By Anayo Okoli

THE former National Chairman of All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, Senator Victor Umeh has joined the clarion call for Nigerians to provide an enabling environment for an Igbo person to emerge the President of Nigeria in 2023, saying it will strengthen the unity of the country.

Victor Umeh, who was the immediate Senator that represented Anambra Central Senatorial district, explained that Ndigbo would die for not producing the president but insisted that the clamour was to ensure that Nigeria is truly a united country.

Umeh who spoke in Enugu, weekend, on the sideline of the reopening of the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, called on the major political parties ahead of 2023 elections, to make it a policy that the South-East should be allowed to produce the president in 2023 for the unity of Nigeria.

According to him, what Ndigbo are facing now was similar to what the Yoruba race faced in 1999 which made PDP AC\APP field only Yoruba candidates in the persons of Olusegun Obasanjo and Chief Olu Falaye, culminating in Obasanjo becoming the president to appease the South West for the injustice done to late Chief M. K.O. Abiola.

He said the leading political parties in the country could do the same for the South East in 2023.

“Let them make it a policy that the South-East should be allowed to provide leadership for the unity of Nigeria. It is not that we will die if we don’t produce a president for Nigeria. But it is for the country to be truly united.

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“What goes around should come around and we have intellectuals, technocrats and best people that can provide quality leadership for Nigeria if given the opportunity. So, all parts of Nigeria should support the South East to produce a president for Nigeria in 2023.

“Across all the political parties, let there be no contest, the way they did it in 1999 where Alliance for Democracy and APP produced Olu Falaye, then PDP produced Obasanjo. You can see that in 1999 only people from the South West contested the presidency in Nigeria, so it is not a new thing. It has been there; we have antecedents and it should be done that way.

“I think what we need to emphasize is that we have competent and capable people to be president of Nigeria for the good of Nigeria, The South East has these people in abundance”, Umeh said.

On reaching out to other zones, Umeh said that the South East people have been doing that for a long time. According to him, Ndigbo are in every village of this country doing one business or the other, an indication that they true Nigerians who should be trusted.

“Igbos believe in Nigeria; we are everywhere. The only complaint we have always had is that we are not being treated well due to accident of history, because of the civil war, and it is time to end that civil war; let us end it”, Senator Umeh declared.