How quest for Igbo presidency can get support, by ex-minister Nebo

Former Minister of Power, Professor Chinedu Nebo, has said Igbo quest for the nation’s presidency in 2023 can only get the support of governors of the zone if one of them was projected as presidential candidate.

Nebo stated that the present crop of Igbo politicians lacked ‘character’ and could not trusted by any imagination to realise the presidency dream, stressing that Ndigbo require committed leaders to make the aspiration feasible.

Speaking in Enugu during the inauguration of the Southeast for President 2023 Movement, he explained that the zone had suffered serious neglect through inability of its leaders to provide direction.

His words: “If you think the Southeast governors will support this project, you are wasting your time and except one of them is projected as presidential candidate, they will not identify with you.

“The problem of the Igbo is that we don’t have political leaders. Our political leaders are corrupt. They don’t have character. So, we need leaders we can depend on to pilot the quest for Igbo presidency in 2023.”

Citing the recent elections in the country, where former Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi emerged Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate’s running mate, he said it was absurd that Ndigbo were used to truncate that aspiration.

He stated that the people were not sincere to the cause and therefore, refused to support the bid by using their votes.

Nebo, however, commended conveners of the movement and urged them to remain focus and committed, adding that the challenge before them was how to convince other ethnic groups and geopolitical zones why Igbo should be given the opportunity to rule the country.

National Coordinator of the movement, Reverend Okechukwu Obioha, stated that the group was borne out of the desire to address certain imbalances in the country that were fuelling agitation.

“MASSOB, IPOB and other groups arose because of persistent injustices and non- implementation of the reconstruction, rehabilitation and reconciliation (three Rs) declared for the Southeast after the civil war.

“The agitations in the Southeast zone have led to the massacre of our youths by the military and yet our elders consoled the bereaved, managed the wounds of the survivors and calmed them down for the unity of this country.”

Obioha insisted that it was ‘corruption’ for other parts of the country to clamour for the presidency in 2023, when the Igbo, which “is an integral part of Nigeria has not tasted power at the centre.”