By VINCENT IKUOMOLA, Abuja

Ijaw Leader, Chief Edwin Clark, has thrown his weight behind the call for emergence of an Igbo President in 2023.

Clark, a former national Commissioner, said it was in the interest of fairness and justice for President Muhammadu Buhari’s successor to come from the South East.

He however urged the region to put its house in order to actualise the dream of producing the next President.

He spoke at the weekend when he received Ohaneze Ndigbo and some South East leaders led by President General, Professor George Obiazor to who paid him a courtesy visit at his Asokoro residence, Abuja.

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 late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe.

“I knew him when I was twenty years old when he visited Warri, we trekked twelve miles to come and see him.

“We are supporting the South East region. Anybody from Midwest, anybody from 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 am an 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 stabilise 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 fighting 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 their own point, but at the same time, they should also listen to us.” (The Nation)

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