Former Governor of Enugu State, Okwesilieze Nwodo says the people of the South East have been heartbroken by the outcome of the presidential primaries of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressives Congress (APC).
Nwodo said the Igbos who had trusted that the two parties would deliver justice and allow the zone to produce their presidential candidates were devastated by the results of the primaries.
He stated this over the weekend at a brief thanksgiving ceremony held for the immediate past Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu in Abuja.
Nwodo said the people of the South East felt disenchanted by the manner the two leading political parties ignored the clamour for an Igbo Presidency.
He said: “Many of us from the South-East believe that after a presidency from the north, the presidency should return to the south and if it came to the south, one of the zones that it should go to is the south-east.
“We felt that it is a fact and that fact is looking for justice, looking for fairness and looking for equity. So if you go to the south-east, those of us in the PDP feel devastated because we have given that party our all and when it threw the presidency open, jettisoning our constitution, which is based on rotation and zoning of political offices, we were traumatised and still devastated after the primaries.
“Again, we looked forward that APC will zone the presidency to the south, since the Presidency has been in the north, and what they appeared to be doing was justice and we were hoping that justice will end up in the South East, but we saw how it ended.”
Nwodo stated that there must be justice for all the people in the country, stressing that the struggle for the Igbo presidency was not over until it is over.
He added that Igbos in the PDP would stay back and fight so hard to ensure Igbos would get their fair share if the party wins the presidency in the 2023 election.
Nwodo also admonished Igbo politicians in the APC to work hard to see that the people of the south-east don’t suffer the kind of marginalisation they suffered in the last seven years in the current administration.
“There must be justice to all its people not to some of its people. But you know, after all my efforts in the past few years to midwife an Igbo presidency which I look forward to being the highest achievement of my political career and see what happened so far.
“At 72 I have decided not to be emotional, but to look at the facts in the face,” he said.
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