Daily Independent Online.
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Wednesday, July 21, 2004.
Iwuanyanwu backs clamour for Igbo presidency
By Ben Duru
Correspondent,Owerri
Agitation for an Igbo man to become president in 2007
has got the support of the Publisher of Champion newspapers, Chief Emmanuel
Iwuanyanwu.
Iwuanyanwu who is a member of the People’s
Democratic Party (PDP) Board of Trustees said the stand of the Ndigbo is very
appropriate.
He said
it is auspicious for a Nigerian of Igbo extraction to emerge president in 2007
and that the Igbo have all it takes to produce a president that will become a
blessing to the country.
Speaking
with journalists in Owerri, he said Ohaneze has opened contacts with other
socio-cultural associations with a view to reaching an accord on the issue.
According to him, the major problem facing Ohaneze is
to try and dissuade those aspiring for vice president, insisting that the body
will only support those jostling for the number one position.
Iwuanyanwu said, “We in Ohaneze are aware of
Igbo people rooting for the position of vice president. We will try and discourage them.”
He said
the president of Igbo extraction also include those in Delta, Akwa Ibom,
Rivers, Bayelsa, Kogi, Benue and in other states where they are found, adding
that Ohaneze has already set in motion a system to bring all Igbo under one
umbrella.
He added that he was no longer interested in
contesting for the position that he strove hard to clinch several years back,
saying “I think we should give the youths a chance to succeed.”
Iwuanyanwu said he would not comment on those
jostling for the presidential ticket of the PDP, saying the party has taken a
stand on the aspirants and that it would be wrong for him to take another
position.
The
Ohaneze chieftain also corroborated the statement of President Olusegun
Obasanjo that the presidency for 2007 has not been zoned, saying that if
actually it was zoned to the South in 2003 both Alhaji Abubakar Rimi and Chief
Barnabas Gemade would not have contested against Obasanjo.
According to him the position of the party is that nobody
should claim anything until the convention in 2006, adding that, “General
Ibrahim Babangida is my friend but he has not even told me that he is running
for the post of president.”
He said the Igbo have all it takes to clinch the post
and that with the strategies of Ohaneze he was sure that nothing would come in
between Igbo and the presidency in 2007.
“I
believe in Ohanaeze’s position that Igbo should produce the
president. I believe in the cause
of Ndigbo and I also be believe that the presidency is attainable.”
