2023: Tinubu is too old and weak – Nollywood legend Pete Edochie names his preferred candidate

Nollywood veteran actor Pete Edochie has reacted to the presidential ambition of former Lagos state governor Bola Tinubu ahead of the general election in 2023.

Edochie, during a BBC Ìgbò programme, said Tinubu was too old to become the next president of Nigeria as he raised concerns about the political marginalisation of the Igbo people.

“Many people like Tinubu are too old and too weak to run for president. He (Tinubu) has been in power for a long time, until he was made the leader of the APC. But he should leave the position for those who are younger and healthier; let’s be honest.”

The veteran actor, while lamenting why Aguiyi Ironsi was the only Ìgbò head of state since independence in 1960, said: “Ìgbò, Hausa, and Yorùbá are the major ethnic groups in Nigeria. Only once in the history of Nigeria has it emerged that an Ìgbò person became the head of state in Nigeria. That was (former military head of state) Aguiyi Ironsi during the military government and his headship was short-lived. Since then, the North and the Yorùbá have been sharing power between themselves, apart from Goodluck Jonathan who isn’t even Ìgbò.”

The actor stressed that Nigeria needs an Igbo leader who will end looting and socio-economic woes and transform the country. He said: “Why has power not returned to the Ìgbò people? Is there a plot by the political elites to sideline the Southeast? I’ve lived in the north. I speak Hausa. But it’s long overdue for Nigeria to have a leader of Ìgbò extraction.

“The problem in Nigeria is greed. Leadership is dominated by Northerners but, 60 years after independence, we’ve not ended the electricity problem, when coal-based Oji River supplied power to the whole east before the civil war.’