From Teryima Ajijah, Jos
Izu-Umunna Cultural Association (IUCA), a pan-Igbo think-tank affiliated of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has urged national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for fairness and justice to zone its Presidency to South East.
A press text issued by the group in Jos, Plateau state, Wednesday, jointly signed by its President, Dr Ugo Pat Ihekuna and Secretary, Dr Elvis Chukwu, insisted that someone from the Igbo extraction must be made to contest 2023 Presidency on the platform of the PDP.
It advanced that “the Igbo have consistently supported the PDP since its inception in 1999 and have paid the prize for this unalloyed support and loyalty.”
It revealed that zoning is constitutional in the PDP, and it should be respected and followed accordingly.
“The PDP constitution recognizes zoning as a cardinal feature of distribution of offices/positions and the party has implemented this policy diligently and strictly over the years,” the statement read.
It noted that the South East geo-political zone in Nigeria has severally been denied the opportunity of ruling Nigeria in the presidency capacity.
“By political history, and reality in Nigeria, the South East is the only region that has never produced an Executive President,” it noted.
It stressed that “those in doubt of this fact should check the historical chart of the past and present executives who ruled Nigeria.”
It however, noted that late Maj. Gen. Aguiyi Ironsi was privileged to have ruled Nigeria, but for a brief period of just six months.
The group noted that some top Nigerian politicians sabotaged the South East when an opportunity came for the zone to produce a democratically elected President of Nigeria.
“Even when we had the most eligible presidential candidate in the person of late Chief Alex Ekwueme, a founding member of the (PDP) party, his ambition was thwarted by some politicians, who later owned up to this in interview with the media,” the group maintained.