A founding member of Arewa Consultative Forum, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai, has backed agitations by the southeast to produce the next Nigerian president in the 2023 general elections, saying they have a compelling argument.

Yakasai, an elder statesman, explained that other regions and zones in the country except the Igbo had produced the country’s president.

He said this in an interview on Arise News.

The human rights activist and former Liaison Officer to ex-President Shehu Shagari, however, reminded the Igbos that it is their duty to go out and convince other Nigerians to join them to realise their aspiration to produce the country’s president next time around.

He said:

“Nigeria had three major blocks. Two of these three namely, the North and the West have had the opportunity of producing the President.

Therefore, Igbos have a good argument because out of the three siblings, two have already succeeded at producing the President but the Igbos have not.

“They (the Igbo) deserve the sympathy of all Nigerians for them to get it in 2023 or later. My opinion is that this is not a matter that one will lie down and think that it will come to him. Effort is needed. How do you go about it? This can only be done by persuasion to convince other Nigerians about the need for an Igbo to emerge the President of Nigeria.

“I for one – I am in support of it. I did it before in the era of NPN (National Party of Nigeria) when we had the arrangement that the next president after late President Shehu Shagari would come from the East. We would have settled this problem long ago if not for the military intervention.

“So, I spoke in support of Igbo presidency. I did not want to fix a date because I am not in position to do that. I said that the Igbo should go out and lobby other Nigerians and try to get their concern and support to produce the president in 2023 and where they are not able to do that in 2023 they will put a trajectory for them to produce the President next time.”