Prominent Igbo leader and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, has said that the Southeast region will not be subjected to begging for the position of President of the Senate or Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Iwuanyanwu, who spoke with The Nation in Owerri, the Imo State capital, argued that it is the right of the Southeast to produce the Senate President as a major stakeholder in the Nigerian project.
This, he said, was after the North and the South West have emerged President and Vice President respectively.
According to him, the current arrangement in the sharing of principal offices in the National Assembly by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is to further undermine the Igbo as one the three major tribes that make up the country.
He observed the Igbo have made great contributions in the development and unity of the nation and should not be treated with levity at all times.
His words: “The Southeast will not beg for the position of the Senate President or Speaker of the House of Representatives.
“Igbo are not fools, Igbo have talented people. We have no doubt in our mind that we are being marginalised.
“Let me tell other parts of Nigeria how the Igbo feel about issues, Igbo feel they are part of the success of Nigeria right from the time this country was founded.
“The Igbo have done better than most tribes in Nigeria, Igbo have distributed their resources across the nation.
“Right now the Igbo are very unhappy. We have been pushed to a point of contempt and ridicule.
“There are some people in this country who just ridicule us, some even say that the Igbo have been sacked from this country.
“Take for instance the issue of the railway, none passed through Igboland and this is being financed with a loan that all of us will repay”.
Iwuanyanwu also disclosed that the Igbo do not have anything against President Muhammadu Buhari as insinuated.
According to him: “The Igbo have nothing against Buhari at all but a fundamental mistake was made in 2015 when a son of the Eastern region, Goodluck Jonathan was running for a second term. The Igbo felt he needed a second term but that does not mean that they hated Bubari in anyway”.
