By Sunday Ani
Ahead of the 2023 presidential election, a Yoruba group, Oduduwa sons and daughters for justice and equity, has thrown its weight behind a candidate of Igbo extraction.
Coordinator of the group, Prince Ebunola Martins, said for equity, justice and fair play, the Igbo should be supported to produce the next president in 2023 since the North, South West and South- South have all produced presidents of Nigeria since the return of democracy in 1999.
He made the call on Monday during a town hall meeting at Sheraton Hotels, Ikeja, Lagos.
Prince Martins said the group was not only rooting for a president of Igbo extraction but that it had already found a credible candidate in the person of Owelle Rochas Okorocha.
He said Okorocha emerged as the group’s choice candidate after a painstaking search for a unifier, wealth creator, peacemaker, and detribalized Nigerian.
“Rochas Okorocha is the only presidential candidate the Yoruba trust. The South West trusts Okorocha because he will not divide this country. He built Rochas Foundation College, Ibadan, for our children to obtain free education from primary to secondary school. He has been supporting the less privileged in the north with schools in Yola, Bauchi, Kano, Sokoto, Jos, Ibadan, Enugu, Owerri, Calabar, Zaria, and many cities in Nigeria. We trust him because he will continue to provide us free education to eradicate illiteracy. We trust him because he will improve the Nigerian economy,” he stated.
He noted that Okorocha as a wealth creator, who already made money in billions before venturing into politics, was the kind of person that Nigeria needs at this point of her critical economic situation.
He said the move would also give the Igbo a sense of belonging and make them stop seeing themselves as not part and parcel of the Nigerian nation. “We call for support for the Nigerian president of Igbo extraction, which we hereby endorse today,” he added.
He listed major challenges bedevilling Nigeria at present to include security of lives and property, dwindling economy, youth restiveness, separatist agitations, hate and tribalism, corruption and selfishness, out of school children and illiteracy, high level of poverty and high level of bloodshed among others, stressing that Nigeria needs a president that has the capacity to address all those.
“We need a leader who can unite us back as a people in 2023 and whose antecedents show a detribalized Nigerian. Most of the people that want to occupy the office of the president in 2023, are regional or ethnic champions, who promote only one tribe or religion, and with no record of investment or empowerment of people other than their tribe or religion. Okorocha is a true, detribalized Nigerian. Though an Igbo, he is loved by the north and west; though a Christian, he has more Muslims in his companies and foundation. He is uniting Nigeria through his foundation.
“We have also come to a conclusion that the government is business and requires business-minded leaders to drive the economy, especially in Nigeria, where institutions are not working. A reflection of our past leaders shows that all of them were either civil servants, teachers or retired military officers or those whose main occupation is politics with no track record of wealth creation,” he said.