Chief Edwin Clark, an elderstateman, nationalist and Ijaw leader, has openly clamoured for southeastern part of Nigeria to produce the next president of the country.
The vocal social crusader made his position known in his reaction to the interview Mamman Daura, President Muhammadu Buhari’s nephew, granted to the BBC Hausa Service on 28th July 2020, in which Daura suggested for an end to the zoning of the presidency between Northern and Southern regions of Nigeria. Daura advocated for competence to be determinant of who becomes the president.
However, Chief Clark disagreed with Daura, noting that each of the six geopolitical zones has competent leaders to represent them in the presidency. He noted that zoning system was discussed extensively at the 2014 National Constitutional Conference in Nigeria.
“It is for this reason that some of us are recommending that the South-Eastern part of Nigeria should be allowed to produce the President of the country. It is the turn of Southern Nigeria to produce a President”, he said.
He stated that “The likes of Ahmed Bola Tinubu of the Southwest zone, a zone which has ruled this country at three different times with Chief Olusegun Obasanjo ruling as Military Head of State and as a democratically elected President, and Chief Ernest Shonekan as Interim National President, should allow the Southeast, which was also part of the three principal regions of Nigeria headed by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe as first President of Nigeria from 1963-1966, the Sarduana of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Premier of Northern Nigeria, and that of Western Nigeria, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, as heads of the regional governments.”
