2023 Presidency: Igbo Politicians task APC, PDP on South-East candidates

South-East political leaders have called on the two major political parties All Progressives Congress APC and the Peoples Democratic Party PDP, to pick an Igbo candidate for the 2023 Presidential Election.

The Political Leaders made this known after a meeting in Senator Orji Kalu’s Camp Neya country home in Igbere, Bende Local Government Area of Abia.

The leaders in a communiqué urged “all the political parties to cede their presidential tickets in the 2023 general election to the southeast.”

They explained that the gesture would be in the interest of justice, equity, and national unity.

The political leaders also resolved that the zone, “with substantial presence in every part of the country”, would give bloc vote and full support to any of the two major political parties that nominated their presidential candidates from the zone.

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The communiqué, which was read to newsmen by the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Sen. Pius Anyim, noted that a president from the zone “will work to unite and develop every part of the country.

“Such a president will be president of all Nigerians, irrespective of their political, ethnic, and religious backgrounds.”

They added that a president from the zone would ensure “that all citizens and every part of the country are given a sense of belonging and treated with the utmost sense of justice.

“Such was the dream of the founding fathers of this great nation, wherefore they declared that ‘though tribe and tongue may differ, in brotherhood we stand’.

“For the same reason, they also committed to building a just nation, where no man is oppressed so that Nigeria may be blessed with peace, plenty, and prosperity.”

The group implored Nigerians across political, ethnic, religious, and geopolitical divides to support the zone’s aspiration in 2023 “as a mark of good faith and to promote justice and national harmony.”

They noted that such support was necessary  “in giving every part of the country a sense of belonging and in promoting national unity and solidarity.

“It is the loudest reassurance of equality of all parts and that the country indeed belongs to all members of the Nigerian commonwealth.”

The political leaders affirmed that “the deepening of the nation’s democracy as the surest way to fast-track national development and building an egalitarian society, where no man is oppressed for reasons of class, ethnic, religious or political affiliation.”

Other prominent Igbo politicians at the meeting included former Deputy Senate President, Sen. Ike Ekweremadu, Rep. Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, Rep. Toby Okechukwu, Deputy Chief Whip and Deputy Minority Leader of the House of Representatives.

Others were Sen. Michael Nnachi from Ebonyi, one-time Minister of State for Environment, Housing and Urban Development, Mr Chuka Odom, former Speakers of Abia House of Assembly, Chief Stanley Ohajuruka and Mr Chikwendu Kalu, and National Chairman of the United Progressives Party, Chief Chekwas Okorie, amongst others.

Nnenna.O