Coalition of South East Youth Leaders (COSEYL)
Denying Ndigbo 2023 Presidential slot, unconstitutional – COSEYL
[From BONIFACE OKORO, Umuahia]
Amidst the raging debate over zoning of the Presidency, a socio-political group has declared that it would be totally unconstitutional to deny Ndigbo the Presidential slot in 2023.
The Coalition of South East Youth Leaders (COSEYL) has therefore called on the Southern Governors, who rose from their recent meeting in Lagos to demand that the 2023 presidential slot should rotate to the Southern zone, to be categorical that South East Zone, the only geopolitical zone that has yet to taste the Presidency, be given the slot.
COSEYL also urged all political parties to zone their presidential ticket to the South East in the spirit of equity and unity of Nigeria and to satisfy the Federal Character principle as enshrined in the 1999 constitution.
“2023 is the right time for all political parties to zone their presidential ticket to South East zone,” COSEYL said in a statement made available to The Oracle Today in Umuahia.
The statement, signed by COSEYL’s President-General, Hon. Goodluck Egwu Ibem, and Secretary General, Comrade Kanice Igwe, said any departure from zoning the Office of the President to the South East would offend the Nigerian constitution and deal a big blow to the spirit of brotherhood among Nigerians.
The youth group in the South East geopolitical zone, while reacting to the position of some groups and individuals from the North positing that the North should retain power beyond 2023 based on their reasoning that zoning the presidency could lead to unqualified candidates emerging as President of Nigeria come 2023, insisted that denying Ndigbo the 2023 Presidential slot would amount to violating the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended.
“The statement read in part: “The principle of federal character is one of the autochthonous features of the Nigerian federation and it has been introduced into the Nigerian corpus juris.
“The Constitution is the framework with which the country is administered and it will be against the spirit of unity and progress to deny Ndigbo support to occupy the Office of the President come 2023. Ndigbo have highly qualified personalities with intimidating and colourful credentials who have what it takes to move the country forward.
“The spirit of equity and fair play informed the decision of our founding fathers, respected elders and statesmen to have a mutual understanding with regard to rotation of the Office of the President between the North and the South.”
The COSEYL leaders argued that since it was now the turn of the South to produce the next President, the South East being the only zone yet to occupy the Office of the President, the Southern Governors, having come together to speak with one voice, should insist that the slot should go the South East.
“It will be an insult and a spit on the face of our founding fathers and highly respected nationalists and statesmen to deny Ndigbo presidency come 2023,” the group said, adding, “it is grossly insensitive and unpatriotic for anyone to say that the North, after eight years tenure of President Buhari in 2023, should produce the next President again.”
COSEYL said that those calling for power retention in the North after Buhari “don’t mean well for the country.
“We call on those who are anti-power shift to the South East to have a rethink and support the South Easterners to produce the President of Nigeria, come 2023 for equity and fair play,” the statement concluded.
