Director General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), Osita Okechukwu, has advised his fellow Igbo to vote for President Buhari in 2019.
Okechukwu called on the President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief John Nnia Nwodo, to be pragmatic, strategic and introspective in advancing the interest of Ndigbo.
He admitted that that there are fault lines, but advised that it should not warrant abuses since President Buhari had congratulated Nwodo and offered him an olive branch on the latter’s assumption of office.
According to him, Nwodo should have compiled all Ndigbo’s grievances and meet with President Buhari for discussion.
“Is this how to regain lost grounds? Chief Nwodo wants to repeat the costly mistake of Dr Joe Nworgu,” Okechukwu queried.
On the debates on Igbo presidency, Okechukwu said the best thing for Ndigbo is to vote for Buhari in 2019 and then rely on the zoning convention to harvest the benefits in 2023.
He recalled that Ndigbo did not vote for Buhari in 2015 and time has come again for them to vote in 2019 and then reap the benefits in 2023.
His words: “There are two contending issues in the political domain. One is the law with its legal teeth. It is written. It can pull down any mountain.
“The other one is the convention. It is not written but with its moral weight, it can also pull down mountains.
“For Igbo presidency to be germane, we must key into the convention. So that we could harvest the goodwill on our side because we have done a small analysis; when you come to Lagos and ask any indigene of Lagos to stay on one side and the next ethnic group, it is the Igbos.
“When you come to Kano, you tell the truly Kano indigenes to stay one side, the next group is ? Ndigbo.
“We are only third in four states-Edo,Kwara, Niger and Kaduna. We are one of the most acceptable groups in the country. So, the country is waiting for us.
“The convention has weight and mark you, like I told some Northern friends, the Igbo president will be a win-win situation because the Igboman will accommodate all sections.
“And he will bring the entrepreneurship to bear on the economy and the growth of the country. I told them that it is going to be useful to the whole country if a proper Igboman becomes President, not a lackey. We should look for the best within our crowd.”
Meanwhile, a chieftain of the Progressive People’s Alliance (PPA), Chief Ndubue Iko has urged support for a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction in 2019.
Iko, a PPA candidate for Arochukwo/Ohafia federal constituency in the 2015 general elections, said that an Igbo president was long overdue.