Anambra State Governor, Charles Soludo has hinted that the agitation for the Igbo presidency may not be possible in 2023.
According to him, though he wishes one of the Igbo candidates seeking the presidency in 2023 emerges victorious at the polls, stark realities on the ground indicate otherwise.
According to the Governor, rather than focus on the 2023 presidency, Igbos in the country can “strategize and bargain especially with the two candidates likely to be president on at least four central issues,” while leaders of the region start “charting a pragmatic future for Ndigbo in Nigeria after the elections.”
Soludo said the release of the detained Biafra agitator, Nnamdi Kanu, actualization of the southeast economic transformation agenda promised after the civil war, restructuring of Nigeria, and full participation of the Ndigbo in governance and politics are some things the Ndigbo should pursue.
The Anambra Governor in a statement on Monday advised that “Ndigbo should strategize and bargain especially with the TWO candidates likely to be president on at least four central issues:
A) Lasting peace and security in the South East, including the release and engagement with Nnamdi Kanu.
B) South East Economic transformation agenda and the FGN’s Marshall Plan for the South East as promised since the end of the Civil War (the post war ‘reconstruction’). We appreciate the Second Niger Bridge and recent contract for MTN to reconstruct the Onitsha-Enugu expressway. But the rail-lines to the five state capitals, speedy access to the sea, highways linking South East to the North and South South, addressing our existential threat as gully erosion capital of Africa, Free Trade and Export Processing Zones, etc.
C) Restructuring Agenda for Nigeria that devolves powers/resources to the subnational entities and in which it would no longer matter where the President comes from.
D) Levelling the playing field for the unleashing of the private sector and the full participation of Ndigbo in the economic and governance space; etc.”