*Accuses other regions of blackmailing South-East
By Agu C Agu
President Muhammadu Buhari is favourably disposed to having a president from the southern part of the country succeed him after next year’s election, says presidential aspirant and Governor Ebonyi State, David Umahi.
He also accuses other geo-political zones in the country of blackmailing the Southeast region at a time justice, fairness and equity demand that they allow the region gets the presidency in 2023.
Umahi spoke to State House correspondents shortly after he held a closed-door meeting with Buhari at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja on Tuesday.
The Governor said he came to thank the President for honouring him and Ebonyi people with a two-day visit to the State, but that Buhari gave him more than usual lengthy time during which they discussed a variety of other issues.
On Southeast presidency in 2023, Umahi said that “the President, I can tell you, is not averse to it. And so let this justice that we all talk about, let it transcend to our reach. We are all the same people.”
He recalled that Southern and Middlebelt leaders held several meeting where it was agreed that power should rotate between the North and South regions and it is now the turn of the Southeast.
“Some of us thought it was a collective request, a sincere and genuine request, or we believe it is. We also thought that they had Southeast in mind, as Southeast has supported Southwest for eight years and supported South-South for six years; and this is the turn of the Southeast.
“But when the game came on, there are a lot of people from Southwest, a lot of people from South-South. There are many aspirants in each of these regions, more than Southeast. So, people became suspicious of this collective request and agitation.
“So, we are demanding that if the basis of request for presidency to come to the South is on the platform of that equity, justice and fairness, then a moral ground, the Southeast should have the right of first refusal. But that is not the case, as a lot of people are beginning to think that in the first place, it was not a genuine demand.
“And it wasn’t based on fairness, equity and justice. And it could be termed to be blackmail. And so our position is that if everybody from the South is going to be vying for the presidency, why is it that everybody from the North, who wishes will not join to vie for it too, meaning that we’ll jettison the so called equity, justice and the fairness”.
The Governor argued that power is given and not always forcefully taken as asserted by some people, even as he recalled that in 1999, the presidency was reserved for the Southwest by the major parties then.
*So, we are not blackmailing anyone, in fact, the Southeast is not even making noise, compared to the kind of intense campaign by our Southwest brothers and the South-South brothers.
” They are not making noise because they know that power is not taken, power is given. And so it shouldn’t come to our own turn. And they you start saying that power is taken.
“You know, you can’t take power from a military grounded man, you know, who knows what he’s doing. So I think that this power that has been given to others should be given to us, or you let the space open.”
Asked what he thought about former President Goodluck Jonathan emerging as the presidential flagbearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Umahi said that would be one of the wonders of the world.
