A former aide to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Dr. Doyin Okupe, has advised that allowing the South-East to produce the next Nigerian president would “end Civil War forever”.
He said this in an open letter addressed to the All Progressives Congress and Peoples Democratic Party.
According to him, the South-East has not produced a president in the history of Nigeria.
His request came a few after presidential aspirants of the Peoples Democratic Party from the South-East demanded that the party’s presidential ticket for 2023 should be zoned to their area.
The aspirants are Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, Mr Peter Obi, Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa and Dr Nwachukwu Anakwenze.
The open letter read, “In the wake of the National crisis following the deaths of Chief MKO Abiola and Gen Sanni Abacha, very notable leaders in the country especially from the North and majorly of military background came together and decided to assuage the South-West and ensure national unity and stability, the south-est must be allowed to occupy the position of President in the country.
“And so it happened that the two leading political platforms at that time chose their presidential candidates from the South-West. By so doing, a major national concession was made and inevitably and democratically a Yoruba man, Olusegun Obasanjo became the president of Nigeria.
“In all the schemings and persuasions that went on behind the scenes nationally, the Yorubas did not participate. In fact, mainstream Yoruba took a hard-line position which was even antithetical to the stabilising concessionary process that was underway. Today Nigeria stands at a similar crossroads.
“The fact of Igbo marginalisation and political oppression is self-evident.
Political parties will in a few weeks elect their presidential flagbearers. Many arguments for and against Igbo presidency, power rotation and merit and demerits if zoning are rife in our polity.
“In all this, the guiding philosophy ought to be, what is true, what is just and what is equitable? Rather what we have are puerile and self-serving propositions and assertions.
“It is the truth that the established convention is that power must rotate between the North and the South. Not between the zones. Hence a President of northern extraction follows that of Southern extraction and vice versa. Any consideration outside of this is foul and untrue.
“It is just that after President Buhari, power must come to the south. Any argument against this is inimical to the unity and stability of our nation.
“It is equitable that once the above stands and power is conceded to the south, the next president must come from the South East. This is because in the South only the southeast is yet to produce a civilian president.
“Fellow Nigerians, let us come together as a fair and just nation that we are. Let us concession the presidency to the southeast in 2023 and decisively end the Nigerian Civil War forever.”
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