2023 presidency: Southeast leaders give verdict, send warning message to APC, PDP

 The southeast leaders have intensified efforts to produce President Buhari’s successor in 2023

Anyim Pius, the former SGF, urged the PDP and APC to cede the ticket to the southeast

The leaders, however, noted that they are ready to vote for Igbo candidate regardless of the party

In their efforts to achieve presidential ambition in 2023, the southeast leaders across political parties have begged the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to cede the ticket to the zone in the spirit of justice and national harmony.

The Nation reports that some Igbo leaders said on Tuesday, January 5, that any party that does not zone its 2023 presidential ticket to the southeast would not get the region’s votes.

Leakblast.com gathered that this was part of resolutions reached at the end of a bi-partisan meeting of southeast political leaders at the Camp Neya, Igbere, in Abia state.

In a communique signed by Senate chief whip, Orji Uzor Kalu, former deputy Senate president, Ike Ekweremadu, former Senate president, Anyim Pius Anyim and others, the Igbo leaders said the region has demonstrated belief in Nigeria to deserve the presidency.

The leaders told the PDP and the APC that they would only vote for Igbo presidential candidates regardless of the party, stressing that the region has been marginalised despite its political and economic contributions to the country.

The communique reads in part:

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“We implore Nigerians across political, ethnic, religious and geopolitical divides and persuasions to support the people of the southeast geopolitical zone to produce a Nigerian president of southeast extraction as a mark of good faith and to promote justice and national harmony.”

The leaders said that what they seek is a Nigerian president of southeast extraction, one that would work to further unite and develop every part of the country.

They added that such a person would be president of all Nigerians irrespective of their political, ethnic, and religious backgrounds, ensuring that all citizens and every part of the country are given a sense of belonging and treated with the utmost sense of justice.