LEADING Igbo leader and elder statesman, Chief Mbazulike Amechi has reacted to the recent statement credited to the Northern Elders Forum, NEF, Coalition of Northern Groups, CNG, Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, and other conveners of the Northern Peoples Summit, that they would not be stampeded or blackmailed into taking major decisions about rotating the Presidency, but rather want restructuring.
Mbazulike, one of the founding fathers of Nigeria, agreed that in an ideal situation, a President of Nigeria could come from any part of the federation. But he reminded the Northern leaders that the Nigerian situation is not ideal because all the component units of Nigeria as presently constituted are not as the founding fathers of the country created or inherited them from the British administration.
According to him, the long military government in Nigeria created a lot of imbalance in the country and truncated the whole system and arrangement to favour the North.
Chief Amechi therefore, urged the North not to use their sudden acceptance of restructuring in Nigeria to change the generally accepted Nigerian President of Igbo extraction, warning that such action will throw Nigeria into intractable crisis that may end its existence.
He also warned the two major political parties in Nigeria that if they fail to nominated an Igbo man as their presidential candidates for the 2023 presidential election, he will personally lead Igbo people’s boycott of the election.