Former Senate President of Nigeria, Chief Anyim Pius Anyim, and former Governor of Anambra State Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife, have said that the South East was ready to beg for Igbo presidency to scale through in 2023.
Both leaders said this on Saturday at the United for Better Nigeria Initiative National Convention in Abuja.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria, Anyim said it was neither a right nor was it legal for the South East to demand presidency.
The former Secretary to the Government of Federation (SGF), further, said that the Igbo would need to persuade other regions to support their dream, if they would produce a president in 2023.
He said, “Is it right for the South-East to produce the next president? My answer is legally no, and the reason is that the constitution is clear, the constitution says every Nigerian of 40 years is entitled to aspire for that office.
“On the other hand, morally is it right? Is it an entitlement? I will say yes because the federal character principle enshrined in the constitution encourages rotation.
“The reason I have to make this clarification is that when the right you have is not legal, the only approach and the instrument you have is persuasion.
“So the approach, the language will be to persuade others to see reason with you that morally they should support you to take a turn since it rotates.”
Anyim, therefore, encouraged the Southeast that as they go ahead with the movement of advocating for a president, it should be with an attitude of persuasion.
Ezeife stated, “So I found Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo and other groups in this place talking about the need for federal character. If you do it that way, there will be unity, if there is fairness, equity, justice, you will have unity and progress.
“In the absence of those, you see where we are now. It is not a matter of giving us president, we don’t give, you have to work for it, the Igbo does not prostrate.
“The Igbo man does not kneel down but this time, we are prepared to kneel down to every part of Nigeria, every group, every ethnic group in Nigeria, we are prepared to even prostrate because we believe in this country.”
Ezeife said that the Igbo people had contributed greatly to the development of Nigeria in terms of infrastructure, intellect and business.
He, therefore, said that it was time to give the Igbo people the chance to build Nigeria to the standard God wanted it.
