How Igbo leaders presented quest to produce President in 2023 to Buhari

By Moses Oyediran

South-East leaders at the weekend met with the presidential delegation led by the Chief of Staff, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, and demanded that an Igbo must be President in 2023 on the premise that time had come for their zone to lead the country.

At the meeting held at the Government House, Enugu, leaders of various groups, which included the South-East governors, members of the National Assembly and Federal ministers from the zone, religious leaders, traditional leaders, among others, made their presentation and frowned at their area had been marginalised in both infrastructural developments and appointments.

The leaders told President Muhammadu Buhari that they were not happy with the marginalisation of their people in the security architecture of the country.

They, therefore, asked for equitable representation of the South-East in the security architecture among the five service chiefs, Immigration and Inspector General of Police, as well as the disarming of killer herdsmen operating with firearms in the zone.

Those who spoke at the meeting included the Chairman of the Anambra traditional rulers and Obi of Onitsha, HRM Igwe Alfred Achebe, President General of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Nnia Nwodo, South-East Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Chairman, Bishop Goddy Okafor, representative of the South-East Elders, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, and the leader of the South-East youths, Mr. Pascal Ugwu.

Describing Buhari as his friend, Iwuanyanwu asked Gambari to tell the President that Ndigbo were not happy.

In a 14-point communiqué presented by the Chairman of the South-East Governors Forum and Governor of Ebonyi State, Engr. Dave Umahi, the leaders petitioned for the creation of additional states in the South-East zone in the spirit of equity and justice.

They called for the urgent construction, rehabilitation and maintenance of all Federal roads in the zone, which they described as death traps.

The communiqué read: “We, therefore, with humility, request our President, the father of our nation, to please look into the demands of the various groups of our people, as presented today, review the same with a view to solving them.

“South-East people believe in one Nigeria and this is the reason we are in every part of this country, erecting infrastructure, living peacefully with our host communities and doing our businesses.

We also requested for a joint operation into all our forests to flush out criminals and killer herdsmen with AK-47s.”

They pledged their commitment to the continuous co-existence with herdsmen who had been living peacefully in the zone for years.

“We pledge to continue to protect all the various ethnic groups living in the South-East. We enjoin them to go about their businesses peacefully.

We thank Mr. President, governors and traditional rulers in other parts of Nigeria for their commitment to protect our people, especially during and after the protests. We must continue to live in peace,” they said.

According to them, under the Nigerian platform, all the federating units were bigger and stronger together.

They thanked Buhari for all the great works being done at the Second Niger Bridge, the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, the dualized road of Enugu to Port Harcourt and other projects in the South-East.

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They also thanked him for his commitment towards the struggle for the emergence of their daughter, Professor Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, as the Director-General of the World Trade Organisation.

“We are particularly grateful for the way you have engaged the world leaders to see her through the process. May God crown your efforts with success – Amen,” the leaders said.