The rumoured planned defection of former President Goodluck Jonathan to APC has become very strong now and as we know, in every rumour there must be an element of truth. This is why the truism of the rumoured plan cannot be completely ruled out.
However, whether the former President finally defected to the APC or not, one thing he has to do with all his followers all over Nigeria is to support a Nigerian Executive President of Igbo extraction. The reasons he must do so are not farfetched.
The Igbo nation and majority of the Igbo population gave President Jonathan unprecedented support, solidarity and loyalty during his years as President of Nigeria. In fact, the Igbos saw him as their own and proudly named him Nnamdi Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan in reminiscence of the late sage, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe. When President Jonathan emerged President of Nigeria after the death of President Yar'Adua in 2009, he enjoyed humongous Igbo support that had never been heard of in Igboland. This humongous support was later translated to votes at the polls in the 2011 presidential election which President Jonathan won under the platform of the PDP.
Besides the huge support which the generality of the Igbos gave to President Jonathan, he also had many Igbos in his cabinet like Prof. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala and many other Igbo technocrats who consolidated his administration. The records are there and these records are unimpeachable. Though President Jonathan lost the 2015 presidential election to President Buhari of the APC, the votes he garnered from ala Igbo were amazing and it is verifiable.
Therefore, the time for reciprocity has come. There has been no other time in the history of Nigeria that the Igbos have shown remarkable seriousness in their agitation for a Nigerian Executive President of Igbo extraction than now; this is so much so that His Excellency, Engr. Dr. David Nweze Umahi, Fnse, Fnate the Governor of Ebonyi State and Chairman Southeast Governors' Forum had to dump the PDP for the APC in protest of the party's denial of the Igbo race the opportunity of becoming President of Nigeria for over two decades and still counting. It is for this reason that it behoves former President Jonathan to reciprocate the goodwill he enjoyed from the Igbo nation when he was the President of Nigeria.
Again, the former President should ignore and disregard the sponsored clamour for him to make himself available for President in 2023 by anti-Igbo crusaders who only want to pitch him against the collective interest of Nd'Igbo. We believe that the former President did not forget anything in the Aso Rock he occupied for six years and would not want to attempt to come back. This is our chance; it is the turn of the Igbos to produce the next Executive President of Nigeria and former President Jonathan should not as a matter of morality be part of any attempt to scuttle it.
We wish to reiterate that whether former President Jonathan has the intention of defecting to the APC or not, let his ultimate motive be to lend his political heavyweight to the clamour for a Nigerian Executive President of Igbo extraction which Governor Umahi is leading at the fronts, and not to subvert it because the relationship between the Igbo nation and the Ijaw nation still subsist and should be ultimately respected.
Ogbuatu Chidi Simbad is the
State Publicity Secretary APC, Ebonyi State.
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