The Eastern Region Assembly, ERA, on Monday said it would not succumb to the forces standing against the road leading to the actualization of the Nigeria presidency of Igbo extraction in 2023.
The President of ERA, Ejike Ikezuagu, said this in Owerri while speaking to newsmen on the Igbo presidency agenda.
He was not happy that all geopolitical regions have benefited but only the South-East zone has not produced the president of the country. He said ERA has continued to make important steps by engaging with stakeholders across the regions for the Igbo presidency project.
However, the President of ERA, said the group was aware power should be taken and not given, for that reason, the Southeast would no longer tolerate any act or omission in this 2023 journey to Presidency.
ERA said among other things, “The people of the South-East are aware that power is not given but taken, we have started the process through engagement, negotiations, and collaboration with various stakeholders. It has come to the point, we must take it by stepping up, speaking out, and letting the country know that it will be unacceptable to resist the South-East from producing the next President of Nigeria in 2023.
“The people of South-East have endured enough over the past six decades without producing a Nigeria President of Igbo extraction, except in 1963, Chief Nnamdi Azikiwe was made a mere ceremonial President under Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa as the Prime Minister. Major General Aguiyi Ironsi in 1966 under military that lasted for seven months before the civil war broke out.”
“Since 1960 till date, the South-East has never been in the position of power as President of the country. It is very, very unfair, and undemocratic. Various zones in the country have been on that seat as President for decades, while the South-East has never been. This is unobtainable in a democratic setting.
The South-East will no longer tolerate any act or omission to deny the zone to the President of Nigeria in 2023.
“Since 1960 till date, the North-West has occupied the Nigerian seat of power six consecutive times. North-Central, 3 times. North-East, 1. South-West, 3 times and South-South, 1 time,” ERA said.
