Igbo sociocultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to pick a presidential candidate of Igbo origin from the other aspirants of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
ThisNigeria reported that Buhari had expressed his intention “to pick his successor” as the party’s flagbearer in the 2023 presidential election.
Reacting to this, Ohanaeze, in a statement on Thursday, appealed to Buhari to “choose peace, unity, and harmony above all other primordial considerations as the choice of an Igbo from southeast or Ikwerre in Rivers State.”
The organisation maintained that an Igbo candidate “remains the best vaccine to heal and unify Nigeria, as the imposition of another northern Presidency in 2023 will set Nigeria on fire.”
“The retention of power in the North in 2023 will be a recipe for political maladies, including migraines and perhaps epilepsy. It’s patently disingenuous, even foolhardy, to abandon the principle of rotation of power in a Nigeria that has not outgrown the Quota System and Federal Character.
“Money politics breeds corruption and wastefulness and undermines answer ability and support President Buhari’s choice of a consensus.
“Our nation needs peaceful and credible elections to yield a genuine leadership anchored on bonafide representation, transparency, and accountability.
“The unity of Nigeria can no longer be taken for granted. It must be nurtured with fairness, equity, and social grievances.
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“We implore the president to rise above the immature and primitive calculations of the PDP and support Igbo either from the southeast or Ikwerre in Rivers state to heal the wounds of the injustice of marginalization and unify the country.
“The Igbo nation will forever remain indebted to President Muhammad Buhari, the builder of the second Niger Bridge if he endorses a southerner from Igbo stock to douse the rising secessionist campaign of Biafra as nothing is more important than unifying the country with an Igbo as Buhari’s successor,” the statement read in part.
