The Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide and other prominent Southeast leaders yesterday advised Nigerians to ignore Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar’s comment on ceding the presidency to the geopolitical zone in 2027.
They said nobody from the Southeast or Igbo would ake Atiku’s statement seriously.
Ohanaeze maintained that it was the turn of the Southeast to produce the next president after eight years of a Northerner in power.
The former vice president last Tuesday,, during the PDP’s Southeast Zonal Stakeholders’ Meeting in Enugu, advised Ndigbo to wait until after his tenure as President to have a shot at the presidency.
He added that he would help actualise an Igbo presidency in 2027, should the region support him to win the election in 2023.
But Ohanaeze Ndigbo dismissed Abubakar’s offer and urged Nigerians to do the same, saying it is the Southeast’s turn to produce the president.
Its Publicity Secretary, Alex Ogbonnia said: “Comments are free, facts are sacred.
“Atiku has said what he wanted to say, but he would have realised that nobody would take that advice, no person from the Southeast or an Igbo would take that advice seriously.
“I can assure you no person from Southeast or Igboland will take that advice that we should wait until 2027 because, right from time, everybody knows that it is the turn of the South and, by extension, Southeast to produce the next president.
“So, any patriotic Nigerian will realise that what is best for Nigeria is to allow the Southeast to produce the President.
“Any person talking or discussing the contrary knows in his or her conscience that he is doing the wrong thing or taking the wrong direction.
“We are not in support of any person saying that; it is not acceptable to the Southeast and the whole Ndigbo. Everybody knows it is the turn of the Southeast to produce the next President in 2023; any person talking to the contrary knows he is making a mistake and that person is not sincere.”
A former president of the group in Imo State, Dr. Ezechi Chukwu, cautioned the former Vice President against playing God.
“I think that promise is anchored illogically on a smokescreen because he is not God and nobody knows tomorrow or is sure of tomorrow,” Chukwu said.
