President Muhammadu Buhari has been urged to forgive the hostility of some Igbo youths and work to put a southeasterner in Aso Rock when he leaves office in 2023
APC BoT member, Okoloagu, a retired brigadier-general, made the plea on behalf of the people of the southeast
Okoloagu noted that it is only fair to let the Igbos, the third-largest nation in Nigeria, pick the country’s next leader
A member of the All Progressives Congress (APC’s) Board of Trustees (BoT), Joseph Okoloagu, has pleaded with President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure that he is succeeded by someone from the southeastern part of Nigeria in 2023.
The retired brigadier-general made the plea in an interview he had with a national newspaper, Daily Trust, where he also pleaded with President Buhari to forgive the hostility of some Igbo youths towards him.
He said: “I humbly appeal to my revered President Buhari to ignore the hostility of the Igbo youths against him and his administration and be a nobleman, to make sure at the end of his tenure, an Igbo man succeeds him.
Okoloagu noted that for the sake of equality, the southeastern should be allowed to produce the country’s next president in 2023.
“I want to make it abundantly clear that it is fair and proper to let the Igbo have a shot at the presidency. But it can only be done on a party platform. If the party the Igbos are using now is okay to give them the presidency, so be it.
“But if the party they have been patronizing is not strong enough to give them the presidency, what I am advocating is that, for peace, equity and good conscience, there should be a president of Igbo extraction and not necessarily an Igbo president when Buhari leaves office in 2023.”
Okoloagu’s plea came just days after President Buhari on Tuesday, December 17, said that he would not allow anyone to use his name to campaign for votes in the bid to compromise the 2023 presidential election.
The president said this when he was paid a visit by Secretary to Federal Government (SGF) Boss Mustapha alongside his aides to celebrate the Nigerian leader’s 77 birthday.
He promised Nigerians that he will give them free and fair general elections in 2023.
Specifically, the president said he would not make the mistake of attempting a third term and went on to enumerate reasons why he would not seek another term.
Buhari’s announcement has since thrown open the floodgates of intentions among politicians.