Ohanaeze convenes conference on 2023 presidency

Expectations are high that the quest for a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction in 2023 will gain stronger acceptability, as the Ohanaeze Ndigbo will be leading eminent Igbo groups and individuals to a national conference on Thursday, October 22, 2020.

The Guardian learnt that the event, scheduled for Enugu and being organised by the South East for President 2023 Movement (SEFORP2023), would be used to state Igbo position on the 2023 presidency, strategise on the quest and the need for other zones to support the cause.

President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo and Special Guest at the event, Chief Nnia Nwodo, former Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, former Managing Director of Pfizer, Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa, former Vice Chancellor, University of Calabar, Prof. Uche Amalu, among others, would speak at the event.

National Coordinator of SEFORP2023, Rev. Okechukwu Obioha, told The Guardian yesterday that the summit would have been held in April to mark the group’s first anniversary, but was put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It will be a gathering of Ndigbo from various parts of the country. Igwe Julius Nnaji will lead the traditional rulers and we will have people from the North Central. We have stirred up the polity and the attention is now on the South East. With our level of advocacy, there will be no person from the South East who will gun for Vice President in 2023. It will not happen.

“It is over 60 years after Nigeria’s independence. We are not spectators in this country and if common sense is common, we are asking Nigerians to test the South East, whose son, Herbert Macaulay, died in the cause of fighting for the country’s independence.

“During the military era, it was also their son, Alex Ekwueme, who toiled to ensure that the military left politics when he formed the G34 that gave birth to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),” he stated.

Obioha stressed that Nigerians should be fair enough to allow the Igbo to produce the next president by testing the zone whose people were given 20 pounds at the end of the civil war, but are now everywhere in the country.

“Nigerians should agree that with the wobbling nature of things, they should give way to the South East. The conference will come with some strong statements on the power rotation in the country,” he added.