FRESH facts emerged Saturday that some Igbo leaders moved against the 2011 aspiration of President Goodluck Jonathan because he was not forthcoming with his plans for the South-East.
Also, they opted for power shift to the South-East in 2015 following fears that Jonathan may spend two terms in office.
To drive home their agenda, the affected Igbo leaders are concluding plans for an all-inclusive summit again on why they should support the North in 2011.
Despite lock-out at Concorde Hotel, Owerri, ex-Vice-President Alex Ekwueme and prominent leaders had met on Monday under the platform of Igbo Political Forum to chart agenda for the Igbo on zoning.
Although the summit, considered to be against President Goodluck Jonathan, was frustrated, the leaders met at a make-shift end of the hotel to discuss Igbo future on zoning.
Investigation by The Nation however showed that the Igbo leaders resorted to the Owerri meeting when Jonathan was allegedly not "forthcoming" on his plans for the South-East.
A top Igbo leader, who spoke in confidence with our correspondent, said: "We have tried our best to know what Jonathan has in stock for us but he has not been forthcoming
"In fact, our foremost leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Odimegwu-Ojukwu met with the President about two weeks ago on the same issue but there was no commitment from him on Igbo's stake in 2015.
"We have no choice than to take our destiny in our hands. We decided to insist on zoning and we are ready to negotiate with any power bloc to make our aspiration for the presidency in 2015 a reality."
The Secretary of the Igbo Political Forum, Chief Chyna Iwuanyanwu, also spoke at length yesterday and said power shift to the Igbo in 2015 is non-negotiable.
Iwuanyanwu said: "It is not a question of preferring a Northern candidate; we want to be on moral high grounds. What this mean is that there is zoning policy in place and the architect of that zoning is one of our leaders, Dr. Alex Ekwueme.
"Under the prevalent condition before zoning formula was evolved, there was no guarantee that presidency could shift to the Igbo. But with zoning, we have hope that one day, an Igbo man can be Nigeria's president.
"That is why we have decided that as far as 2011 poll is concerned, the North should be allowed to complete its two terms in office and the zoning policy can go round.
"It is not about the North, we are actually protecting our interest. It is about Ndigbo having its shot at presidency. We believe that the shortest roadmap is to let the North complete their tenure."
Responding to a question, Iwuanyanwu added: "We have made overtures to President Jonathan but rather than reaching out to our leaders, they have started a crackdown on us.
"If Jonathan feels otherwise on our 2015 agenda, he should be courageous enough to meet with us. But the truth is that 2011 is not for Igbo, 2015 is for us. We cannot go back on 2015."
2011: Why Ekwueme, other Igbo leaders opted for Northern candidate (http://thenationonlineng.net/web3/news/15076.html)