Tony Okafor, Awka
The Anambra State Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Okoli Akirika, has said it will be absurd and unfair for Nigerians not to allow Igbo of the South-East to be in Aso Rock as president or vice president in 2023.
Akirika, a lawyer said this in an exclusive interview with the New National Star in Awka, the Anambra State capital, on Monday.
He said since Nigeria majorly stood on a tripod of Igbo, Hausa/Fulani and Yoruba, it was unjust not to have got an Igbo person as president or vice president of Nigeria since the return of democracy in the country in 1999 after long military rule that was also dominated by a section of the country.
He said,”In Nigeria when you talk about political classifications many criteria and parameters will come into play. So, if you want to talk about the major ethnic tribes; you talk about the Hausas, the Yorubas, the Igbos, the Itsekiris, and others.
“If you talk about the amalgamation of Nigeria, you talk about Northern and Southern protectorates. Then if you talk about the geopolitical zones bequeathed to us by his excellency, the late Dr Alex Ekwueme, you talk about six political zones: South-East, South-South, South-West, North-East, North-Central, North-West. So, if you are talking about zoning and you are talking about fairness, what it borders to is that you are talking about zoning the presidency of this country to the South-East geopolitical zone. That should be differentiated from the Igbo speaking people of Nigeria; because we have the Igbos of South-South, we have Igbos of South-East and we have the Igbos of North-Central.
“So, when you talk about the political configuration of Nigeria and you talk about fairness and equity for the purposes of the zoning system; in all honesty, one should limit the person’s search to the Igbos of South-East geopolitical zone. But when you talk about the entire Igbo race, you now talk of the Igbos of South-South,
North-Central and South-East.
For the purposes of the 2023 election, you can’t zone to the South-South to satisfy the agitation of the South-East. So, much depends on the prism from the angle and perspective from which one is perceiving this concept of zoning.
Akirika added, “Now that PDP has thrown open its presidential slot, I foresee a situation where APC will also ape PDP. But all put together, it’s unfair, it’s unjust; it doesn’t make for national integration and national cohesion as mandated by chapter two of the 1999 constitution that a particular geopolitical zone in the country has either wittingly or unwittingly, by acts of omission or commission, deliberately excluded from accessing the highest office in the land”.
” If we must be guided by history, we recall what happened after the June 1 where virtually the entire country was in agreement that power should be ceded to the South-West and the two major political parties then chose their candidates from the South-West and in 2015, it was almost obvious that the Northerners were in unison that power must rotate to the North and Buhari has taken two slots, so one is expected that in the interest of political unity; in the interest of consistency; in the interest of equity; in the interest of all that is fair and just, that power ought to rotate; power ought to gravitate; power ought to move; power ought to tend towards the Southern protectorate of Nigeria.
“But for political exigency, the PDP presidential ticket had been thrown open; it’s now left to delegates. If the delegates believe in the principles of equity; nothing stops them from voting to ensure that either the PDP or APC or both candidates of the political parties come from the South-East. So that, for once, the injustice the Igbos are agitating against will be given an avenue for remedy. The thing has gotten so embarrassing that some days ago, during the validatory section of the noble jurist, Mrs Mary Odili, she bemoaned the situation, saying the causes of the civil war are still being repeated.
“As a matter of political engineering, everything should be put in place to ensure that South-East is factored into the presidency, especially the Chief executive officer. A look at the constitution describes the presidency to accommodate the vice presidency. So, the Igbo must be allowed the opportunity to be in the presidency, either being the president or being the vice president but Igbos in the interest of equity ought to be in the presidency in 2023.
The PDP scribe who maintained that zoning would have enhanced the electoral fortunes of PDP in general elections, added, “but what is playing out now is that APC has by their sheer incompetence; by misgovernance of this country, inadvertently and unwittingly campaigned for PDP. We have never had it this bad in this country. If you talk about it politically, economically, and socially, no matter the compass you use in accessing the APC, they have failed in all indices of governance. And above all, they have failed their two basic mantras: security and welfare of the people”.