Leader of the Pan Niger Delta Forum, Chief Edwin Clark has stressed the need for South-East region to be treated with a sense of belonging, calling on the major political parties in Nigeria to zone their presidential tickets to a candidate from the region.
Speaking in an interview on Arise TV, Clark maintained that former military Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, should have allowed the Igbo to secede at the outset of the civil war in 1966.
The Ijaw leader condemned the unfair treatment meted on the South-East by concentrating power in the northern region, adding that there was no moral justification for keeping people who are not being treated fairly.
He noted that it was unacceptable for a region to have a domineering spirit because of its population adding that those opposed to a South-East presidency in 2023 were ready to see the end of Nigeria.
“My idea of zoning the Presidency to the South-East is well-known. No Nigerian will like to live in a country where certain people believe that they have the only right to lead. The APC believes the 12 million votes by President Muhammadu Buhari might be eroded if it is zoned to the South. The PDP is also considering zoning to the North. This is unfair.
“Nigeria stood on three legs, and it has never been steady since one of the legs was destroyed during the Civil War. I unpacked all these facts in my forthcoming memoir ‘Brutally Frank’.
“Gowon should have allowed the Igbos to go if they are to be treated as second class citizens. If zoning which will heal the wounds is not done, there will be no Nigeria. Nobody will remain in this country as a second class citizen.
“The North believes their population can be used to oppress other Nigerians. This is not acceptable. The era of that has gone. There are many good Northerners but the Fulani-oriented ones want to dominate everywhere,” Chief Clark opined.
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