If ‘2023 is there to be taken by Igbos’, which party can drive it to fruition?
With the veiled statement coming from the Senate Majority Leader, Senator Ahmad Lawan, to the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, to contest the Presidency in 2023 as “2023 is there to be taken by Igbos,” permutations and calculations that will equally decide how voting will trend in 2019 election have been activated.
Lawan, at the plenary on Tuesday, while greeting Ekweremadu who clocked 56 on Sunday, urged the Deputy Senate President to dump the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
In his assessment of of Ekweremadu, Lawan said, “He is the longest serving presiding officer in the National Assembly. I am not PDP and I will never be; but I know Senator Ike Ekweremadu has been a very loyal and committed Deputy Senate President.
“I will not miss the opportunity to urge Senator Ike Ekweremadu to see through the mist, this unholy environment and take the right decisions. You are an asset, don’t stay and rot away or waste away.
“I join the numerous leaders and elders of the South-East who have understood that Nigeria needs the commitment of people like you. Nigeria needs the unity of everybody to make it better for the masses of this country.
“We need stability and I want to say clearly and assert that you are going to fit in perfectly well. 2023 is there to be taken.
With Lawan’s poser, there are serious confusion now for Igbos on which particular party will be so easy o clinch presidency come 2023.
Whereas political watchers agree that Igbos had invested so much in the PDP and may find it easier to win presidency using the party, others argue that chances that the ruling APC will lose grip of the power even in 2019 seem very slim going by the fact that barley one month on after President Muhammadu Buhari’s declaration to contest in 2019, nobody has risen from the rank of the party for challenge.
Already, there are fears that even the Igbos are not really founding members of APC and are not holding strong views in the party also because the region seems to have spent their time and resources building and rebuilding the PDP.
