Ahead of 2023 general elections, former Federal Commissioner for Information and South-South Leader, Chief Edwin Clark has said that President Muhammadu Buhari’s successor should come from the South East geo-political zone of the country.
Clark has, however ,described as abominable and condemnable if any Igbo speaking person from Delta and Rivers States aspires for the exalted position because such a person speaks Igbo, adding that no person from Oshimili South and North, Aniocha, Agbor or Ukwani should come out for presidency, but they should all join the South East to achieve it come 2023.
Speaking Sunday at his Asokoro residence, Abuja when he received the leadership of Ohaneze Ndigbo and some South East leaders led by the President General, Professor George Obiazor, the elder statesman who is the National Leader of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) said that the time has come for the South East geo-political zone to produce the President of Nigeria and 2023 is the time. The Ijaw leader who called for synergy, sacrifice among the people, said that the struggle may not be easy, but urged South East leaders to reach out to other geo-political zones of the country in order to woo. He also advised them to put their house in order, work in unison and as one indivisible zone. Clark said: “The era we have reached now is that we have agreed to work together, how we go on, how do we move on? I think that is the stage we have reached… I don’t belong to any political party, but I speak my mind. The man who brought politics into Nigeria was late Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, I knew him when I was I was 20 years old when he visited Warri, we trekked 12 miles to see him. Some of the problems we are having today in Delta was as a result of the support for Azikiwe and without that, we would not have gotten Midwest region that later became Bendel State and now Edo and Delta States. We are together, we are one. We are supporting the South East region. Anybody from Midwest, Oshimili South and North, Aniocha South and North, Ika, Agbor or Ukwani, if you say I am ready to be the President of Nigeria because I speak Igbo, that is punishable because when you do something that people don’t like, it is abominable.
“I have said it, all the Igbos in Anioma, Rivers, in Delta, whereever they are, this is the time for Igbo, South East President.”
Earlier in his remarks, the President General of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Professor George Obiazor said that the time has come for the South East and South-South to form a stronger synergy. “We need is to synergise among ourselves, the day we will do it, history will change. We all know that we have the same kind of problems. Honestly, you cannot hate one of us and like the other side. For people who tell us that they will like people in the South-South more than the South East or they will use one against the other, the time is over. You can fool people for some time, but not forever. What we are facing today is light at the end of the tunnel. I don’t know who does not believe in one course, Obiozor said.