Ahead of the 2023 elections, veteran Nollywood actor, Pete Edochie, has said that the National Leader of the APC, and former governor of Lagos, Bola Tinubu is “too old and weak to run for president”.
The legendary actor made this assertion while featuring on a BBC Ìgbò programme earlier this week.
He also highlighted concerns about the apparent political marginalisation of the Ìgbò people.
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“Many people like Tinubu are too old and too weak to run for president. He (Tinubu) has been in power for a long time until he was made the leader of the APC.
“But he should leave the position for those who are younger and healthier; let’s be honest,” he said.
Lamenting the inability of Nigerians to produce a president of Igbo extraction since the attainment of independence in 1960, he said; “Ìgbò, Hausa, and Yorùbá are the major ethnic groups in Nigeria. Only once in the history of Nigeria has it emerged that an Ìgbò person became the head of state in Nigeria.
“That was (former military head of state) Aguiyi Ironsi during the military government and his headship was short-lived. Since then, the North and the Yorùbá have been sharing power between themselves, apart from Goodluck Jonathan who isn’t even Ìgbò.”
Edochie, who described Ndìgbò as a resilient people, said Nigeria needs Ìgbò ingenuity and sound leadership. He also stated that having an Ìgbò as president will end looting and socio-economic woes, adding that Ìgbò can deliver strategic leadership that will transform Nigeria.
“Why has the power not returned to the Ìgbò people? Is there a plot by the political elites to sideline the Southeast? I’ve lived in the north. I speak Hausa. But it’s long overdue for Nigeria to have a leader of Ìgbò extraction.
“The problem in Nigeria is greed. Leadership is dominated by northerners but, 60 years after independence, we’ve not ended the electricity problem, when coal-based Oji River supplied power to the whole east before the civil war,” he regretted.