The Presiding Bishop, House of God Int’l Church, Athan Azubuike has declared that the Igbos will always play the second dance in Nigeria and that they may never provide a president, even if they have everything it takes to govern the country in 2023.

Bishop Azubuike made his submission at during an Owerri event for young clergy. He claimed that the typical Igbo man is a trader rather than a politician because they lack the ability to mobilize people on a grassroots level.

He said,” One thing about an Igbo man is that an average Igbo person is a trader only interested in profit-making, we are not interested in working. We are not interested in the grassroots. Once it’s a few months to elections, Igbo politicians will start visiting churches in remote villages, that is the sense of a trader, not a politician.”

”Let me be very frank with all on why Igbos may never produce a president but play second fiddle by asking who is coming out in Igbo land? You’ll tell me it’s Rochas Okorocha, Anyim Pius Anyim, Sam Ohuabunwa among others but since Pius became the Senate President, how many times have you seen him and others in Imo State. The presidency is not a local government election .”

” Today, people are talking about the 2023 presidency and I ask those Igbo politicians claiming to be interested in the race what have they been doing to galvanize the grassroots.”

” Why is it that an Igbo man is only interested in meeting people only when it’s a few months to any election. It’s arrant nonsense. If the program organized by Mezie Imo Clergy Forum today was held in Yoruba land or the North, this place will be filled with great personalities but here the reverse is the case”

” A good politician works before he shows his ambition. A good politician works before galvanizing for election, that is why I said an Igbo man is a trader, not a politician.”

“As a presidential aspirant, you need to move around, increase your horizon and coordinate with other zones even before now.”