Campaigners for Nigerian President in 2023 from the South-East Zone, at the weekend, formed a coalition to deepen their advocacy and quests of a southeastern becoming president after the incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Coalition, christened “Coalition of South-East Presidency 2023, which urged those angling for the office outside the region to queue behind its aspirants, said the coming together of the campaigners would help them to continue to mobilise and sensitise the polity until every zone accepts that it is the turn of the South-East to rule the country after Buhari.
Members of the coalition are South-East for Presidency 2023 (SEFORP2023), Igbo National Council (INC), Pan Nigerian Presidency of Igbo Extraction (PANPIEC), Ohanaeze Youth Council (OYC) and Coalition of all Nigerian Support Groups (CNSG).
They vowed to resist any Igbo man or woman that would accept to play second fiddle to any politician outside the geo-political zone angling to be president in 2023, stressing that anything other than the number one position of the country was not acceptable to the zone.
In a resolution reached at their meeting, the Coalition insisted that political power at the highest level in the land had eluded the South-East since the independence of the country, stressing that it had supported other zones to become president and should now be supported to produce the president.
They, therefore, implored political parties in the country to cede their presidential ticket to the South-East zone as a way of integrating people into the mainstream of the Nigerian polity, explaining that the zone had not been fairly treated in the scheme of things.
The groups also encouraged more sons and daughters of Igboland in various political parties to indicate interest in the plum position, assuring that they would work to ensure their success at the polls.
They said the membership of the group was open to other advocacy groups in the campaign for the realisation of president for South-East in 2023.
Earlier, National Co-ordinator of SEFORP2023, Rev. Okechukwu Obioha, who summoned the meeting where the coalition was formed, said the idea would help them speak with one voice and be more focused.
He said the success of the formation of the Coalition was an indication that the South-East was ready and would stop at nothing in ensuring that it grabs political power in 2023.