S/East or N/East should produce next president—Kashim Imam
Awka— POSSIBLE alliances
for the 2019 presidential election are already in the works with the
former Presidential Adviser on National Assembly Matters, Alhaji Kashim
Imam, saying deliberate efforts would be made to ensure that the next
president of the country comes from either the South-East or the
North-East, the two zones that had not produced president.
Imam made the suggestion in Awka during a reception hosted by secretary of the Alhaji Makarfi-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Senator Ndii Obi, for Senator Jim Nwobodo, who received honorary doctorate degree at Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University weekend.
He said as the traditional ally of the Igbo, the North would support the emergence of a Nigerian president from the South-East, adding, however, that the people of the South-East and North-East should sit together to decide which of them should take it first, since they were the only zones that had not held the office in the country.
More importantly, he said, the Igbo must decide to speak with one voice on the issue, regretting that one of the reasons the presidency had eluded them was due to the apparent disunity among politicians from this part of the country.
According to him, once the Igbo made up their minds to produce the president and became serious about it, they should count on the support of the North.
He said: “Traditionally, the North had been the ally of the Igbo. In the very bitter experience of the Nigeria civil war, there was no single Igbo who returned to the North after the war and did not find his property properly kept for him.
“There was no single incident of abandoned property in any party of the North and so, there had always been a cordial relationship between the Igbo and the North.
“In the First Republic, the political alliance that really worked was between the NCNC owned by the Igbo and the NPC owned by the North. The same was also true during the Second Republic when the northern-dominated National Party of Nigeria, NPN, had an alliance with the Igbo-dominated Nigeria Peoples Party, NPP.
“However, it is regrettable that when most politicians got fed up with the PDP and formed the APC, most of our Igbo friends did not see the need to join us in APC and rather decided to put all their eggs in one basket.”
Addressing the gathering, Nwobodo, who was among notable Igbo politicians that had joined the APC in recent times, called for unity among the Igbo.
Throwing a challenge to his fellow Igbo politicians, Nwobodo said: “We have to work hard to get the hearts of our people, irrespective of their party affiliation. The problem we have in Igbo land is that we don’t love ourselves and we don’t even respect our leaders, like the Yoruba do.
“Igbo people should stop quarrelling among themselves and my prayer is that God will give us somebody who can unite us.”
In his speech, the host, Senator Obi said the common goal of every Igbo should be to emphasize on those issues that would make Igbo land great, irrespective of the political party they belong to.
Imam made the suggestion in Awka during a reception hosted by secretary of the Alhaji Makarfi-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Senator Ndii Obi, for Senator Jim Nwobodo, who received honorary doctorate degree at Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University weekend.
He said as the traditional ally of the Igbo, the North would support the emergence of a Nigerian president from the South-East, adding, however, that the people of the South-East and North-East should sit together to decide which of them should take it first, since they were the only zones that had not held the office in the country.
More importantly, he said, the Igbo must decide to speak with one voice on the issue, regretting that one of the reasons the presidency had eluded them was due to the apparent disunity among politicians from this part of the country.
According to him, once the Igbo made up their minds to produce the president and became serious about it, they should count on the support of the North.
He said: “Traditionally, the North had been the ally of the Igbo. In the very bitter experience of the Nigeria civil war, there was no single Igbo who returned to the North after the war and did not find his property properly kept for him.
“There was no single incident of abandoned property in any party of the North and so, there had always been a cordial relationship between the Igbo and the North.
“In the First Republic, the political alliance that really worked was between the NCNC owned by the Igbo and the NPC owned by the North. The same was also true during the Second Republic when the northern-dominated National Party of Nigeria, NPN, had an alliance with the Igbo-dominated Nigeria Peoples Party, NPP.
“However, it is regrettable that when most politicians got fed up with the PDP and formed the APC, most of our Igbo friends did not see the need to join us in APC and rather decided to put all their eggs in one basket.”
Addressing the gathering, Nwobodo, who was among notable Igbo politicians that had joined the APC in recent times, called for unity among the Igbo.
Throwing a challenge to his fellow Igbo politicians, Nwobodo said: “We have to work hard to get the hearts of our people, irrespective of their party affiliation. The problem we have in Igbo land is that we don’t love ourselves and we don’t even respect our leaders, like the Yoruba do.
“Igbo people should stop quarrelling among themselves and my prayer is that God will give us somebody who can unite us.”
In his speech, the host, Senator Obi said the common goal of every Igbo should be to emphasize on those issues that would make Igbo land great, irrespective of the political party they belong to.
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