a Biafran state and cessation, which was re-ignited again in 2009 by the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and joined by the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) led by Nnamdi Kanu, has significantly divided the strength of the South East’s calls for Igbo presidency.
With Yakasai, Mailafia and other prominent Nigerians reaching a consensus that it is the turn of the South-East to produce the next President, others believe that the call for secession by MASSOB and IPOB could hamper the chances of the Igbo Presidency in 2023.
