Igbo monarchs, clerics urge delegates to elect South East aspirants

Drop your presidential ambitions, Nwokedi tells non-Igbo presidential aspirants

Barely 72 hours to the presidential primaries of the two major political parties, All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the South East Council of Traditional Rulers and Igbo archbishops and bishops have called on all Nigerians, especially the delegates, to vote for the South East aspirants as their parties’ flag bearers in the 2023 presidential election.

In a statement jointly signed by the Chairman, Anambra State Traditional Rulers Council, Obi Nnaemeka Achebe, and Secretary, representatives of Archbishops and Bishops, Dr. Chibuzo R. Opoko, and made available to newsmen, the joint body insisted that it is the turn of the South East to produce the next president of Nigeria after President Muhammadu Buhari.

The body noted that all the presidential aspirants from the South East were qualified, and that each would lead in the tradition of all past presidents, saying that their antecedents promise leadership that would change the tide and reverse the dwindling fortunes of the nation.

It noted that in Nigeria’s democratic journey, the South East had lent its support to candidates from all other regions at general elections, noting that in the spirit of mutual reciprocity, other regions should equally support the South East to produce Nigeria’s next president in 2023.

The statement reads in part: “We call on the South West to remember the part played by the South East region in 1999 to support the emergence of the president of Nigeria from the South West. We call on the South South to remember how the South East supported their bid for the presidency in 2011. We call on the North East and North West to remember how the South East has also supported candidates from their regions in past elections.

SIMILARLY, the convener, Movement for Actualisation of Nigerian President of Igbo Extraction (MANPIEX), Joe Nwokedi, has appealed to all non-Igbo candidates for the presidency in 2023 to drop their ambition for the sake of justice, equity and fairness. 

Speaking at a press conference, he said that a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction would do the nation a lot of good and cause collective growth. 

He explained that Nigeria has suffered disunity, mutual suspicion, and ethno-religious crisis, occasioned by unjust, inequitable and unfair distribution of power and wealth.