The Director-General, Nigeria Film Corporation (NFC), Dr Chidia Maduekwe, has said President Muhammadu Buhari has no problem with an Igbo man becoming the next President of the country come 2023.
Maduekwe said this during an interaction with newsmen in his Ohafia country home in Abia State, to mark his 68th birthday. “It is not true that the president does not want a president of Igbo extraction, rather he is supportive of the cause,” Maduekwe said.
He added: “In 2007, he (Buhari) also selected another prominent Igbo man, Chief Edwin Ume-Ezeoke, as his running mate (after having chosen Dr. Chuba Okadigbo in 2003). “It is possible that either of these two Igbo personalities could have succeeded him, if Buhari was elected in 2003 or 2007.”
The call for an Igbo man to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari has in recent times been heightened. Though Southern Governors Forum has earlier resolved that the next President of the country should come from the zone, it has not been resolved which geopolitical zone should have the day.
The Southeast being the only zone that has not produced the country’s President since return of democracy in 1999 is said to be favored in this political permutation. There are concerns however that the APC is not deeply rooted in the Southeast region.
