2023: Denying Southeast Presidency Will Justify Clamour For Biafra– Uche Mefor

Erstwhile deputy leader of the Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB), Uche-Mefor, Monday, said any attempt to deny Southeast Nigeria’s presidency in 2023 would justify the quest for the actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra.

Mefor, who is the director of information and communication of Biafra Defacto Customary Government, made this declaration in a statement on Monday.

He said, “The principle of zoning must be observed as has been practised for decades Nigeria. It must be allowed to complete its cycle before it would be subject to review or appraisal.

“It is now the turn of the Igbo to present the next president of Nigeria in 2023. The ultimate questions that need to be asked are: why would this zoning arrangement be jettisoned at this stage when it is very obvious that following that long established tradition, it naturally falls on the Igbo to produce the next president of Nigeria in 2023? Why was it not jettisoned in 2014/2015 for instance?”

He called on the Igbo to dissuade insinuations that there are other zones yet to produce a president of Nigeria.

According to him, “The Igbo must forget about the narrative that there are other zones that have not produced the president of Nigeria because the truth is that the three major pillars of Nigerian politics right from inception are the Igbo, the Hausa-Fulani and the Yoruba.The principle of rotation has, therefore, been there right from the political independence of Nigeria.

“Isn’t ridiculous then that apart from the ceremonial presidency of the late Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, it is only the Igbo who have not been given their fair share and especially in this democratic dispensation? The geo-political zones were the product of the PDP political and administrative strategy for convenience.

“But even if it is not, justice and equity demands that it is the turn of the Igbo. Igbo politicians in Nigeria must make up their minds and be prepared that this time around, any attempt to gang up against the Southeast zone is an unjustified exclusion of them from exercising their civil and political rights at highest level of the political life of Nigeria.

“The vice president of Nigeria is a suicidal mission and therefore unacceptable and no Igbo should present himself or herself for such. The history of political exclusion of the Igbo is well documented and this would be the height of it.

“The state assemblies of the Southeast must be ready to collectively and simultaneously pass a bill for remedial secession, either for autonomy within Nigeria as a first step or for outright independence from Nigeria as a final solution when the sovereignty of Nigeria must be called to question.

“If this happens, the rest of Nigeria would have no choice but to come for negotiation or the status quo continues. Yes, the Nigerian state will have no choice because that decision is a democratic one and not done through the use of force.”