2023: Orji Kalu Withdraws, Accuses Tinubu, Osinbajo, Wike, Others of Betraying Southeast
By Kabir Akintayo
The Chief Whip of the Senate, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, has lambasted South-West and South-South presidential hopefuls across the two major political parties of seeking the Presidency for selfish reasons, at the expense of the Southeast which he claimed should have the sole right to produce the President in 2023.
The National leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (both Southwest), Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, his counterpart in Akwa Ibom, Udom Emmanuel, and Minister of Transportaion, Rotimi Amaechi ( all South-south) are among the presidential aspirants from both the APC and PDP.
While announcing his decision to abandon his presidential ambition on account of the alleged betrayal of the southern brothers in a statement on Tuesday, Kalu said, “it is embarrassing that these aspirants from both the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have no single respect and concern for the South East”.
He expressed his displeasure with the ‘unfairness, inequity and injustice’ the southeast region is suffering in the country, adding that politics all over the world is situational and that of Nigeria is even more situational.
Read Also:
“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 Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) should zone their presidential tickets to the South East as they did for the South West in 1999. In the absence of this zoning, I shall return to the Senate and stay away from the presidential contest.
“I am even shocked with the number of aspirants coming from the South West and the South South . It is embarrassing that these aspirants (APC and PDP) have no single respect and concern for the South East. I had thought they would think about the Southeast; I thought they would support us. The amount of money being spent by these aspirants is alarming and they have forgotten that money alone cannot buy the presidency.
“It has become 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.
How can you talk about these morals when you are not even fair to your own brothers”, Kalu lamented.
He also said “If there is anything like “fairness”, “equity” and “justice”, it should be the entire South pushing for a president of South East 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.
