Consider Ndigbo for appointments, Obiano, groups beg Buhari

Anambra State governor, Willy Obiano, has urged the President-elect, Gen. Mohammadu Buhari (retd), to appoint Igbo into prominent positions while forming his cabinet.

He said the forthcoming Buhari’s administration would require the support of all Nigerians irrespective of their party affiliations to success.

Obiano spoke after a closed-door meeting with the President-elect at his private residence in Abuja on Friday.

The governor said he was in Abuja not only to congratulate the President-elect and reassure him of the support of the South-East, but also to plead with him to consider Anambra indigenes for appointments.

Obiano said, “I am also here to reassure him that Anambra and the South-East would support him. I also pleaded with him on some pressing problems that are of importance to the South-East like the second Niger bridge and some of the federal roads.

“We also pleaded in the area of appointment for the people of Anambra and of course, for people from the South-East be it ministerial, ambassadorial and what have you.”

The governor, however, dismissed insinuation that his visit was part of consultations to pave way for him to defect to the All Progressives party.

Similarly, a coalition of Igbo groups demanded that the position of the Speaker of the House of Representatives should be zoned to the South-East in the next political dispensation.

The groups are Igbo Youth Vanguard, Abia Democratic Initiative, Imo Professionals for Democracy, United Igbo Traders Association and South East Students Unions.

In a statement signed by their leader, Mr. Chikezie Emezuo and Coordinator of the Imo Professional for Democracy, the groups explained that it was against the principle of federal character and national justice for the North to keep the Presidency, the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives positions.

Stressing that any move to marginalise Ndigbo will not be accepted, the groups decried a purported zoning formula where the South-East could be schemed out of the leadership of the national legislature.

They expressed regret that the Igbo were being reminded that they were defeated and be treated as second class citizens at a time the negative effect of the civil war was wearing out.

They said it would be wrong for the Igbo to be denied top positions in the National Assembly because majority of them voted for the Peoples Democratic Party in the last general elections.

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