THE SOUTH-EAST AND THE 2023 NIGERIAN PRESIDENCY: A POLITICAL DISCOURSE

Abstract

Nigeria is not only the most populous country in Africa it is also one of the most heterogeneous and also one of the most factious. The country’s heterogeneity has often given rise to ethnic tensions more so in the struggle for state power. Consequently there has been an ardent desire both under the colonial and post-colonial state to fashion out political instruments which would allow the component units to be a part of the political process. However despite the far reaching effects of some of these political instruments in dousing ethnic tensions occasioned by the struggle for state power, a significant portion of Nigeria’s population still continue to feel politically marginalized. A prominent section of part of this marginalised population is the Igbo who have produced just one head of state in over 60 years of political independence in Nigeria. However certain factors such as the increasingly effective international Igbo lobby and effective domestic mobilization, the self interest of the northern oligarchy and the very logic or principle of the zoning/power rotation formula are increasingly making an Igbo presidency likely in 2023.