Ohaneze Ndigbo leaders reject offer of Igbo presidency saying restructuring is more important

SEVERAL Igbo leaders have rejected the offer of Ndigbo producing the next Nigerian president after the tenure of the incumbent Muhammadu Buhari saying that the restructuring of the nation is more important.

Nigeria is currently in the grip of a fierce debate about the way forward with calls for a restructuring of the nation and a return to the 1958 federating units arrangement being clamoured for. These calls have become deafening of late since President Buhari assumed office in 2015 amid claims that his administration is nepotistic and skewed towards favouring Hausa-Fulanis.

Across the southeast, this has led for calls for the recreation of the defunct state of Biafra which existed between July 1967 and January 1970. Biafra sought to secede from Nigeria and create an independent, sovereign nation for Igbos but it was eventually defeated and re-absorbed into the federation.

In a bid to assuage Igbo concerns, it has been suggested in some quarters that President Buhari be given a second tern until 2023 and after that, an Igbo president be elected to lead the nation. However, some Igbo leaders  who recently met with the Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe-led Ohanaeze committee on collation of Igbo views on restructuring in Lagos, have rejected this offer.

At the meeting which was held in Ikoyi, the likes of Ohaneze Ndigbo deputy president Dr Sylvan Ebigwei, Dr Kalu Idika Kalu, Chief Guy Ikokwu, Agunze Chibeze Ikokwu, Professor Uzodinma Nwala, Chief Charles Odinukwe were all present. Also in attendance were representatives of southeast governors and members of Igbo Think-Tank group Aka-Ikenga, among others.

Last year, the first of such meetings was held in Abuja and there will be another in Enugu on March 4 to be followed by the Ime-Obi or inner caucus gathering of  Ohanaeze Ndigbo, which will lead to an enlarged Igbo summit. At the Lagos meeting, the issue of restructuring Nigeria was high on the agenda.

Chief Ikokwu  said: "We debated the Igbo position on geo-political restructuring and Ndigbo insist on the restructuring of the polity immediately. We are not interested in Igbo presidency now without restructuring, so we are calling on the presidency and the National Assembly to proceed with restructuring immediately.

"The federal government or the centre should have less power than it has now and it should devolve power to the federating units. We agree with the southwest and the Middle Belt that the federating units should be the zones with the states under them and each zone should have its constitution and there should also be fiscal federalism and resource control."

On the herdsmen crisis, he said the Igbo leaders want southeast governors to see livestock, the breeding of animals or ranching as an economic activity, as their forefathers did in the old Eastern region. According to Chief Ikokwu , the former premier of the Eastern Region Michael Okpara established ranches, including the Obudu Cattle Ranch, producing dairy products.

"Livestock is not only cattle, it includes pigs, goats, rabbits, sheep, etc. Today, we don’t have Igbo livestock any longer, so we expect our governors to have something to show in this regard in 24 months," Chief Ikokwu  added.