Yes, South East Should Get Presidency On A Platter Of Gold

Dr Ogbonnaya Onu

The recent assertion by the governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El - Rufai that the presidency of the country should be going to the South after President Muhammadu Buhari, a Northerner, completes his second term in 2023, has once again brought to the fore the need for the next president of the country to come from the South East.

South East is the only geo - political zone in Southern Nigeria that is yet to produce a president for Nigeria since this dispensation began in 1999. For justice and equity, many Nigerians have argued that the next president of Nigeria in 2023 should come from the South East geo - political zone. There are those who disagree. To these people the Igbo must work for it if they want the presidency. They argue that Nigeria’ s Presidency is not served on a platter of gold or as President Muhammadu Buhari’s associate, Ismaila Isa Funtua queried recently, “is it turn by turn Nigeria Limited”. According to Funtua, while speaking with ARISE TV, “They (Igbo) should belong. They should join the party. They want to do things on their own and because they are Igbo, we should dash them the president? That was the reason I said, is it turn-by-turn Nigeria Limited? ”

However Isa Funtua’ s position is not backed by recent history. As a matter of fact Nigeria’ s presidency is often‘ dashed’ to an individual or to a region by those who determine who gets what in the country. A few examples suffice. At the run - up to the 1999 presidential election, those who determine who gets what in Nigeria had made up their mind that the Presidency would go to the Yoruba heartland, the South West. And the vehicle that they choose to accomplish this was the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP).The PDP presidential primary was manipulated to achieve this outcome. Even though former vice president, Dr Alex Ekwueme was the favorite to win having met all the criteria, it was Obasanjo that emerged the PDP presidential candidate in the pre - determined process of producing a Yoruba president to pacify the race over the annulment of June 12, 1993 presidential election in which  Chief MKO Abiola, a Yoruba, was poised to win.

 To make sure head or tail Yoruba win, the candidate of the next big party, ANPP was former secretary to the federal government and former minister of Finance, Chief Olu Falae, who emerged the presidential candidate of the party. It was the establishment’ s way of dashing the presidency to the Yoruba. Of the two prominent Yoruba sons, on the Election Day, Nigerians choose Obasanjo to be President. That was Nigeria dashing Yoruba President.

In any case Yoruba’ s choice was Falae who they voted massively for, while the establishment preferred Obasanjo, who was elected president by the rest of the country.

And as President Obasanjo was finishing his second term in 2007, the Presidency was dashed to the North, with Governor Umaru Musa Yar’ Adua and North West the major beneficiaries,

while the vice president was also dashed to the South South with Governor Goodluck Jonathan as the major beneficiary. The presidency was dashed to the north for 8 years, but the death of President Umaru Musa Yar’ Adua on May 5, 2010 disrupted the process. The North fought very hard to regain what they considered their entitlement in 2011 insisting that Jonathan should not contest for President, because it was the turn of the region to hold on to power. Jonathan refused to bulge. He won the 2011 presidential election, but the North ensured that he was not reelected in 2015.

That brings me to Isa Funtua’s assertion that if the Igbo want presidency ‘they must belong’. If that means that they must belong to the All Progressives Congress (APC) then one can confidently say that there are many prominent South East sons and daughters in the APC who could be president in 2023. I have no doubt that the minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu will make a fantastic president if he is elected president in 2023. The party has also made significant gains in the South East in the past few years. The APC has been controlling Imo State since 2012 when Governor Rochas Okorocha joined the party from APGA. In the last general election President Muhammadu Buhari did better than he did in 2015. He got more than the required 25 per cent spread in all the states of the South East.

However, even if the whole of the South East had rejected APC, it was not enough reason to deny presidential ticket to people like Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, should he choose to run in 2023. It would be recalled that the whole of Yoruba land in 1999 rejected PDP, but that did not stop the PDP from giving its presidential ticket to Olusegun Obasanjo. President Muhammadu Buhari should prove his critics wrong by ensuring that South East produced the next president

for Nigeria. South East has men of integrity that could salvage this country and many of them are in APC.