BY BASHIR ADEFAKA

…Insist on producing president after Jonathan, To tour all parts of the country on sensitisation
FOLLOWING permutations that the South-East zone might not produce the president until 2027, Igbo leaders are insisting that they would produce the nation’s ruler after President Goodluck Jonathan’s reign in 2015 or 2019. To drive the ambition, the leaders met recently in Abuja and raised a steering committee, which was empowered to begin work immediately.

Former Governor of Anambra State, Dr Chukwuemeka Ezeife told Vanguard that while the Igbo would not hound Jonathan out of power but the least the South-East could take was to produce the President immediately Jonathan quits.

Indeed, at the parley, prominent leaders of the Southeast zone, including a former governor who remains an influence in Igbo and national politics, insisted that the time for the zone, which is currently the most socio-political and economically marginalised was after Jonathan and nothing else.

A member of the committee, who strongly insisted on anonymity, told Vanguard in Abuja that the meeting took very far reaching decisions and that members of the press would not be brought into the show until every group across the country was adequately informed about the plan.

“We briefed the media why we don’t want them for now but it was a very great meeting; very far reaching.  They even made some decisions there from military to civilian and the decisions were far reaching that we would begin to meet with every group in Nigeria, starting with the South-South, South-West, North-East, North-West, North-Central and we analysed everything that needs to be done.”

Asked to mention particular names of some of the members, the source declined, saying, “No, no, no.  We want to be effective.  We don’t want anyone to take credit but I can tell you that the meeting didn’t finish until around 1.30 am in the dead of the night.  I can also tell you that those that came are not young people.

“To mention one name; Mbazulike Amaechi for example, was there. This is for you to see the kind of people that were invited and Mbazuluike was able to stay till the meeting ended,” he said.

Dr Alex Ekwueme, Chief Achike Udenwa, Dr Samuel Egwu, Senator Ben Obi and Others during an Igbo Summit

Since the agitation for Igbo presidency started, proponents of such clamour have received either accolades or bashing.  But the likes of Ezeife have remained unrepentant champions of the cause.

The retired Federal permanent secretary-turned politician and former Presidential Special Adviser on Political Matters said, much as it was not the Igbos’ expectation to hound President Jonathan out of office after four years, that whenever he decides to quit, Igbo would take over from him.

Igbos and 2015
Asked why power should not go to the North after Jonathan, he said: “ By 2015, North-East has served more than five years; North-West has served more than five years; North-Central has served more than five years; South-West has served more than five years and by the time Jonathan will leave office, the South-South will have spent five years or more, leaving only Igbo – South-East – that has not served as president of Nigeria.”

Meantime, the clamour for Igbo presidency after Jonathan is raising divisions. A very prominent Northern leader blamed the noise on the issue on the failure of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to stand by the gentleman agreement on zoning.

“If the North had been allowed to finish its term, there won’t be need for all this noise because any zone, whose turn it is to be there, will know itself and it will have the consensus,” he said.

Quite a number of Northern leaders have either spoken or written in support of Igbo presidency and they include the former Military President, General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida and the deposed Emir of Gwandu, Alhaji Al-Mustapha Jokolo.

At the peak of his jostling for the PDP 2011 presidential ticket, General Babangida had disclosed his readiness to handover to someone from the Southeast after serving one term in office if elected. “IBB said that it is only when an Igbo man becomes president that his people would believe that the civil war has ended,” a source was quoted to have said.

Monarch calls for restraint
In a recent interview, the deposed Emir of Gwandu, Alhaji Jokolo, urged all those jostling to succeed President Jonathan in the North to  sheathe their swords and allow the South-East zone of the country to have its turn either in 2015 or 2019 after Jonathan’s exit as president.

“Look, not only 2015 but after 2015. They should not think of producing the president until after the South-East has produced the president in 2019. The South-South produces the oil for God’s sake. So, I am strongly advocating that for peace to reign in Nigeria, South-South must be given another term of four years in 2015. It must not necessarily be Jonathan, it can be anybody, but the Presidency must remain in the South-South by 2015.

First term of South South
“The one year Jonathan spent before the 2011 election is part of Yar’Adua’s tenure, so this is just the first term of the South-South. The region should be given another term of four years after Jonathan’s first term.

“After that, the South-East should also be given another four years after South-South’s second term. It is after that that the north can now have it. And even in the North, it should go to the North-East, because we in the North-West have produced Nigeria’s president on too many occasions. I am talking of both military and civilian.

“After North-East, it should go to the South-West, for another four years, from where it should come back to the North-Central, for another four years, from where it should go back to the South-East for another four years, before returning to the North-West. This is my own recipe for a lasting peace and unity in the country.

Since we are talking about constitution review now, they should find a way of inserting it in the constitution, so that the Presidency would go round and every section or region will have a sense of belonging,” Jokolo said.