By Cajetan Mmuta
The apex Igbo Socio-Cultural Organization, Ohanaeze Ndigbo worldwide has said that as the 2023 Presidential election approaches, credible Igbo leaders interested in the nation’s number one job should be courageous enough to go for the plum job at the Presidency.

National Vice President of Ohanaeze Ndigbo worldwide Chief Damian Okeke Ohene stated this at an event organized by the National Forum for southeast Presidency (NFSEP) held in Awka the Anambra state capital.

Ogene who chaired the event said the Igbo should not beg for the presidency or sit at a place and say it is now our turn, but go for it while building consensus with other ethnic nationalities in the country.

He said this is because power is not given on a platter of gold and that no zone in the country can produce a president in Nigeria in isolation of other geo-political zones.

“The Nigerian president of Igbo extraction cannot be gotten in the white robe of the priest. It should be fought for the way the South Africans batted against the partied system in their country those days. We must be prepared and go for it as a right, adding that Nigeria was founded on a tripod where the other two legs of the country had tested the presidency and the third leg is denied the portends injustice scenario”.

He noted that the youths in the South East and South-South regions of the country are rightly angry with their leaders and elders in relation to their stance on the condition of the zones in the country.

He nonetheless enjoined the youths not to embrace violence as the way out because when they destroy the zones, they would have nowhere to call their homeland.

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He said the southern governors had gone by their resolution at Asaba penultimate week showed that they had woken from their slumber and should be given all the support they needed to implement those resolutions.

Ogene said for Nigeria to be a country, the Igbo must be involved even as he enjoined the ethnic nationality to maintain and guard jealously the present handshake they had successfully extended across the Niger River to their brothers in the Southwest and avoid a cat and mouse relationship.

In his speech, Rev Dr. Emene Ezeani, Ph.D. described politics as a serious business devoid of games, stressing that for the Igbo to produce the next President for Nigeria in 2023, they should unite and rally around a leader and courageous servant of the people who is ready to sacrifice to save lives for the unity of the country.

“Such a person must not necessarily be a politician but one who should ensure equity, justice, and fairness among Nigerians”.

On his part, the Convener and National President of NFSEP, Dr. Patrick Enuneky in his welcome address said the objective of the practice of politics of inclusion in the conduct of affairs of the nation wherein every section of Nigeria could attain the presidency as a right without being excluded.