North Must Stay Clear of 2023: Igbo Presidency can’t be compromised, group declares

The group in a statement decried any attempt to pick Buhari’s successor in 2023 from the North. The chairman of the group Arinzechukwu Napoleon Igboeli was reacting to a statement by the leader of the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, Yerima Shetyima,that Nigeria’s next president would come from the North. Igboeli described the Shettima’s statement as insulting to the sensitivities of the 365 ethnic groups that make up Nigeria.
He said: “Countries are not held together by force, but by a sense of justice, fairness and equity. “Thus it is instrumental for young Nigerians like us who believe in the unity of Nigeria based on fairness and equity to immediately react to statements made by my good friend, the coordinator of Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, Yerima Shettima.
“Such a statement smacks largely of ignorance or contempt of the attempt by those who fought to restore our democracy and preserve the fragile unity of Nigeria by reaching the conventional notion of zoning which encouraged the rotation of the presidency between North and South”
“This trend which has been followed almost religiously with the exception of the Goodluck Jonathan era which was brought upon us by the demise of President Umaru Musa Yar Adua in office but was immediately corrected in 2015 when these progressive forces brought change”
“Shettima not only made the call for the presidency to remain in the North, but also in a hubris like manner dismissed the morally backed agitation of NdiIgbo to produce one of its own for the office come 2023. Now, while we agree that Shettima is entitled to his opinion, it is however more sacrosanct that we enlighten him and all others who may seek to toe such path by understanding the consequences of denying NdiIgbo and the SouthEast Region that position.”
“Igbo is the only major ethnic group that is yet to have a shot at the presidency since the return of democracy as well as the most marginalized group since independence as regards national leadership. Both cases make it imperative for the country to allow the SouthEast zone and NdiIgbo to produce a president of Igbo extraction come 2023. And since all the zones in the south have had a shot at the presidency in the persons of Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan of both South-West and South South respectively, then it behooves us in the spirit of equity and to strengthen the unity of this country allow a president of Igbo extraction.”