Igbo United Professionals, after a holistic analysis of the political situation in the country, have decided to back the All Progressive Congress (APC) Zoning formula for the 10th National Assembly leadership that will be inaugurated on 13th of June, 2023.
Rising from a meeting held in Enugu, the association unanimously agreed to support the APC zoning formula to elect Senator Godswill Akpabio as the President of the Senate and Rt. Hon. Tajudeen Abbas as Speaker of the House of Representatives.
In a statement signed by the President and Secretary of the association, Mr. Emmanuel Ikechukwu-Jonathan, JP, Esq. and Engr. Cosmas Igata after the said meeting, maintained that aligning with the APC zoning formula would create more room for accommodation of the interest of the Igbos in the current leadership of the country.
The association further stated that the candidates anointed by the APC have the needed qualities that are required to occupy such exalted positions adding that national assembly lawmakers from South East extraction should support their emergence.
“We are of the view that we cannot continue to oppose the government at the centre and expect them to factor us in their sharing formula.
“Considering what happened to us in the immediate past administration, the South East was practically sidelined in the sharing of Democratic Dividends just because we did not vote for their emergence or substantially support the leadership at the centre.
“It is of a truth that the South East geopolitical zone majorly supported the Labour Party and her candidates in the 2023 elections, but the lawmakers of the Labour Party across the country can not constitute the required majority to produce the leadership of the 10th National Assembly.
“So we considered the fact that since it will not be easy to change the already zoning formula of the APC for the leadership of the 10th Assembly, we decided that it will be in the best interest of the South East to align with the APC zoning formula than forming alliance with the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) who practically rejected the South East geopolitical zone in it’s zoning of their Presidential ticket.”
The Igbo United Professionals urged Ndigbo to come to terms with the realities on ground at this moment and enlarge their hearts with possible endurance by supporting the APC zoning formula for the 10th Assembly leadership while we negotiate for other positions in the country.
