Retired Deputy Inspector General of Police, Barr. Azubuko Udah has thrown his weight behind the clarion call for a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction to take over after the expiration of the tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023, to ensure equity, fairness and justice.
Udah made this expression of opinion in his Agbua Ozuitem country home in Bende L.G.A. of Abia State during a one-day meeting with members of a 2023 Pro-Igbo presidency group, Okezuo Igbo Organization, stating that the Igbo question has to be addressed in the year 2023 as the Yorubas did in 1999 over M. K. O. Abiola, which later produced President Olusegun Obasanjo.
According to him, “Ndigbo is still agitating about neglect. The North, Southwest and Southsouth had all produced the president of the country except the Igbo speaking states.
“What is good for the geeze, is also good for the gander. If Igbo is part of Nigeria, they should not be excluded from the critical part of Nigeria, for instance, the presidency. It is right for it to come from the North to the East.
“We want Ndigbo to rule”, pointing out that the Igbos are not only bona fide citizens of the country but also Nigerians whose enormous sacrifice and contributions to the growth, progress and development of Nigeria cannot be questioned.
He passionately appealed to the other regions of the country to support the call, advising “shifting the presidency to the Igbos will further kill the fears of marginalization, frustration and deprivation from the people.
“If done, insecurity by unknown gunmen, and other agitations will go”
He said insecurity in the country arose out of deprivation. We want peace in Nigeria. Nigeria never had it so bad like today. All need to be settled to ensure Nigeria has peace and prosperity.
“The truth must be told. The Igbo issue must be addressed. If they do it, by 2023, the whole country will return to peace and prosperity”.
On if an Igbo consensus candidate is realizable, the Rtd DIG said “when the Chiefs are down, consensus candidate will encourage all to concede. People will know what to do”, and encouraged the Organization to reach out to other ethnic nationalities across the nation to gain the needed supports for the actualization of the project, which the region has been yearning for over 50 years.
Briefing newsmen later, the National Coordinator of Okezuo Igbo Organization, Ezinwa Lemmy Akuakonobi said the Organization is a group of like minds for the actualization of the dreamed 2023 Igbo presidency project.
He said the group has been in consultation with people from other zones in the country, including visiting the former President Olusegun Obasanjo and others in far North.
DIG Udah is one the national leader of the group for his support to the body.
