Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has faulted Minister of Works, David Umahi over his claim that “it is not yet the turn of the South-East” to produce Nigeria’s president in 2027.
Umahi, in an interview on Sunday, urged South-East politicians to drop their presidential ambitions and support President Bola Tinubu’s re-election bid.
Reacting through his media aide and National Coordinator of the Obidient Movement Worldwide, Dr Yunusa Tanko, Obi said leadership in a democracy is determined by the people, not by political elites.
“It is a democratic setting, and it is the people who will decide who becomes the next president, not any individual,” Tanko said.
“Performance and track record, not tribe, will determine what the people want. That is how it should be,” he added.
He noted that while regional rotation should not ordinarily define Nigeria’s politics, it has become part of the nation’s political reality.
He said: “Ordinarily, we shouldn’t be having talks about whether it should be a southern or northern candidate.
“But since it has already been established for the unity of this country, the status quo should remain.”
Umahi had earlier argued that Tinubu should be allowed to complete his constitutionally permitted eight years in office before the South-East could aspire to the presidency.
His words: “No, it is not our time yet. We, the 17 southern governors, met in Asaba before the 2023 election and agreed that the next president should come from the South.
“The crown came upon President Bola Tinubu. He has to finish his eight years, which belong to all of us — both South and North. After 2031, the South-East can vie.”
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The former Ebonyi governor maintained that Tinubu’s administration has been fair to all regions, particularly the South-East, citing multi-billion-naira infrastructure projects such as the Enugu–Onitsha Road, Port Harcourt–Aba–Umuahia–Enugu Dual Carriageway, and the Abakaliki–Benue Boundary Trans-Sahara Road.
“Right now, President Bola Tinubu does not want to know where you come from. He is treating everybody very nicely,” Umahi said.
Politics Nigeria
