Amaechi says Yorubas should produce next president in 2023 because Ndigbo are not serious about it

FIRST Republic aviation minister Chief Mbazurike Amaechi has said he agrees with the next president of the country coming from the southwest geo-political zone because Ndigbo are indifferent about it and are not really serious about producing Nigeria's next helmsman.

Over recent weeks, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have been at loggerheads over the issue of where Nigeria's next president should come from. There is an informal gentleman's agreement in place between the nation's ethnic groups that the presidency should rotate between the north and south of the country.

With there being three geo-political zones in the north and three in the south, when the presidency goes to either half of the country, the components parts agree on who should get it. For 2019, both President Buhari and his main opponent Alhaji Abubakar are from northern Nigeria, so come 2023, both parties are to field southern presidential candidates.

Over recent weeks, there has been a dispute about whether the next president in 20223 should come from the southeast of southwest, with both geo-political zones making a claim to it. Since the return to democracy in 1999, the southwest has produced President Olusegun Obasanjo and the south-south President Goodluck Jonathan, so it should automatically be the choice of the southeast.

However, speaking in Awka, the Anambra State capital yesterday, Chief Amaechi noted that Ndigbo were indifferent over the prospects of producing the next president in 2023. Stating that power is not given on a platter of gold, he noted that the southwest has shown a stronger interest in the position.

Chief Amaechi said: “Power is not given on a platter of gold and the idea that Igbos will produce the next president of Nigeria in 2023 is not sacrosanct because there is no section in Nigerian construction that talked about rotation of power. The Yorubas are serious about this and they are working hard to get it and I expect our people in Igbo land to work hard and show seriousness.

“Our politicians in the southeast should wake up and show that we are interested but the Yoruba are more serious than us. If tomorrow the position goes to the southwest we do not have anybody to blame because they deserve it going by the way they are fighting the agenda.”