Echezona Okafor, NNEWI 
The apex Igbo sociocultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has set up a committee to visit Emirs and Obas to persuade them to support the emergence of a President of South East extraction in 2023.
The President of the Anambra State branch of Ohanaeze, Obi Chukwuemeka Udodeme, said this when an All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) presidential aspirant Prof. Peter Umeadi met with Ohanaeze leadership to inform them of his aspiration. Udodeme expressed concerns about the reports that the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are considering presenting northern candidates for the presidential election.
According to him, Ohanaeze Imeobi (the highest decision-making of Ohanaeze) will meet in Enugu to take far-reaching decisions on the 2023 Igbo presidency. He commended Umeadi, a former Chief Judge of Anambra, for presenting himself to serve Nigeria at the highest level.
Umeadi pledged to administer the country with firmness and fairness and reposition Nigeria to the path of progress, harmony and prosperity. He said: “Uppermost in my mind is how to reconcile with ourselves across the length and breadth of our dear country, Nigeria.
It is not possible for us to achieve economic, educational, scientific, sporting, or sufficiency breakthroughs when we are hungry, insecure, and unstable.
“Nigerians are traumatized on a daily basis from the killings, displacements, disorganisation of business and social life with attendant difficulty to sustain economic, commercial and domestic life. These are issues on the front burner as was progress to the polls for the office of the President on 25/2/2023. With all modesty, I have the initiative and capacity to reposition Nigeria in four years if I am elected as President in 2023.
“My antecedents and mettle guide me to step out with the triple banner of the rule of law, separation of powers and due process, which should engender security for life and property, economic revitalization and prosperity, which in itself represents a fulfilled and happy life.
These issues should be at the core of our rejuvenation as a nation. “We know that insecurity amongst other fallout has driven our people away from the farms creating artificial scarcity of food and earning power.
We live with the dilemma of funding and even making long-term plans on camps harbouring Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) when the country is neither at war nor struck by a major natural disaster.”
