Chairman Senate Committee on Customs, Excise and Tarrifs, Senator Hope Uzodinma, has expressed determination of the Igbo to support the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari to pave way for an Igbo President in 2023.
Uzodima, who spoke in an interview in Abuja, said it was imperative for the Igbo to produce the president to fully put the nation back on the track of unity.
He said: “It is supremely important because that will assure that the ugly events of the civil war have been truly put behind.
“By 2023, the presidency returns to the South, and if by acts of omission or commission it eludes Ndigbo, then that will only be a confirmation that the Igbo have not truly been accepted into the mainstream of Nigerian politics.”
He recalled former Vice President Alex Ekwueme was coasting home to picking the presidential ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) but he was stopped because of alleged “high level conspiracy believe and because of the stigma of the civil war.”
So, if in 2023, “Igbo are stopped again, the simple conclusion would be that the rest of Nigeria does not welcome them as equal stakeholders in the Nigerian project.”
The Senate Committee Chairman however said such a presidential candidate from Ndigbo must possess a pan Nigeria world view.
“The summary of it is that such a candidate must possess a pan Nigeria world view because it is the collaboration of other zones in the country with the South East that could make it possible”
On whether the 2023 agitation would push the Igbo to support Buhari for a second term, Uzodinma said it was the only opportunity left if it is to be a reality.
“If we (Igbo) don’t support Buhari who has only four years left, then how can 2023 be a reality?
“Any fresh northerner on the seat would be there till 2027.
“President Buhari is the only northern candidate who, if elected, must relinquish power in 2023, thereby paving way for the South East.
“So, yes, for the Igbo, like me, I will most definitely support Buhari for second term, and I think other right thinking South Easterners should do the same.”
