Ambassador Professor George Obiozor, the President General of the apex Igbo socio-cultural group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, has reacted to the rejection of the South-East region by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party, in choosing their presidential candidates for 2023 election.
2023 presidency: Ohanaeze president mourns injustice against Igbos
Obiozor said those worked against the emergence of an Igbo presidential candidate in the two major political parties will live to enjoy the consequences of their actions.
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Presidential aspirants of Igbo extraction had lost in the primaries of the two mainstream political parties, with some failing to garner a single vote despite the call for the region to produce the next president based on equity, justice and fairness, and in the spirit of rotational presidency between the North and South.
Former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, from the South West won the APC presidential ticket, while former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, North-East, emerged the PDP flag-bearer in an election with controversial outcomes.
Meanwhile, Obiozor, who had remained silent about the outcomes of these conventions, decided to speak up on Saturday morning in a statement titled: “What does Nigeria want from Ndigbo?”
In the statement conveyed through the National Publicity Secretary of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Dr Alex Ogbonnia, the former Nigerian Ambassador to the U.S. said, “Now it is clear that the Nigerian national political elite have successfully orchestrated to deny the South-East an opportunity to produce the president of Nigeria come 2023.
“By this machination, some Nigerian leaders have demonstrated gross historic injustice towards Ndigbo, beyond our expectations.”
Obiozor, who is currently recuperating in a Dubai hospital noted that the country, by its deliberate injustice, has failed the Rotary Club International four-way tests, “which are: First – Of the things we think, say or do: Is it the TRUTH? Second – Is it FAIR to all concerned? Third – Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS? And Fourth – Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?”
He also urged Ndigbo not to lament much about the injustice but wait for posterity, adding that he's convinced that in the end, this political manipulation would end in “a Pyrrhic victory for those who rejoice and celebrate injustice.”
He, however, thanked Nigerian statesmen and patriots across the country who supported that call for a South-Eastern presidency in 2023 based on Nigerian proven history of rotation of power between the north.
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