By Val Nduka, Owerri
The former legislator that represented one of the largest federal Constituencies in Nigeria(Nwangele, Njaba, Nkwerre and Isu), on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP), Rt. honourable Jones Onyereri, has said that the emergence of Nigerian president of Igbo extraction in the forthcoming general elections will go a long way in promoting the needed unity in Diversity in the country.
Onyereri made the disclosure in Owerri, recently, to some newsmen at the occation of the 2nd organized Edition of a Public lecture by professor Uzorma Foundation For Justice And Equity.
He added that the sought-after Nigerian president of Igbo extraction would first be necessitated by the zoning of the seat to Southern part of the country (real zoning), before deciding what to do with it. The experienced lawmaker said: If you are going for a battle and you begin to narrow it ,it will pose a challenge, bring it to the South first, then we discuss. It is easier that way because that is what is called micro zoning in most political settings. It is easier to do the real zoning and then
when it comes in, you do the micro zoning. If you put the micro zoning
before the real zoning, it becomes an issue because even people within southern enclave will truly fight for it, we need wisdom’.
In addition to that, Hon.Onyereri stated that every elected good leader in the country should be required to take the issue of security and welfare of his people seriously, pointing out that with the proper feeding of Nigerians via adequate provision of good means of livelihood, the regular experienced agitations from people must go down. He maintained that a well-fed man would never see any reason to disturb his neighbour,rather, would thrive to build a good relationship with him or her.
Onyereri equally posited that the true application of federal character principle in Nigeria would strongly help to reduce the tension and agitation by one ethnic group against
the other, arising from an overt
domination by a particular ethnic group in the country, in relation to official position sharing,without excluding other ethnic groups.
The Nkwerre born politician used same avenue to debunk the assertion that his party – PDP would be incapacitated to retrieve her 2019 freely given governorship mandate,
by Imo people in 2023, owing to some intra- party wranglings, adding that his party’s well organized structure would serve as a necessary tool to easily
solve any erupted conflict within the party, without any external interference and thereby positioning her for the political contest ahead.
He gave an instance with the party’s previously held National Convention at Abuja where most credible officers emergerged in a very peaceful manner to the admiration of all.
Meanwhile, it could be recalled that Prof.Protus Uzorma’s long term advocacy for the end of various forms of injustice in Imo and beyond against the down trodden, has metamorphosed into a functional Foundation known as Uzorma’s Foundation For Justice And Equity, which according to him, must be used to sanitize the entire Society.
