Igbo Elders Forum warns against attempts to deny South-East 2023 presidency

The Igbo Elders Consultative Forum (IECF) has warned that any attempt to deny the South-East the chance to produce the 2023 presidency would spell doom for the continued existence of Nigeria.

The group also known as Ime-obi Ohanaeze Ndigbo, at a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday, warned the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) not to deny the South-East region their 2023 presidential tickets as the corporate existence of the country depends on an Igbo man becoming the next president of Nigeria.

In a communique at the end of the press conference, Chairman of the IECF and former Governor of Anambra State, Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife said it was only fair and equitable for the region to produce the next president.

Ezeife said there are indications that APC may field a Northern presidential candidate that can compete with the PDP if the opposition party picks its standard-bearer from the North but that such moves will further alienate the party from the Igbos.

“The idea of another Northerner succeeding President Muhammadu Buhari is a direct invitation for the aggravation of crises, conflicts and separatist demands,” Ezeife said.

He however, argued that ceding the presidential tickets of the two major political parties to the South-East would permanently heal the wounds of the civil war which were responsible for the gross marginalisation of the Igbo in the country’s scheme of affairs.

Read also: Igbo elders threaten to ‘quit’ Nigeria if South-East does not produce president in 2023

“The Igbo Elders met and discussed diligently some crucial national issues, including the zoning of the 2023 Presidency to the South that have far reaching consequences on the stability, peace, unity, progress and development of Nigeria, and came up with the following resolutions:

“We maintain our unalloyed support for the demand of the Southern Governors Forum, the Southern and Middle Belt Forum, the Afenifere, the Niger Delta Forum, Ohanaeze World Wide among other credible stakeholders and organizations that all political parties in the country should zone the 2023 Presidency to the South and possibly micro-zone it to the South East for the sake of justice, equity and fairness.

“The Igbo Elders want Nigerians and the whole world to note that the existence of Nigeria as a corporate entity may be seriously threatened by any attempt to deny the South, especially the South-East the opportunity to produce the next President in 2023.

“We are totally against, in whatever guise and eloquence, the idea of another Northerner succeeding President Muhammadu Buhari because it is a direct invitation for the aggravation of crises, conflicts and separatist demands by various sections of the country, among other unimaginable violence.

“Nigeria cannot afford to be changing the goal post in the middle of the game because of its unimaginable social, economic and political consequences,” the Igbo Elders said.

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