Elder statesman, Edwin Clark has said that President Muhammadu Buhari’s successor should come from the South-East geo-political zone.
The National leader of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) said this when he received the leadership of Ohanaeze Ndigbo and some South-east leaders led by the President General, Professor George Obiazor.
Clark averred that it will be abominable and condemnable if any Igbo speaking person from Delta and Rivers States aspires for the exalted position because they speak Igbo.
He warned that the South-East region must put its house in order, work in unison and as one indivisible zone with other regions to achieve its goal of producing the next President.
Clark said;
“The era we have reached now is that we have agreed to work together; how do we go on, how do we move on? I think that is the stage we have reached.”
“I don’t belong to any political party, but I speak my mind. The man who brought politics into Nigeria was the late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, I knew him when I was 20 years when he visited Warri, we trekked 12 miles to see him.
“Some of the problems we are having today in Delta was as a result of the support for Azikiwe and without that, we would not have gotten Midwest region that later became Bendel State and now Edo and Delta States. We are together, we are one.
“We are supporting the South East Region. Anybody from Midwest, Oshimili South and North, Aniocha South and North, Ika, Agbor or Ukwani, if you say I am ready to be the President of Nigeria because I speak Igbo, that is punishable because when you do something that people don’t like, it is abominable.
“I have said it, all the Igbos in Anioma, Rivers, in Delta, where ever they are, this is the time for Igbo, South-east President. We have the same problem, when we went to the 2014 National Conference, we said that the South-east has five states, they should be given additional states so that everyone will have same states like in other zones if that will stable Nigeria, create them.
“We want the President coming after Buhari to come from the South East; we are together.
“Let me advise, if you must fight a war or fight for anything at all, we must put our house in order. What do we do with other voices that are not in tandem with our voices? We must find a way to see what can be done, they have own point, but at the same time, they should also listen to us.”
