The convener of the Southeast Integrity Group and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Dr. Chinedu Ogbuagu has dismissed as “ridiculous and absurd” a reported claim by the national cordinator of TNN (Tinubu-Not-Negotiable 2023) Muri Okunola that APC will lose if the Igbos get 2023 presidential ticket.
Ogbuagu, who spoke to journalists on Saturday, said such a claim was not consistent with the group’s claimed belief in national unity.
Mutiu Okunola had stated that “the only reason Nigeria is still together is power rotation. Power rotation is sacrosanct for unity of Nigeria.”
However, Dr. Ogbuagu wondered, “Did anyone contemplate that power must rotate to Tinubu? Power rotation is intended to be between North and South. Granted Tinubu is from the South to which power, having resided in the North from 2015 to 2023 must rotate.
“But is Tinubu not from the same Southern geo-political zone that produced president (Obasanjo) 1999 to 2007 and vice president (Osinbajo)2015 to 2023.”
He recalled that each time the South has produced the President, they did so with the massive support of the Southeast, despite the fact it was the only zone that had neither produced the president nor vice-president.
Ogbuagu while attributing Okunola’s stance to “greed and insensitivity” said, “every selfless and patriotic Nigerian knows that presidential power must not only rotate to the South in 2023, but should also be zoned to the Southeast geopolitical zone that has not produced a president, not even vice president since 1999.
“As APC members, we of the Southeast Intergrity Group obviously want a Southeast APC member to become that president.”
Dr Ogbuagu dismissed as “self-serving and distorted political and electoral calculations” of groups like TNN 2023 and asserted that to the contrary, “Southeast voters remain the largest, though latent voting block spread accross all states of the federation.”
He opined that this latency will be brought to life with a presidential candidate of Southeast extraction.
“Without President Buhari’s 12 million vote bank as a starting point, our dear party APC will need to unearth and mobilize the millions of latent Igbo votes spread accross the country.
“Okunola and those who share his jaundiced narrative should take a cue from the historical swearing in of Governor Hope Uzodinma as an APC governor on 15th January 2020, exactly 50 years after the end of the Biafra War as an indication that the hand of God is in a southeasterner becoming the flagbearer and winning the presidency for our great party in 2023.
“That Governor Uzodinma was sworn in at Owerri, the last capital of Biafra speaks volumes. Let us end the war in truth with a Southeasterner as the next president of Nigeria,” he advised.
