Igbo youths under the Coalition of South-East Leaders have promised to fight any party or group that intends to stop the southeast zone from producing the next President in 2023.
The youth organization from the southeastern geopolitical zone is tasked with the responsibility of safeguarding the political interests of the zone.
According to the president of COSEYL, Goodluck Ibem, who spoke on Sunday in Owerri, Imo State, the Ndigbo have competent persons to take the presidential office.
Ibem said: “Nobody can deny that fact. It is our turn and it is sine qua non. The time for South East to produce a Nigerian President is overdue. We have sacrificed, worked and waited patiently for the plum job and we cannot accept any form of excuse this time.
It is an undeniable fact that Ndigbo have been more committed to the development and economic advancement of the country and deserves to be supported by other geopolitical zones to occupy the number one office in the country.
The orchestrated plot by some persons to jettison zoning of the presidency now that it is the turn of the south east to produce a Nigerian President come 2023 is a declaration of political war against Ndigbo. It is a calculated attempt to relegated to the background all the sacrifices and political investments made by Ndigbo towards the process of the country and we will resist it.”
The All Progressives Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and all other political parties have been advised to channel every presidential ticket to the southeast by the youth group if the unity and progress of the country is to be guaranteed.
Ibem further said: “It is not only an insult to the people of the South East, it is also total chicanery of the zoning principle that has been the hallmark of our national politics since 1999 and more pertinently a deception of Ndigbo, who have invested their all since the return of democratic government.
Article 7 (2) (c) of the PDP constitution states, In pursuance of the principle of equity, justice, and fairness, the party shall adhere to the policy of rotation and zoning of the party and public elective offices, and it shall be enforced by the appropriate executive committee at all levels.
The North has produced the president for uninterrupted two terms and in all fairness power has to move South, specifically to the southeast, in the spirit of equity, fairness, rotation, and zoning which has been the practice since the return to democracy in 1999.
The other five geopolitical zones should support us having benefited from our unalloyed support all this time. Enough said.
In PDP, the rotation and zoning principle was enshrined into the party’s constitution in 2009.”
