Leading Southeastern politicians met Tuesday and resolved to unite across partisan lines to work for the emergence of Nigeria’s president of Igbo extraction in 2023.
They met under the auspices of Southeastern political leaders at Senator Orji Kalu’s country house at Camp Neya in Igbere, Bende de Abia local government area.
In a five-point statement issued at the end of the meeting, they implored “all political parties to yield their presidential ballots in the 2023 general elections to the southeast.”
They believed that such a gesture would be “in the interests of justice, equity and national unity.”
They resolved that the zone, “with a substantial presence in every part of the country,” would give a bloc vote and full support to any of the two main political parties that nominated their presidential candidates from the zone.
The statement, which was read to journalists by the former Secretary of Government of the Federation, Sen. Pius Anyim, said that a president of the area “will work to unite and develop each part of the country.
“Such a president will be the president of all Nigerians, regardless of their political, ethnic and religious backgrounds.”
He also promised that the president would guarantee “that all citizens and all parts of the country have a sense of belonging and are treated with the greatest sense of justice.
“Such was the dream of the founding fathers of this great nation, so they declared that” although the tribe and language differ, we are in brotherhood. “
“For the same reason, they also committed to building a just nation, where no man is oppressed so that Nigeria can be blessed with peace, abundance and prosperity,” the statement added.
The group implored Nigerians across political, ethnic, religious and geopolitical divisions to support the aspiration of the area in 2023 “as a mark of good faith and to promote justice and national harmony.”
He described such support as vital “to give each part of the country a sense of belonging and promote national unity and solidarity.
“It is the greatest guarantee of equality for all parties and that the country truly belongs to all members of the Commonwealth of Nigeria.”
Political leaders reaffirmed their commitment to “deepening national democracy as the surest way to accelerate national development and build an egalitarian society, where no man is oppressed for reasons of class, ethnicity, religion or political affiliation.”
The Nigerian News Agency (NAN) reports that, in addition to Kalu and Anyim, other eminent Igbo politicians at the meeting included former Senate Vice President Senator Ike Ekwerenmadu, Representative Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, Representative Toby Okechukwu, Vice Chief Whip and the attached minority. Leader of the House of Representatives.
Others were Senator Michael Nnachi of Ebonyi, former Minister of State for Environment, Housing and Urban Development, Mr. Chuka Odom, former Presidents of the Abia Assembly, Chief Stanley Ohajuruka and Mr. Chikwendu Kalu, and the National President of the United Progressive Party, chief Chekwas Okorie, among others.
In an opening remarks, the convenor of the meeting, Kalu, said that the meeting was intended to unite all prominent politicians in the area and ensure unity of purpose among them for the emergence of the area’s next Nigerian president. .
He said the meeting would help refute critics, “who believe that we cannot meet to discuss the issues that affect us, especially our aspiration to produce the president of Nigeria in 2023.”
Others who spoke along a similar vein, including Ekwerenmadu, Anyim, Onyejeocha, Okorie and Odom, agreed that 2023 was the zone’s turn to produce the nation’s president.
They observed that the presidency of the nation had rotated between North and South Nigeria and that Southwest and South-South had rotated through South Nigeria.
Therefore, they argued that “the southeast is the only area in the south that has yet to produce a president in the current democratic administration.
