Igbo president will refine and rebrand Nigeria.

Recently the convener of the Coalition of Northern leaders, academics and businessmen, Junaid Mohammed, gave a personal but generally perceived opinions amongst Northerners as well as some part of the Yoruba speaking regions, that the aspiration of the Igbos in becoming president come 2015 is not feasible due to their penchant in pulling down one another. In applause, i very much concur with his opinion. Be that as it may, if sentiment did not enclave part of the brain whose duty lies in objective reasoning, he would have known that the good thing that will happen to Nigeria in 2015, considering the state of the nation today, is for an Igbo man to become the president of Nigeria.

I have to categorically state that i don’t care from what part of the country a man who will eventually become the president in 2015 will come from, once its established that he’s a visionary leader who is ready to inspire by personal example, then he’s good to go, even none living things around will welcome him into the system. One thing that has held Nigeria back all this time is sentiment. Is it not strange that since 1973, some Nigerians still see Igbos as people who have come to break rather than to build, despite their contribution to national development?

What the Hausa/Fulani and some Yorubas who fear for the worst if peradventure an Igbo person becomes the president keep forgetting is the hidden reality that no Igbo man or woman will wish to leave Nigeria as long as there is equity and observance of the principle of live and let live. The Igbos have built so much, even more than what they lost in the war, for them to think of abandoning everything in order to seek a new beginning for the sake of being an independent people.

Truth be said, if the Igbos decide to leave Nigeria today, and manage to survive whatever battled differences they would have in their new country due to their so-called “penchant in pulling down one another”, five years is enough for them to become one of the worlds most strongest economy. This, other non-Igbo speakers in Nigeria know of, and if this is the case, handing them the presidency position will do Nigeria a lot more good.

I strongly believe that an Igbo president will mark a positive turning point for Nigeria. I can’t say if it was a sleep of the mouth or not, but former vice president of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, recently said that the only people who have not sat in the presidential seat, who have the wit and mental ability to pilot and harness positively and judiciously, the natural and human resources this nation have, are the Igbos.

Keep sentiment aside, to drive forward the nation.