Ohaneze Ndigbo's secretary Uche Okechukwu agrees with Ameachi on 2023 Igbo presidency

OHANEZE Ndigbo's general secretary Uche Okechukwu has agreed with transport minister Rotimi Amaechi that the southeast geo-political zone cannot produce Nigeria's next president because Igbos did not vote for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the last elections.

During Nigeria's last elections, President Buhari performed badly in the southeast geo-political zone, with his APC failing to win in any of the five states in the region. According to Mr Amaechi, the southeast cannot demand the presidency in 2023 because the region failed to vote for President Buhari in the just-concluded polls.

Nigeria has an informal gentleman's agreement in place between the nation's ethnic groups that the presidency should rotate between the north and south of the country. With there being three geo-political zones in the north and three in the south, when the presidency goes to either half of the country, the components parts agree on who should get it.

In 2019, both President Buhari and his main opponent Alhaji Abubakar were from northern Nigeria, so come 2023, Nigeria's two leading parties the APC and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are expected to field southern presidential candidates. Over recent weeks, there has been a dispute about whether the next president in 2023 should come from the southeast of southwest, with both geo-political zones making a claim to it.

Since the return to democracy in 1999, the southwest has produced President Olusegun Obasanjo and the south-south President Goodluck Jonathan, so it should automatically be the choice of the southeast. However, Mr Amaechi ruled the southeast out, saying it did not back President Buhari and the APC in 2019 but his comments have attracted widespread condemnation.

Adding his voice to the debate, Mr Okechukwu, the general secretary of the pan-Igbo organisation Ohaneze Ndigbo, said he aligned himself with the comments made by Mr Amaechi. He added that by an act of omission or commission, Ndigbo had made it impossible for them to win the presidency in four years time.

Mr Okechukwu said: “Amaechi’s statement is correct because they betrayed him, they betrayed Ndigbo. You must have followed the event leading to the confusion where a socio-cultural organisation adopted President Muhammadu Buhari without affording Amaechi the opportunity of participating in the meeting of Ndigbo.

“Amaechi is an Igbo man. He has openly said he is Igbo, so, why would you deny him the opportunity of participating in the meeting that purportedly endorsed Buhari and then you denied him the opportunity of presenting his own bulk to the Igbo.

“Of course, whether we agree or not, politics is reality. By not voting for Buhari and denying him any presence in Igboland, we have to a large extent, by omission or commission, shut ourselves out of the presidency in 2023."

He added that an Igbo candidate cannot win a presidential primary at an APC convention because the zone does not have the senators of governors. According to Mr Okechukwu, this is the reality on the ground.