2023: Ngige Says In 2014, APC Agreed On Rotational Presidency |The Source

By Akinwale Kasali

Minister of Labour, Employment and Productivity, Chris Ngige, has backed the Apex Igbo Cultural Group,  Ohaneze, on its position for a Candidate of South East extraction becoming the next President in 2023.

Ngige revealed that the All Progressives Congress, APC, had a gentleman agreement in 2014 to rotate the presidency.

Speaking in an interview to mark his 67th birthday, the former governor of Anambra State said the rotation of the presidency is made for the stability of the country.

Ngige noted that though the agreement was not contained in the party’s constitution, the framers of the constitution of the APC agreed that it was something possible.

According to him, “It is not written in our constitution, but for me, it will make for stability and fairness if it rotates from the North to the South. I was in PDP, we practiced it. It makes for stability.

“We don’t have it in our party constitution but we, the framers of the constitution of the APC, agreed that it is something possible. I was one of the wise men that drafted the APC constitution with Chief Segun Osoba as the head.

“That’s what we agreed on; that we don’t have to insert it, but these are things that could be done by gentleman agreement.”

Ngige noted that it was the agreement that guided the party during its presidential convention where President Muhammadu Buhari emerged APC candidate in 2014.

“Whether there should be rotation, zoning or not,  for me, it is a simple matter. It is a gentleman’s agreement.

“Even the American constitution doesn’t have everything written in it.

“When we went for the first national convention of the party to elect the presidential candidate, we told all the southerners to step down. It was only Okorocha who refused to step down, and we quarreled with him. People like me quarreled with him from the South East, and I told him I won’t support him, and I did not,” Ngige said.

It would be recalled that during a couple of days ago, former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo, said  the Igbo will join forces with the Nnamdi Kanu-led Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, to fight for the Biafran Republic if South-East does not produce President in 2023.

In an interview with the Saturday Sun, former Governor of Anambra State, Dr Chukwuemeka Ezeife, threatened there may be no Nigeria of the South-east is denied the Presidency.

Last week, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, and a close associate of President Muhammadu Buhari, canvassed for a power shift to the South. He, however, preferred that a candidate of South- west origin to other zones.