The Chief Whip of the Nigerian Senate and former Governor of Abia state, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, has expressed disenchantment on the numbers of aspirants from the south west and south south geopolitical zones jostling for the seat of Nigeria President in the upcoming general election in 2023.
He made his feelings known in a statement made available to newsmen on Tuesday, on the heels of the yearning of people of southeast to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari come 2023, posited that it’s embarassing that the aspirants in the All Progressive Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party have no respect and concern for the southeast to take its shot and occupy the nation’s number one seat in 2023, describing as alarming the huge resources being spent by these aspirants in their unjustifiable and inordinate ambitions to become President, thus truncating the equitable right of people of the southeast to produce President in 2023.
Kalu noted with total regret at the amount of money being spent by these aspirants in this hypocritical ambitions, describing the moves by the party chieftains as alarming, and further frowned the alleged undemocratic tendency, as he also reminding them that the monies alone cannot buy the presidency.
The Abia APC leader emphasized that it’s now turn as a joke to an ordinary Nigerian who hears southern commentators and aspirants rooting for a southern President on the premise of fairness, equity and justice, and queried “how can you talk about these mortals when you are not even fair to your own brothers?
“If there is anything like “fairness, equity and justice, it should be the entire south pushing for a President of southeast extraction. Anything less than that is hypocritical, unjustifiable and inordinate. Some persons are even claiming God’s anointed choice in 2023. Unfortunately, it is not all prayers that God answers; at least not inordinate ones.
He also queried, “what moral justification does a southerner who refused to be fair to his brothers have against a northerner running for President? It will be very insensitive, unreasonable and disrespectful for any southern man to criticize a presidential aspirant from the north on the ground that thr north has done eight years and power should return to the south.
Continuing, Kalu stated, “the southwest and the south-south have successfully completed their tenures as President and Vice President. They should have the courage to support their brothers from the southeast. If the next President after President Muhammadu Buhari does not come from the southeast, there would be northing unfair and unjust if he/she comes from Daura.
The ex-Abia governor further reiterated that his desire and intention to run for the Presidency of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, saying he remained committed to this pursuit but can’t make official declaration to this regard without the full support of other regions.
“Everywhere in the world, politics is situational and that of Nigeria is exceptionally situational. The situation in Nigeria is that without the support of other regions, it would amount to a shadow chase for a south easterner to be President”.
“This is the reason I have been in the frontline of the call that the two major political parties , the All Progressive Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) should zone their presidential tickets to the southeast as they did for the southwest in 1999.
“In the absence of this zoning, I shall return to the senate and stay away from the presidential contest. The reality is that the north is more advantageous to win elections in this democratic setting”, Senator Kalu submitted.