The clamour for a Nigerian Executive President of Igbo extraction is not just a clamour for clamour sake; it is a spiritual movement and the earlier critics and pessimists of the movement understood the movement from the spiritual angle, the better they supported it for the betterment of our dear country, Simbad Chidi Ogbuatu writes.
The truth is that Nigeria is bedeviled with so many ills. These ills didn't start today; they have always been there. The only difference is that today the ills have come to head and they have become hydra-headed. The ills have manifestly dragged the nation to its elastic limits, requiring an urgent healing of the land to arrest a cataclysmic situation.
As it stands, the best panacea to these ills ripping the nation apart is certainly political, meaning that a political solution is more germane to healing the land once and for all. If we accept a political solution, it means that we have to accede to the clamour for a Nigerian Executive President of Igbo extraction, come 2023.
Anybody following the political history of Nigeria will agree with me that the Igbos of the Southeast geopolitical zone have been ruthlessly marginalized in the scheme of things in the comity of Nigeria, particularly in the opportunity to govern the country and this is where the ills obviously anchor. It is also where the solution lies!
Now, will it sound strange to anybody to say that a Nigerian President of Igbo extraction is the one that will heal these ills plaguing our land? The reasons are not far-fetched. Over the years, the Igbos are reputed to be the only true Nigerians, considering the fact that they are highly enterprising people and this their enterprising nature take them to all parts of the country to the point that there is virtually no part of Nigeria you will not find an Igbo man doing business and doing it well. In other words, Igbos are in-charge of the commerce and economy of Nigeria. President Buhari reiterated this when he visited Imo State and he did affirm that the Igbos are practically the owners of Nigeria in terms of commerce, economy and settlement in all parts of the country. Even abroad; there is no part of the world you won't see an Igbo people. Igbos are also imbued with technological skills that will greatly enhance the economic development of Nigeria and in diplomacy, the presence of Igbos all over the world will also improve Nigerian foreign policy formulation and strengthen the nation's International diplomacy.
Therefore, a Nigerian President of Igbo extraction will be a morale booster that will rekindle the Igbo spirit and bring their potentials to limelight and that of many other Nigerians in and outside the country for the advancement of our political economy. More so, a Nigerian Executive President of Igbo extraction will heal the cankerworm of ethnicism and ethnocentrism, tribalism and regionalism which parochial perceive our nation as hanging precariously on a tiny ligament of pseudo-unity, hence the secessionist agitations here and there and it's attendant destruction of property, the economy and lives of innocent people, who are our own people. A Nigerian Executive President of Igbo extraction will put all these permanently to rest.
So, as the 2023 presidential and other elections approach, let us as Igbos massively support our own for the covet office because charity begins at home. After all, Igbos have great leaders that can deliver the needed leadership prowess at the centre. Hence, a great and detribalised Igbo leader of Governor Umahi's standing whose record of performance in Ebonyi State in the past six years is unprecedented and impeachable, has all it takes to deliver in the event that the mandate was given to him. Governor Umahi's parameters are not only based on his stellar performance in Ebonyi State; the bridges of friendship and camaraderie which he had built over the years across the country and across party lines are added advantages.
While we work for the enthronement of a Nigerian Executive President of Igbo extraction, it is our belief that the powers that be will consider our clamour to be germane and grant us this request which we honestly desire and truly deserv
Chidi Simbad Ogbuatu is the Publicity Secretary APC Ebonyi State.
