Chukwumerije insists on 2015 Igbo Presidency

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Education, Senator Uche Chukwumerije, has called for political restructuring of Nigeria that will redress the alleged injustice that has been done the Igbo nation since the end of the civil war.

Chukwumerije made the call on Friday at the Federal Polytechnic, Oko, Anambra State, while delivering a lecture to mark the 80th birthday of former Vice-President, Dr. Alex Ekwueme.

The former Secretary of Information under the Gen. Ibrahim Babangida administration said the creation of an additional state for the South-East geopolitical zone and the zoning of the election of an Igbo President in 2015 were two immediate measures that could start the process of fully rehabilitating the Igbo into the Nigerian polity.

The lecture was titled, ‘The Igbo and the Nigerian political space: The path to self-rehabilitation,’ and was organised by the Federal Polytechnic, Oko, which was founded by Ekwueme.

Chukwumerije also called on the Federal Government to upgrade the polytechnic to a university of science and technology and rename it after Ekwueme.

He, however, said for the Igbo to regain their glorious past, they must unite and fashion out a marshal plan for their political, cultural and economic transformation.

He also called on the Federal Government to rehabilitate federal roads in the South-East, construct the Second Niger Bridge, and reactivate the cement plant at Nkalagu and the power plant at Oji River.

He said there must be a visible effort to industrialise the zone, while policies like federal character and emphasis on state of origin which further emasculates the Igbo should be abolished.

But for the Igbo to resume their rightful place in Nigeria, Chukwumerije said they must adopt a positive mental attitude and focus on areas where they had comparative advantage and strategy.

He said what happened to the Igbo had happened to other peoples around the world like the Japanese, the Jews and the Italians; but that the people rose from the ashes of their fall and became great again.

Former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, who discussed Chukwumerije’s lecture, declared that Ndigbo would rise again, saying attention must be paid to recommendations of Ekwueme, as encapsulated in what he called, ‘Ekwuemenomics.’

Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State said Ekwueme’s life represented a process whereby people who toiled hard were celebrated, and not those whose source of fame and wealth were unknown to the people.

He said the Igbo had sacrificed a lot to build Nigeria and must be allowed to take their proper place in the affairs of the nation. “We must strike a new agreement with Nigeria,” he said.

The Minister of Aviation, Ms Stella Oduah, the Minister of Environment, Mrs. Hadiza Mailafia, Sir Emeka Offor and Chief Jezco Ezeokafor were conferred with special awards on the occasion.