As 2023 general election draws close, a think tank group, Igbo Elders and Stakeholders Forum, has described the comment made by some group of Northern Elders as selfish which it said did not represent the views of the entire Northern Elders as exemplified by the likes of Prof. Farooq Kparogi’s and other Northern Elites and Elders who have continued to sustain advocacy for power shift to the South East with a view to maintaining justice and equality in the marital arrangement called Nigeria.
The group disclosed this in a statement signed and issued to the media in Owerri on Wednesday by its National Coordinator, His Lordship Bishop Justice Alpha Ikpeama.
Pointing out that the Igbo have been marginalized and ruled out in terms of producing the country’s number one citizen even after the civil war, the group said Igbo must produce the next president of the nation if equity and fairness are anything to go by in democracy, regretting that some persons in the North see Igbos as slaves captured in war.
According to the forum, “one would wonder which other time should the Igbo consider fair to be president of Nigeria or which other time has the Igbo been president since after the civil war; over 50 years ago. We do not want to even go to the facts of talking about if really Igbos have been in charge of the country since independence.
The fact that this very illogical statement is coming from some group of elders in the North where power has stayed for over 50 years after independence, speaks volume of the selfishness of these group of elders who obviously selfishly do not represent the views of the entire North as exemplified by the likes of Prof. Farooq Kparogi’s and other northern elites and elders who have continued to sustain advocacy for power shift to the South East to maintain equity, justice and fairness in the marital arrangement called Nigeria”.
The group maintained that “zoning of the presidency to the South East remains the way forward in a much divided country like Nigeria. The Igbo have waited patiently even when some selfish Northern elements created the monster called Boko Haram just to make the country ungovernable for former President, Goodluck Jonathan and to ensure that the presidency is forcibly returned to the north, Igbos still waited patiently for eight years. Why will any right thinking Nigerian feel that power should remain in the North after we have waited for this long. Such persons are the one tearing the country apart with such ideology founded on injustice of the highest order and should be quickly called to order.
Adding that “Alhaji Tanko Yakassai of the Northern Elders Forum very sadly spoke about the Igbo with a mindset that the Igbo are slaves of the North, who the North have tried to rehabilitate, reconstruct, reintegrate as much as they condered fair and this “slave” now seems to be asking too much to be treated as a wife with equal rights in the marital arrangement. This he feels the North cannot allow for now even after the Igbo “slaves” have been denied equal rights for over fifty years, after the civil war. This is an insult to the entire Igbo Nation and goes to show the very greedy nature of the group of northern elders who made this very senseless press release”.
The Igbo Elders and Stakeholders Forum had insisted that it will “not fold its arms to watch the likes of Alhaji Tanko Yakassai continue to tear this country apart with very selfish remarks against the zoning of the presidency of Nigeria to the Igbo. We therefore call on all well meaning and patriotic Northerners to disregard the very decisive remarks of the Northern Elders Forum and join other Northern elites and indeed all other well meaning Nigerians to speak and stand by the truth to ensure that Igbo are fairly treated by zoning the presidency of Nigeria to the South East come 2023”.
