Chief Ayo Adebanjo, the head of the pan-Yoruba socio-political party Afenifere, has endorsed proposals for an Igbo president in 2023.
The elder statesman declared in an interview on Channels Television on Wednesday that it is time for the South East to produce President Muhammadu Buhari’s successor.
He said that the South East has been denied the president since the country’s founding, and that it is only fair and equitable that the presidency be given to the area in 2023.
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The 94-year-old believes that the federal character idea was created to accommodate the North, but that concessions for the South-East should also be made.
“Is the federal nature in the constitution not to accommodate the North, to accommodate less developed areas?” he said.
“It doesn’t help the unity of this country if anybody is talking about merit now. It is because of the heterogeneity of the country to keep us together that the question of this rotation comes in, to accommodate ourselves as much as possible. Why do you want to overlook that now? Coming to the South for the 2023 presidential candidate is the equity, moral, and principle, except we are deceiving ourselves.”
Adebanjo asserted that the South-West has occupied the Presidency for sixteen years, while the South-South had also produced the President.
The elder statesman added that the South-East had been denied the Presidency which is far too long.
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“How can you say rotation in the North and South, and when it comes to the South, it would be South-West and South-South every time? Is the South-East not part of the South? What is the moral we are talking about?
“Is it not the South-West that has served Obasanjo for eight years, Osinbajo for another eight years as Vice President? South-South has served its own. Is the South-East not part of the South? That is the question we should answer,” he said.
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