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New Page 14
... Our expectations, by
Ume-Ezeoke, Makarfi, Fasehun
IHEANACHO NWOSU, Lagos, ALPHONSUS
NWEZE, Onitsha and JOHN SHIKLAM, Kaduna
WITH three
years still left for the 2007 general elections, the touchstone matter of which
zone will produce President Olusegun Obasanjo’s successor, weekend, took the
front burner of political discourse, with three prominent politicians
admonishing that the issue should be given matured handling.
Kaduna State governor, Alhaji Ahmed
Makarfi, Second republic Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chief Edwin
Ume-Ezeoke and President of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), Dr. Fredrick
Fasheun, in unanimity of voice recommended that the contentious issue should be
approached with the ultimate political maturity and in the best interest of
national inclusiveness
The trio spoke in separate interviews with
Sunday Champion. Makarfi, known for his persistent campaign that the plum
position should return to the North geo-political and who had openly disagreed
with President Obasanjo’s statement that no zone has been ceded that presidency,
tilted a little from his hardline position. He said the top post should be for
grabs by every eligible Nigerians.
"Everybody has the right to be president
of Nigeria," he said.
But Ume-Ezeoke and Fasheun emphatically
said the South-East geopolitical zone should be allowed to produce the next
president. They argued that conceding the slot to the zone will achieve two
missions: heal the wounds of the past and foster national unity as well as
address impression in some quarters that the presidency is a preserve of any geo
political zone.
"The only thing we can do is to allow the
third leg of the tripod to test the seat of power," Ume-Ezeoke said, adding
"otherwise the reason will be that we are being alienated for one reason or the
other."
Fasheun also argued in the same line
saying, "If Nigeria is standing on a tripod three major tribes — the
Hausa/Fulani, Yoruba and Igbo. The Hausa had had the lion share of governance of
the polity. The Yoruba people had to fight politically before they could get a
touch of the cake, the third leg should be given a chance."
According to him, social justice and
equity demand that the position should go to the South-East. He warned that not
doing so would amount to nothing less of deliberately shortchanging the people
of the zone and heating the system.
His words: "If the Hausa-Fulani had had
their own turn, the Yoruba had had their own turn and you are allowing the power
to shift back to the Hausa-Fulani, then you are not doing justice to the third
leg," asking "would you then allow the third leg to be passive?
However, rationalising why he is leading
the campaign that the presidency should go back to the north, Makarfi, who
restated his objection to the position of President Obasanjo on the matter,
submitted that the National Executive of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
zoned the office to the north
He insisted that his position on the issue
was right advising that "Nigerians should learn to say the truth, even if it is
bitter."
But Ume-Ezeoke sharply disagreed with the governor, arguing that the truth of
the matter was that the South-east deserved to have the presidency ceded to it.
Apart from supporting other zones in the
past for the position, the former presidential aspirant stressed that the zone
has made enormous contributions for the sustenance and corporate existence of
Nigeria. "I will never be convinced that an Igbo will not be president," he
said.
Reflecting on the performance of the
National Assembly especially the House of Representatives, the former speaker
accused the two chambers of lacking focus and concentrating so much on money.
Drawing a comparison between the second
republic Assembly he served and the incumbent one, Ume-Ezeoke contended that the
two were sharply opposed.
While, according to him his era was marked
by lawmakers who were committed to the service of the nation and who paid less
attention to frivolities, the incumbent Assembly lack credibility and self
respect.
He accused many of the National Assembly
members of winning elections through fraudulent means, a development he said,
made them to lose focus of their constitutional responsibilities.
"Nigerians know that many of them were
elected in a manner inconsistent with our constitution," he argued.
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