The former National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Senator Victor Umeh, has said South-West’s insistence on producing the next president in 2023 is an invitation to break-up the country.
Umeh, said this at the Imeobi Ohanaeze meeting in Enugu on Thursday, May 6, 2022.
The APGA chieftain said it was wrong for South-West which have produced president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo who served for eight years would be jostling to occupy the presidency in 2023.
Umeh explained that it would not help the country “if people begin to tell others that they cannot do anything”, noting that in an actual sense nobody can do it alone.
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“It will be paying lips service to the need for us to be one people, one country, one nation. Today we have a country with so many nations inside it and the only thing that is making it look like that is because people are not happy with the way things are being run in Nigeria.
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“So if the political gladiators are sincere that they want to keep Nigeria together, the best thing to do is to support the South-East based on equity, justice and fairness. In the South-West, you can see a lot of presidential aspirants are declaring from the South-West, it is funny.
“The South West has produced Obasanjo for eight years, their son is the Vice President, who is serving out for eight years and the election is coming up next year for the presidential election, all of them are declaring.
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“I think they are looking for a breakup of Nigeria if I want to put it forward because if they want Nigeria to be united, they will not be seeking to occupy that office next year. It will be insensitive to the need to gum our people together. Let them be united in one mission of having a viral united country.
“So if this year, at the presidential primary which is coming up at the end of this month and first three days in June, and they think they can do it that way, I will tell you that the restiveness in Nigeria will continue. So we give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and give God what is God’s. Justice does not hurt anybody that is what we have been doing.”
The former APGA Chairman said the South-East had eminently qualified people for the 2023 Presidency, who could provide leadership that would bring prosperity to Nigeria. “So the only way Nigeria can move on will be for us to accommodate each other.”