Ohaneze Insists On Igbo President By 2015

The President General, Ohaneze Ndigbo, Amb. Ralph Uwechue, says only a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction in 2015 will placate Ndigbo for their sacrifices toward ensuring unity in the counry.

Uwechue said this last Friday as the guest lecturer at the 2011 Dr Alex Ekwueme Annual Lecture at the Federal Polytechnic Oko, near Awka.

The lecture also is part of the activities marking the 18th convocation of the institution which will hold on Saturday.

According to the Igbo leader, a Nigerian president of Igbo origin in 2015 is not a

favour but a right in line with federal character.

The lecture, the second in the series, incidentally coincided with the 79th birthday of former Vice-President Alex Ekwueme.

The occasion was largely attended by friends and associates of Ekwueme who was the founder of the institution.

Delivering a paper entitled “The Case for South-East President’; Uwechue said that there was “no better time to call for Igbo presidency than now”.

He, therefore, urged all Igbo to speak with one voice saying, ‘President Goodluck Jonathan had clearly stated that he would not present himself for re-election in 2015.

“What is most important now is for the Igbo to take their turn in the presidency before any ethnic region thinks of pursuing a second term.

“The cruel act to Ndigbo is in contrast to the support we have always given to other zones of the country,” Uwechue said.

He insisted that the support of the Igbo to the South-West made it possible for the 1999 presidential election to be an all west battle with Obasanjo and Falae slugging it out.

In the 2011 presidential election he said, the Igbo turned out en masse to help President Jonathan to achieve the dream of becoming the president from the South-South.

Igbos, he added, deserve a fair chance to make their contributions toward the uplift and shaping of the country’s future.

Ekwueme in his response said the time for the “actualisation of Igbo presidency is now’’.

“With the treatment Igbos are getting in Nigeria, it is obvious that the Nigeria/Biafra war is not over.

“The only thing that can show it is over is for our brothers to help us achieve Igbo

Presidency. All hands must be on deck to make it a reality,’’ he said.