Igbo Elders Consultative Forum (IECF) has insisted that the South-East region would not accept anything other than to produce the next president of Nigeria in 2023.
South-East Elders Insist On Igbo Presidency
The chairman of the forum and former Governor of Anambra State, Chukwuemeka Ezeife, who disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday, threatened that Igbo people will quit the country if a southerner does not succeed President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Igbo Elders also threatened heavy sanctions against any Igbo politician who accepts to be presidential running mate to any person outside the South-East zone.
The statement reads, “Emboldened by the increasing demand and support by credible and patriotic Nigerians for power to shift to the South in 2023, the Igbo Elders Forum hereby encourages visionary, credible and creative presidential materials of South-East zone to declare their intension for Presidency and pursue it with every sense of seriousness, vigour and commitment.
“We are very serious about this directive. Do not mind those unserious bootlickers who are angling to be running mates to candidates from other parts of the country, as the Igbos will not take it lightly with any of our sons or daughters who accept to be running mates to any person outside the South-East zone in 2023.
“It is either we are allowed to produce the president of this country in 2023 to change the appalling narrative of continued decay, poverty, insecurity, poor governance, corruption and maladministration in Nigeria or out of it.
“No half measure, as serious sanctions will be visited on any Igbo man or woman that sabotages this noble and patriotic decision of our people to provide for Nigeria a credible, visionary and creative president.
“Legally, morally, and strategically, it is the turn of the South-East to produce the next president of the country as the other zones have been given the opportunity to serve this country in that capacity.”
KanyiDaily recalls that a former presidential aspirant, Ahmed Buhari had recently endorsed an Igbo candidate, Anyim Pius Anyim, who declared his interest to contest for presidency in the 2023 general election.