2023: Ohanaeze meets January to perfect strategies for Igbo Presidency

By MAGNUS EZE, Enugu

Apex Igbo organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, yesterday, said it would on January 21, 2022, meet with governors from the South East and other strategic political, traditional and religious Igbo leaders, before going full blast for the 2023 presidency.

The body said it was already in talks with leaders of the various ethnic nationalities but would reiterate its push after the January meeting in Enugu.

National Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze, Alex Ogbonnia, who stated this in a chat with Daily Sun, said it was in consonance with Ohanaeze’s discussions with the South South that elder statesman, Edwin Clark, recently declared that the 2023 presidency is for the Igbo of South East.

Ogbonnia also said other regions, including the apex Yoruba organisation, Afenifere, had all stated their support for the South East presidency.

Emphasising that equity, fairness and justice were key to Nigeria’s unity, Ohanaeze further said it would reach out to the leading political parties, including the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), ahead of their presidential primaries.

He said the Igbo would not be begging but convince the various groups on why 2023 is their turn.

Ogbonnia said: “We have communicated our position to the political parties but we will continue to emphasis on that. On January 21, that will be a major day in the Igbo agenda. We are taking steps towards drumming it up for the political parties and various interest groups.

“Clark recently said the 2023 presidency is not just to be zoned to the South but to the Igbo of the South East extraction. On that very day, the former governor of Akwa Ibom, Victor Attah, was present.

“We have also reached out to other groups. We have reached Afenifere, they asserted their position that it was the turn of the South East to produce the president and we’ve also reached other interest groups. It is by this January that we’ll hold our first meeting.

“The meeting will hold on the January 21, 2022. Our agenda is how to commence our visitation to various ethnic groups. We know that it is the turn of the South East but it is also true that we have to remind them and to convince them why it is our turn and to seek their support and collaboration to ensure Igbo produce a president for Nigeria.

“It is in respect for equity and fairness and also for unity and stability of the country. When things are done rightly, things will start moving in the right direction. But when things are done wrongly, no one should expect that the outcome will be positive.

“The moment you are building any project and it has a faulty foundation, definitely the outcome cannot be positive. So, it’s time we begin to do the right thing.” (Daily Sun: Excludes headline)