By Emmanuel Iheaka
OWERRI — The Igbo Heroes and Icons Foundation (IHIF) has rejected moves by the Renewed Hope for Greater Nigeria (RHGN), a campaign group supporting President Bola Tinubu, to persuade former Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, to withdraw from the 2027 presidential race.
RHGN, through its Deputy National Leader (South-East), Mazi Franklin Ngoforo, had announced plans to meet Igbo leaders, including Ohanaeze Ndigbo and former Commonwealth Secretary-General, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, to persuade Obi to support Tinubu’s bid to complete eight years in office.
However, in a statement on Sunday, the National Coordinator of IHIF, Chinedu Nsofor, urged the group to allow Obi to exercise his constitutional right to contest the election.
IHIF, which is campaigning for a president of Igbo extraction in 2027, has adopted Obi as its preferred candidate for the election.
Nsofor challenged RHGN to instead mobilise support for the Igbo presidency project and prevail on Tinubu to step down for Obi in the 2027 election, saying such a move would promote equity, justice and fairness.
He said Nigerians should be allowed to freely choose their preferred candidate at the polls.
“In any civilised clime, conscience based on equity, fairness and justice supremely prevails in all dealings. This fairness, equity and justice guarantee unity, peace, progress and national cohesion, particularly in a country like Nigeria where cultural and tribal diversities are highly pronounced,” Nsofor said.
He argued that the Igbo had made significant sacrifices for Nigeria’s unity and deserved an opportunity to produce the president.
According to him, the rotation of the presidency since 1999 had largely favoured the North and South-West.
Nsofor noted that former President Olusegun Obasanjo, a Yoruba, served for eight years, while former Presidents Umaru Yar’Adua and Muhammadu Buhari, both from the North, served a combined 11 years. He added that former President Goodluck Jonathan, from the South-South, served for five years.
“After Buhari’s tenure in May 2023, every right-thinking Nigerian expected that it was to be the turn of the Igbo to produce the successor to Buhari. But that was not to be,” he said.
Nsofor further argued that the Yoruba and Hausa-Fulani had dominated the presidency over the years, while the Igbo had not had a sustained opportunity to lead the country since independence.
He said the Igbo had only occupied the presidency for about six months on an interim basis, while the Yoruba and Hausa-Fulani had each produced presidents for considerably longer periods.
The IHIF coordinator also questioned the application of the federal character principle, asking whether an Igbo jurist had ever been appointed Chief Justice of Nigeria despite the contributions of eminent Igbo jurists.
Nsofor, however, urged Nigerians to prioritise competence over ethnicity and religion when choosing their leaders in 2027.
“Let us avoid electing a leader that does not know the balance of ninety-seven percent removed from hundred percent… University graduates should be preferred to school certificate holders for presidential candidate; not graduates without certificates,” he said.
He said the 2027 election presented an opportunity to change the pattern of political leadership in the country.
“Doing one thing in the same way every time will not give a different result. Let us shift this national leadership base to this untried tribe — the Igbo tribe — and see what happens.
“The forthcoming 2027 presidential election is the golden opportunity to explore this governmental leadership revolutionary change,” he stated.
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