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People who don’t care about Nigeria should deny South East the presidency in 2023 —Ex-Gov Ezeife

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Only restructuring can save Nigeria from extinction- Ezeife

A former governor of Anambra State, Dr Chukwuemeka Ezeife has insisted that the South East region must be allowed to produce the next president of Nigeria in 2023.

Ezeife, said only people who do not care about Nigeria’s continuous stay as an entity should insist on not allowing the South East produce President Muhammadu Buhari’s successor.

He stated this in an interview with the SUN in response to the ongoing debate among many Nigerians on which region of the country the next president would emerge from in 2023.

He said, “My view is the general view. We are talking of equity, we are talking about fairness, and we are talking of justice; all these considerations require that power should move to the South and within the South, it should go to the Southeast.”

Arguing that the North has dominated the presidency and that the South West and the South-South have had a fair share too, he said only the South-East was yet to taste the seat.

“Unless some people are not interested in what happens to Nigeria then they can deny the South East.

“However, I’m happy with what I’m seeing. On the 9th, there’s a group led by Yoruba that is working on a conference for 2023, and its own decision is for South-East to have it, and Afenifere says it’s South East.

“Tanko Yakasai, who was not quite sure before, is now saying it should be South East. Balarabe Musa says South East and about four youth groups in the North are saying it is the South.

“This gives me the feeling that Nigeria may survive if people begin to think in a logically equitable way like that.

“But if some people say they don’t care about Nigeria, let them deny the Southeast, and then the Southeast people will know that they are no longer Nigerians, as their fellow Nigerians do not see them as part of them.

“The consequence is there, the reaction also there. I know anybody who really thinks will know this is what will happen.

“We have had an agreement long before now. Why did Buhari become president after Jonathan? We agreed and I have been participating in many of the conferences, and we agreed on rotation.

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“I was chairman of not the presidential rotation, but the rotation of other offices, and we agreed on the rotation of the office of the governor by senatorial zones. So, this is not a new thing, we agreed on it.

“I’m told that some people thought that since after the civil war, there was an agreement to exclude our people from the government. You can’t do that and hope to have the same people in the same country.

“If they are talking of any agreement to exclude Igbo from presidency, you are excluding them from citizenship and whatever they do in a consequence of being excluded is justified,” he said.

South East has continued to claim that they are being marginalised in Nigeria. The claim was confirmed former Military Head of State, Yakubu Gowon confirmed in a recent statement.

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