By Charles Onyekwere
Apex Igbo socio-cultural organization, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has again urged President Muhammadu Buhari not to ignore an opportunity for a national healing process. The body said with Atiku Abubakar already with the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) presidential ticket, all eyes are now on the All Progressives Congress ( APC).
Earlier in the week, Buhari had pleaded with the governors on the APC platform to allow him choose his successor. In a statement made available to journalists on Thursday, the Secretary-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro, he urged President Buhari to choose peace, unity, and harmony above all other primordial considerations. Isiguzoro said the choice of an Igbo from South-East or Ikwerre in Rivers State remained the best vaccine to heal and unify Nigeria, “as another northern Presidency in 2023 will put Nigeria in flames.”
He maintained that Buhari’s hopeful consideration of a Southern aspirant of Igbo stock as APC Presidential candidate “will reset Nigeria’s potentials and bestow on Mr. President the hero of Nigeria’s Democracy. All statesmen and patriots must seek to forge cohesion and brotherliness above actions that will put Nigeria on dangerous routes.
“A nation suffering acute hypertension and insecurity must prioritize tension-dousing options such as Igbo Presidency. 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,” the Ohanaeze scribe said.
He said the Igbo nation would 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.
“Ohaneze Ndigbo and the entire Igbo nation, having made the quest for the Igbo Presidency a political priority and mindful of existing political realities, urges President Buhari to support the candidacy of any Igbo from the seven Igbo speaking States, including Ikwerre in Rivers State.
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“Some Igbo aspirants have some resemblances of Zik of Africa with national acceptance to defeat Atiku in 2023, popular amongst them, is the Igbo from South/South that led Buhari’s campaigns for two consecutive victories in 2015 and 2019, the other was the National Chairman of the defunct ANPP and assisted in APC’s formation, another is the performing South-East Governor in the race and the last but not the least is a serving Senator and a former Governor whose faction of APGA boosted the formation of the APC.
“These Igbo aspirants fit flawlessly into the shoes of the Great Zik of Africa, they remain the best options for Nigeria’s stability and in unifying the country.
We are looking forward to President Buhari’s ability to heal Nigeria’s unity with any of these choices.”
He bemoaned the rising influence of money in party politics, stating that such a situation “breeds corruption and wastefulness.
“Our nation needs peaceful and credible elections to yield a genuine leadership anchored on bonafide representation, transparency, and accountability. At the helm, the country needs a young, energetic, experienced leader who can engender hope, promote national unity, enforce security and create widespread prosperity. The unity of Nigeria can no longer be taken for granted. It must be nurtured with fairness, equity, and social grievances,” he further stated.
