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Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba has called on South Easterners to act with caution over their clamour for a president from its region in 2023.
Nwajiuba also urged the people to make sure that whoever they would be presenting in the 2023 election would be accepted by every part of the country.
He stated this in an interview with journalists in his office, in Abuja, in reaction to the agitations for a president from the South-East extraction.
He argued that other ethnic groups that had produced Nigeria’s president never associated it with the name of their tribes, adding that no aspirants from the region had been barred from contesting the position of president.
“Anybody talking about Igbo presidency should be careful because there was never a time we heard about Hausa presidency. When the Yoruba were contesting, we did not hear of Yoruba presidency, why is our own different?,” the minister told Vanguard.
“Remember that before Obasanjo won in 1999, he contested the ticket against Ekwueme. There was never a time we as Igbo did not contest in the primaries; the only thing was that we were not voted for.
“There is no time people involved in politics will cede a position to anybody. Up to 2015, the only tribe that did not contest the APC primaries was the Yoruba, is it not true? The North West ran, North East ran, North Central vied, South East vied.
“If Owelle Rochas Okorocha had defeated Buhari in the 2015 APC primary, are we going to be talking about Igbo presidency now? But what is important if the Igbo want to become president, it’s not for you to say it’s your turn.
“Any day you bring out an aspirant that is acceptable to other Nigerians, that is the day you indeed want the position of president in Nigeria. All you need is the majority. Buhari won the APC primary with 3,886 votes.
“That’s what we counted. I was a returning officer in that election. Kwakwanso came second, then Atiku, Rochas, then Nda-Isaiah. I can still recall these things.
“So there was never a time it was ceded to Buhari. The people that voted for Buhari outnumbered others in that primary. So when we bring out an acceptable aspirant, he will eventually win. That is what you are supposed to start searching for now. Even if the Igbo cry from now till thy kingdom comes, if they don’t bring out a person that is acceptable to other Nigerians, nothing happens.”
