Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri
As the clamour for an Igbo president of southeastern extraction intensifies, a political pressure group, the Nigeria Presidential Project (NPP), has indicated that it has started mobilising political parties to support the project.
The National Publicity Secretary of the group, Tony Nwachukwu, told Daily Sun in Owerri that prominent Igbo people in the course of their mobilisation tour would seek their consent to key into the campaign.
He further disclosed that the NPP has written to the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), the main opposition party, People’s Democratic Party (PDP), and other parties to zone their presidential candidates to the South-East to enable it to produce the next president in 2023.
Nwachukwu warned against electing a national chairman of a major party from the zone, saying it may automatically shift the presidential slot to another zone.
‘You can’t be talking of zoning presidency to the south when a southerner Is the chairman of a political party. For instance, PDP should restructure their operational system, maybe zone their national chairman to the North and thereafter distribute their position the way it should be. If they don’t do that, maybe a northern presidential candidate will run on their platform.
‘When we pressure political parties to zone their presidential candidates to the South-East, what we are doing is that we are positioning Ndigbo to test run their ballot power in 2023,’ he said.