Igbo pleads with North for 2007 Presidency

[Richard Akindele]

Faced with the reality that given all indices, the North may get the presidency in 2007, the South-east geo-political zone has pleaded that the North to offer one more sacrifice by allowing a candidate from the Igbo extraction emerge the next President of Nigeria.

Special Adviser to Governor Achike Udenwa of Imo State, Honourable Elvis Agukwe,said in Lagos that it was the sacrifice from the North that made a candidate from the South-west emerge in 1999, thus pleading that similar gesture should be extended to the South-east if injustices of the past must be redressed.

Agukwe, who just returned from Miami, Florida, United States for the Orlu Political Consultative Assembly, said the South-east as a major player in Nigeria should not be denied such opportunity.

Premising his argument on the tripod (North, East and West) upon which the country was put together, Agukwe said the other two regions have had their share except the East, which deserves to produce the next president.

"So, to complete this tripod, we are appealing to our brothers in the North to make one more sacrifice, just one more sacrifice like they did in 1998/1999, by allowing the South-east to produce the next president.

"Though, we are not unaware of the agreement, but we are saying they should consider the case of the South-east," he said.

Commenting on Udenwa's ambition, Agukwe dismissed likely insinuations that it could be one of such designs to upset the polity.

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