New Telegraph

Chances of president of Igbo extraction getting slimmer –Imo APC Chair

  • Anambra APC/ PDP chairmen express optimism

 

The Chairman of the Imo State chapter of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Hon. Daniel Nwafor, has said that the South-East must be united across party lines, to be able to produce a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction, come 2023.

 

Nwafor made the assertion while answering questions on the chances of the South East in the 2023 presidency, the seeming silence of the PDP on zoning and the implication of setting up a 37- man committee on zoning at this point.

 

He said: “I naturally would think that the next president of Nigeria should come from the southern region of Nigeria. Political parties should zone their Presidential candidates to the South. That is just my thinking but the realities on ground are saying a different thing.

 

That doesn’t exactly seem to be happening, but could change anytime because politics is dynamic.” Continuing, Nwafor said: “I wish that the PDP will zone their Presidential ticket to the South but ultimately, it is their own party’s popular agreement that will come to pass.

 

“The setting up of the 37- man committee by their party is a decision agreed by their NEC, but with all things considered, I think the chance of the South-East to produce the next President of Nigeria in 2023 is getting slim.

 

“We need to be more united across party lines to produce a President of South-East extraction in 2023.” But speaking on the same issue, Anambra chairmen of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Bar Emeka Ibe and his counterpart in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chief Ndubuisi Nwobu, expressed confidence that their parties would nominate a presidential candidate for the 2023 general election from the South East geopolitical zone.

 

Ibe and Nwobu noted that there is no gain saying the fact that the South East geopolitical zone deserve to produce the next president of Nigeria, adding that top chieftains and stakeholders of the two parties have been discussing with their northern colleagues to discourage aspirants from the North from obtaining nomination forms for the primary election.

 

According to Ibe:”Already, our party has zoned the presidency to the South and that is a welcome development and we, from the South know that it is only the South East that has not been given the opportunity to produce the president of the country and we in the party have implicit confidence that it would come to the South East.”

 

Nwobu explained that the 37-man committee set up by the national leadership of the party would do the needful by zoning the presidential ticket to the South East but was quick to add that sustained consultations were in top gear to ensure that the zone is considered.

 

“You know that our party had set up a committee in that regard and I also know that there are pressures at the national level by our top stakeholders to ensure that it comes to the South East geopolitical zone and it is not in doubt that it is the turn of our zone.

 

“We shall wait for the committee to conclude its assignment in due time and we are confident that the committee would recommend for the ticket to go to the South East.”

 

The duo however noted that aspirants from the North that are indicating interest in the presidency are aware that they cannot get the support of the South East, South South and South West, adding that even their members in the North will not endorse them.

 

Nwobu said: “The North has been in power more in the history of the country and deep inside them they know that it is not fair for them to lay claim to that ticket and the entire South would not support them unless they want the party to lose the general election.”

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