Atiku 2023: How It Will Favour The Igbos -By Alozie Alozie
I am writing this article as a way of providing answers to two questions that I have continued to faced with any time I discuss the Atiku 2023 presidency project that was made public by his son Adamu Abubakar that the former vice president will still seek the office of the President for the sixth time in 2023.
On numerous occasions, I have been asked by friends, a few political analysts, and people who I have been opportune to sit with and discuss the current situation in Nigeria what I think of 2023 and the clamour by the Igbos for the 2023 Presidency to be zoned to them.
Last week, during an argument with a much older friend on the state of things in Nigeria, the scorecard of the Buhari led administration and on Atiku Abubakar, he repeated these questions and asked what I think of 2023. Just like I was able to state my stand to my friend, I will be using this article to do same. One issue that has occupied the Igbo political space for a long time is the issue of restructuring. Supporters of restructuring like myself have continued to state that Nigeria must be restructured now if we want to get things right, we must diversify our economy as the world is shifting away from oil and moving to other things.
In a book titled, We are all Biafrans, Journalist and Human Right activist Chido Onumah noted that, “Nobody can fix Nigeria the way it is presently structured” and that Nigeria must be restructured politically, economically and Nigerians must also be re-orientated to believe in the Nigerian dream if we are to get things right. The Igbos clamor for who will bring economic development to the South East and Nigeria at large and that can be done through restructuring and must, therefore, support a candidate who is pro-restructuring in the next general elections.
An Igbo Presidency at this moment is only visible with the support of the presidency which the Igbos seems to lack at this moment. Morally speaking, the Igbos deserves the presidency but power is never given, it is taken and the Igbos must be ready to be pro-active in this quest.
Will an Igbo Presidency bring development to the region? I strong doubt following that we have had Igbo personalities in all positions at the Federal level apart from the office of the president yet we are still lacking in basic infrastructure in the region. Every region needs development, and it is better we support a candidate who will bring development to the region.
Atiku Abubakar has over time proved that the Igbos stands to gain more with him by going against all odds to pick Peter Obi as his running mate in 2019. He has remained at the fore front of the call to restructure Nigeria which to me is more needed now more than an Igbo Presidency. No Igbo political leader is even pushing to restructure the country. The North West have had more people occupy the office of the President in Nigeria today yet they are still regarded as one of the poorest regions in Nigeria, it simply shows that occupying an office doesn’t necessarily mean development for the people of the person occupying that seat. Today, the NDDC has become a cash dispensing machine for the leaders of the Niger Delta yet their people are still improvised.
Everybody wants development and the northern region that has produced more presidents than any other region in Nigeria is today regarded as the least developed and least educated region in the country. It all centers on bad governance.
All we need, all we want is a Nigeria that works.
ALOZIE ALOZIE
DG CAMPAIGN STREAM
