*‘Igbo’ll be President in 2015′

*I’m one of you — Goodluck

By Clifford Ndujihe, With agency report

LAGOS—THE race for the presidential seat is getting keener as the clock ticks. The front-runners are embroiled in a frenzy rat-race to outwit one another and gain mileage in every quarter. The leading aspirants under the banner of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and their supporters, weekend, took their campaigns to the United States of America, wooing the Igbo, during the World Igbo Congress, WIC.

In a personally signed goodwill message to the convention, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar identified with the core objectives of the WIC, adding that Nigeria would not be the same without the contributions of Ndigbo.

Seeking the support of Igbo for his presidential bid, he promised to re-integrate the ethnic group into Nigerian politics and support the ethnic group to produce the president in 2015.

He said: “This occasion, which brings together Ndigbo from everywhere, is an opportune moment for me to remind us all of the need for the total reintegration of Ndigbo in the mainstream of Nigerian politics, a goal that we have so far failed to accomplish 40 years since the end our unfortunate civil war. As we approach the year 2011, we have an opportunity to make the choices that would ensure the Igbo are no longer left behind in the political affairs of Nigeria. The contributions of the Igbo to the economic, social and political development of our country have been critical even if we only start counting from the struggle for independence.

“For all those contributions, as well as our political experiences and history, Ndigbo should be among those at the front of the queue as we take turns in producing the highest office holders in Nigeria. I not only believe that it is the turn of the Igbo after the North but I gave vent to it in 2007 when I chose your son, Senator Ben Obi, as my running mate in the Presidential election. And recently, the Northern Political Elders Forum, of which I am one of the conveners, jointly agreed with Igbo leaders that the North would support the Igbo to produce Nigeria’s President in 2015. It is in writing, it was widely publicized, and I want to be held to it.

“My insistence that we respect our agreement on the zoning of public offices is to ensure that all groups in Nigeria have a sense of belonging. The theme of this edition of this Congress, Nke iru ka, is very appropriate indeed. I believe that the future of Ndigbo is beckoning and together will be joining hands to realize it for a better Nigeria.”

Former military ruler, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, had declared through his supporters that his desire to return to the presidency in 2011 was “to heal the past through national reconciliation.”

Babangida’s address was delivered by a member of the IBB 2011 Campaign Organisation, Dr. Chidi Amuta, who led a team of supporters to the convention.

Babangida reaffirmed his resolve to support an Igbo President in 2015. He said:“I have recently expressed my commitment to completing “the work of national integration of Ndi Igbo into the Nigeria political leadership, which we, as military officers began in the 1970s and 80s. This commitment is cardinal to my current campaign that come 2015, Nigeria should by consensus elect a President of Igbo extraction. This is not only a historical necessity but also a moral imperative. We must pass around the torch of equity and justice so that our federation can thrive as a place where justice and fairness reign supreme.”

Removing scars of the conflict

The former military ruler said 40 years after Nigeria fought a bitter and tragic civil war, time had come to permanently heal the wounds of war and remove the scars of conflict.

He said: “I stand before you not only as a witness of the ravages of that war, but as one whose professional career as a soldier was formed in the effort to defend national unity and protect our collective heritage. In those years of rage, I travelled through our South East in the armour of a warrior. As a military President, I returned there as a messenger of peace and an agent of development and positive integration. Once again, driven by the urge to promote the consolidation of democracy in our land, I have returned to the South east with a message of hope and promise that we should now permanently heal the wounds of war and remove the scars of conflict.”

Supporters of President Goodluck Jonathan on Saturday warned would-be candidates for the presidency that it would be extremely difficult to unseat Jonathan in the 2011 presidential elections.

President, Ijaw National Congress, INC, Dr Wolfe Obianime, made the declaration at the 16th annual convention of the WIC in Philadelphia, U.S.

Obianime who led a delegation to the convention, urged Ndi Igbo to support Jonathan’s presidential bid, saying it represented a “generational and paradigm shift.” He said: “Jonathan’s major challengers have been presidents before and they have historical judgements against them, not by the Nigerian courts, but by the judgements of the people.

“I do not need to bait the Igbo people, Goodluck Jonathan is from the eastern region. Nineteen states were created from the North and they still relate as the northern region but they keep telling you zoning is between the North and South. They don’t tell you zoning is between North-West and North-Central. They tell you zoning is between North and South. In other words, they see themselves as a monolithic North.

“Then here I am from the eastern region and you are asking me what I am selling to the eastern region to be able to actualise an aspiration that will work better for them. Goodluck Jonathan is from the eastern region, his name is Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan. So why must he bribe his brothers to get what he wants?”

Obianime said it was “political arrogance” for any man to promise to give Ndi Igbo presidency by 2015, stressing: “To the level that Nigeria has developed today, no one man can come and tell a group to bring out one person in 2015 and he will make him a president.”

In his address, Ichie Chibuzo Onwuchekwe, Chairman of the WIC, listed several proposals that the Igbo would want “serious presidential candidates to do for the region.”

He said the Igbos would like to have a date explicitly stating when work on the second Niger Bridge would start and end.

Onwuchekwe further identified the scrapping of the current local government system and formation of regional governments on the basis of geo-political regions within Nigeria, as another proposal.

He proposed that a “Nigerian President of Igbo heritage” should be elected in 2015. PDP stalwart, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu and Nigeria’s Ambassador to Ireland, Mrs. Kema Chikwe and the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Emeka Wogu, attended the convention.