Northern group backs South East Presidency in 2023

[From BONIFACE OKORO, Umuahia]

Group, the Association of Arewa Community in Igboland, has declared their support for the emergence of a President of Igbo extraction extract in 2023.

National President of the Association of Arewa Community in Igboland, Alhaji Mohammed Nalado Umaru, who made the intention of the group known during a Press Briefing in Umuahia, Abia State capital, on Saturday, said that it was by allowing Ndigbo to produce the next president of the country that the maginalisation of the people would be ended and Nigeria would experience peace, unity and progress.

Umaru said that members of his group, comprising Northerners from the various Hausa communities living in the South East, would embark on a tour of the North to convince the people in the area (North) of the loving and accommodating nature of Ndigbo, as well as their capacity to fix Nigeria; and the need to support the region to produce the next president of Nigeria.

Umaru said it was obvious that Ndigbo was being marginalized in the country, adding that since the North, West and South South have produced executive Presidents that have ruled the country since the beginning of the current democratic experience, it was only proper that Ndigbo should be given the opportunity to produce the next president in 2023.

“This is the time we should give our consent for an Igbo Executive President. Our people should give them benefit of doubt to lead the country in the next political dispensation. If they perform well, we can allow them a second chance.

“We, all the Northern people living in Igboland, are highly in support of an Igbo Executive President in 2023. Here, we live and earn our living in Igboland and will like to continue to live as an indivisible entity to work and operate our businesses. Igbos are accommodating and are pan-Nigeria,” Umaru said.

He noted that over the years, Nigerians have been clamouring for unity in diversity, but were paying little attention to the unfolding insecurity in the nation which seems to divide the people rather than uniting them.

He said the current scenario in Nigeria betrays the unity of purpose of Late Sardauna of Sokoto, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Tafawa Balewa and Obafemi Awolowo, who, Umaru said “did not envisage disunity and war when they fought the colonial masters to secure the country’s political and economic independence.”

Umaru declared: “Our experience today centres on tribalism, nepotism, marginalization, religious sentiments, bribery and corruption which have eaten deep into our hearts.

“If we can tell ourselves the truth, leadership in Nigerua has always been lopsided against a particular ethnic group or the other. Presently, President, Senate President; including the Inspector-General of Police, Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Naval Staff, Chief of Air Staff, Director-General of DSS are all occupied by an ethnic group, leaving the Igbos to feel marginalized.

“These positions should have been evenly distributed among the tribes that make up the Nigerian entity so that peace will reign.

“The unity of the country should be paramount in our hearts. This, we can achieve by allowing an Igboman to emerge as president of the Federal republic of Nigeria, come 2023. The North, West and South South have all ruled the nation as executive Presidents.

“I wish to request our political leaders to emulate other countries that have allowed Africans living with them to emerge as Presidents, congress men and mayors, to lead them. Let us give peace a chance and have a replica of our founding fathers’ attitude.”

He promised that the group would reach out to their leaders in the North: our political leaders, the Emirs, the elders and others to convince them on the need to support their noble agenda by exposing the lies against Ndigbo.

According to Umaru the only task before Ndigbo towards realizing the Nigerian President of Igbo extract was for them to unite and present a qualified detribalised candidate.

“What will be required from them (Ndigbo) is to harmonize themselves and produce a detribalized person that will be contesting the 2023 Presidential election. We are sure that the North, West, South South and others will support this noble agenda,” Umaru said.