The Concerned Igbo Stakeholders Forum (CISF) has urged the Vice Presidential candidate of APC, Sen. Kashim Shettima, to withdraw his statement that Peter Obi can only be president in Igboland.
The Leader of the Forum, Mr Chukwuma Okenwa, made the call for the withdrawal in a statement he issued to newsmen in Enugu on Sunday.
It would be recalled that Shettima, who is also a former Governor of Borno, said this when he featured as a guest on Channels Television’s ‘Politics Today’ on Friday.
Okenwa said that it was rather regrettable that one who is seeking to serve as the vice president of Nigeria under the ruling APC could be this divisive.
According to him, what kind of capacity is he (Shettima) referring to for a former governor (Obi) who completed his two terms in Anambra, just as his principal, Sen. Bola Tinubu, did in Lagos State?
He said: “Does Nigeria now have regional presidents, where the various ethnic nationalities have their own presidents?
“It is more disheartening coming barely a week that Rabiu Kwankwaso said that the northerners will never vote for an Igbo man, they will rather support their own.
“Why all these divisive cards, rather than focusing on the real issues of development?
“Does that confirm the claim in some quarters that an Igbo man can never be allowed to be president under One Nigeria?”
Okenwa noted that the forum wanted politicians and political parties to focus on real issues of development and pulling the nation out of poverty, unemployment and under-productivity.
“Objectively speaking, we do not need divisive statements in a country where the cords that bind us together are continuously weakened through the divide and rule strategy of the ruling class.
“A stitch in time saves nine,” he added.
