2023 PRESIDENCY: The South East At Crossroads.

Chekwas Okorie.

Felix Nwaneri reports that the quest by the people of the South East to produce Nigeria’s next president in 2023 hangs in the balance given the disposition of the leadership of the ruling all Progressives Congress (APC) and main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which many believe are the only veritable platforms to power at the moment Barely 14 months to the 2023 presidential election, Nigeria’s political landscape is agog with permutations, especially as to which region between the North and South and even geopolitical zone should produce the country’s next president.

Barely 14 months to the 2023 presidential election, Nigeria’s political landscape is agog with permutations, especially as to which region between the North and South and even geopolitical zone should produce the country’s next president.

The belief in most quarters power is that power will shift to the South in 2023 given the zoning arrangement between the country’s two geographical divides – North and South – which took effect from 1999.

The present democratic dispensation is 22 years old and the power rotation arrangement, though not constitutional, has seen the South had the presidency for 13 years through Chief Olusegun Obasanjo (South-West, 1999-2007) and Goodluck Jonathan (South-South, 2010- 2015).

For Chief Chekwas Okorie, a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and a chieftain of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the clamour for a president of South-East extraction in 2023 is still feasible despite the disposition of the leadership of the APC and PDP.

“The clamour for a president of Igbo extraction will not die down because it is a project that its time has come. This is the first time in the history of Nigeria that Ndigbo are getting endorsements from across Nigeria to produce the president.

So, there is no way the Igbo people will not seize the opportunity to insist on producing the next president in 2023. “Though I understand that the office of the president is not served a la carte but one must be given the opportunity to aspire for it.

It is clear that the two leading parties are not looking towards the South-East for their respective presidential candidates but there is still a window for an Igbo man to emerge as president in 2023 as between now and early next year, there will be a lot of political realignment,” Okorie told the New Telegraph.