, Chief Emeka Kalu, has called on the Igbo leaders of thoughts and party stakeholders irrespective of political affiliations, to rise and support an Igbo man to be elected the next President of Nigeria come 2023.){kind=link}
A former governorship aspirant from Abia State and chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Emeka Kalu, has called on the Igbo leaders of thoughts and party stakeholders irrespective of political affiliations, to rise and support an Igbo man to be elected the next President of Nigeria come 2023.
Kalu maintained that Igbo ethnic nationality housing great number of philosophers, intellectual personalities, rationalists and competent leaders that when given an opportunity to become the President would in no small measure transforms Nigeria into a befitting paradise on earth.
His statement came against the backdrops of the alleged activities of those he described as sects of mudslingers to scuttle the long sustained peace in the land by altering power shift agreement between the north and south geopolitical zones of Nigeria.
Kalu, who also doubled as National Coordinator of the umbrella body of the main opposition political party in Nigeria, Peoples Democratic Party Coalition (PDPCO), made his feelings known in a worded press statement issued to AFRIPOST on Friday.
He pointed out that Igbo are industries people who sustain over sixty per cent of the revenue generating capacity of the country, and wondered why the Igbo extraction would not be given an opportunity in the national leadership control.
He urged people of the Igbo nation to buckle their clothing, at all costs and get prepared to speak and defend the truth to ensure they are not denied what is rightfully theirs
Kalu said, “It amounts to open stabbing on equity if Igbo man is not provided with a chance to be elected the next President of Nigeria. Those who are ready to trample on equity, to be conscious of the fact that it will amount to boomerang, in the near future, and it calls that men should be guided in their words and actions.
“It is unfair that Presidential seat had been rotating within some ethnic blocs without considerations for Igbo ethnic group rather these ethnic nationalities would work to mischievously pitch Igbos against themselves in order to divide and destabilize their unified force of working in one accord to achieve victory.
Continuing, the party stalwart added, “this ploy sheepishly worked in 1998 when Senator Jim Nwaobodo was pitched against Late Dr Alex Ekwueme who had already acquired PDP nomination to contest Presidential election in 1999 and Igbo lost the ticket. As it were not enough, in preparation for 2011 presidential elections, this same scheme was deployed to deny former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan nomination to run for the number one seat in the country using collusion of inter party leadership wranglings before the then national chairman of party was axed by a court order to vacate office.
“These political antics are carefully designed to deny Igbo man an opportunity to be elected the President of Nigeria. It calls for soberity and consciousness on the part of Igbo political leaders despite party affiliation to unite and fight a common course. Nigeria belongs to all of us and Ndigbo should not be treated the wrong ways”, Kalu admonished.
On the political intrigues, clamours and realignment among key political players over the governorship seat of Abia ahead of 2023 elections, Emeka Kalu frowned at the undemocratic activities of a sect of mudslingers from a particular bloc of the state to thwart the Abia charter of equity propagated by founding fathers for rotation of governorship position among the three senatorial districts of the state.
According to Kalu, “this is why it is dangerous to truncate the components of equity in our human society and it calls that men be guided in their words and actions.”