Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State has reminded Igbos of the Southeast Nigeria that becoming the President of the country in the 2023 election would not be on a platter of gold.
The governor said that Nigeria’s presidency in 2023 is a national question that requires negotiation, discussion and conversation with all parts of the country.
Answering reporters’ questions yesterday, December 30 at the Presidential villa, Abuja, governor Ikpeazu stressed that an Igbo presidency in 2023 cannot and should not be a “matter of right but something that should be achieved through negotiations and conversations.
“The question of Nigeria’s president of southeast extraction is a national question that require negotiation, discussion and conversation with all parts of this country and I am least qualified to determine what happened in 2023.
“I also want to spend my time supporting the incumbent president to do his time and do his best while we wait for what happens to begin to unfold. So, these are my views about the presidency.”
The governor, who believed however that Igbos deserved to be considered for the presidency, said that political parties must consider the yearnings and aspirations of the Southeast in selecting their presidential candidate.
This was even as he dismissed the rumour about his presidential ambition, saying:”I’m not interested in the presidency. I’m very busy as governor and thinking about what I will become now will amount to shortchanging my people who gave me a mandate for an initial four years and renewed it for another four years and it will terminate around May 2023.
“We are yet in 2021 and it will be self-serving for me to begin to think about what I will become instead of concentrating on serving my people for time they elected me.
“May be after 2023, I will begin to think about what next I will do. Having said that, I think that the south easterners have a right to take a shot at the presidency of Nigeria and I dare say that our qualification starts from the fact that we understand and know Nigeria better than the other states of Nigeria.”
