Dr Law Mefor
By Timothy Elerewe
The battle for Presidency of Ibo extraction in 2023 has been ignited in Abuja. A group known as Igbo Leadership Development Foundation (ILDF) which initiated the discussion wanted the political situation that prevailed prior 1999 to be used for the Ibos in 2023 which has eminent leaders from the Souh East like the former Minister, Prof Chinedu Nebo, Prof Udenta Udenta, Dr Law Mefor and others as members, noted that it would not be in the interest of Nigeria not to have an Ibo man as president of the country come 2023
In a press conference addressed by Dr Law Mefor, ILDF said it was not particular about the personality of the Ibo man who might likely going to be thrown up for the race
The group said their concern was to see an Ibo man becomes the President of Nigeria after Buhari’s tenure
Mefor argued that the country was still facing challenges of national unity, integration and development which make Ibo presidency imperative.
“These challenges are borne out of the fact that the structure of the country and mode of governance has remained too dysfunctional, forcing most indices of development to stubbornly persist on the negative side.”The other side of the coin is the knotty issue of presidential power in Nigeria. “When the nation returned to democratic governance in 1999, a convention was struck on rotation of power between North and South Nigeria and between their zones. “This has led to the production of two Presidents from the North West of the country and one from South West and one from South South, leaving out the South South, Middle Belt and the North East in the equation” Mefor added.
He believed that in the same spirit of rotation, presidential power needed to return to South in 2023, and particularly to the South East since, he argued, it is the only zone yet to produce a president fr the Country in the present dispensation from the Southern divide.
He recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari, in his maiden media chat, challenged the South East people to organise and assert their rights within an indivisible, indissoluble Nigeria.
According to Mefor, the people of the South East would have to seek the support of the other zones to be able to realize their Ibo presidency aspiration
He added that it was the realisation of this fact that had informed the decision of ILDF in conjunction with Igbo Renaissance Foundation, World Igbo Summit Group and others to convene the Great Debate on Restructuring and Rotation of Presidential powers in Nigeria come January 30, 2020 in Abuja
