2023: Producing Nigeria’s next president not Igbo’s right – Anyim Pius


Anyim Pius Anyim, a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, has disclosed the only instrument the Southeast can use to produce Nigeria’s next president in 2023.

He said persuading other regions is the only instrument the Southeast can use to produce Nigeria’s next president.

Anyim, however, noted that producing the country’s president is not the right of the Southeast.

The former SGF disclosed this at the United for Better Nigeria Initiative National Convention in Abuja over the weekend, NAN reports.

He said: “Is it right for the South-East to produce the next president? My answer is legally no, and the reason is that the constitution is clear, the constitution says every Nigerian of 40 years is entitled to aspire for that office.

“On the other hand, morally is it right? Is it an entitlement? I will say yes because the federal character principle enshrined in the constitution encourages rotation.

“The reason I have to make this clarification is that when the right you have is not legal, the only approach and the instrument you have is persuasion.

“So the approach, the language will be to persuade others to see reason with you that morally they should support you to take a turn since it rotates.”

Stakeholders from the Southeast have been agitating for a Nigerian president of Southeast extraction.

They claimed that other regions have ruled Nigeria since the return of democracy in 1999, hence 2023 is their turn.