Bashir El-Rufai, son of former Kaduna State governor Nasir El-Rufai, has advocated for Nigeria to produce what he described as a “pure-blood Igbo president.”
Bashir made the remark in a post on X, stating that the country must elect an Igbo president to address lingering historical grievances.
“It’s high time Nigeria had a pure-blood Igbo president. Until then, all these wounds of the past will persist to remain,” he wrote.
His comment comes amid longstanding conversations around political inclusion and power rotation in Nigeria, particularly calls for the Southeast to produce a president.
In the 2019 presidential election, Peter Obi, who is from the Southeast, contested as the running mate to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
Ahead of the 2023 elections, Obi defected from the PDP to the Labour Party, where he ran for president. He finished third behind Atiku and the eventual winner, Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The push for an Igbo presidency gained momentum in the lead-up to the 2023 polls, with many stakeholders in the Southeast insisting it was time for the region to occupy the nation’s highest office.
