Political leaders from the South-East have called on President Muhammadu Buhari to consider south east for the post of Secretary to the Federal Government.
The is following the suspension of the incumbent SGF, David Babachir Lawal.
According to them, the call became imperative in order to reverse the view that the administration was marginalizing the zone.
Frontline Igbo leader and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) stalwart, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, said Buhari should consider Ndigbo for the position.
“If you look at the whole thing that they are doing, it appears as if people don’t exist in the South East.
“We have people who are qualified to hold this position in the APC. They should look at our people in the APC and appoint one of them.”
A former governor of Anambra State, Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife, is also of the view that the position should naturally be conceded to the South East.
His words: “Nigeria has six principal protocol offices. The North West has the President; the South West has the Vice-President; the Senate President is from the North Central; so are other zones except the South East.
“Our constitution prescribes federal character, but the South East zone is conspicuously absent, blatantly removed from these positions. The position should automatically come to the South East.”
He added, “Usually, anyone who should be the SGF is effectively someone who knows where the switches in government are, so that if anybody switches on, he switches off.
“That was why, in the past, it was only retired permanent secretaries that qualified to be made SGF. Somebody who has worked as a governor is also qualified because he has worked with so many permanent secretaries.”
But he said Ohanaeze will not lobby the presidency for the position to come to the zone, stressing: “I am not interested in lobbying anybody to recognize the zone. The president is supposed to be the father of the whole country.
“He has sworn to the constitution and I expect him to respect his oath of office,” he told Nation on Saturday.
