Chief Whip of the Senate, Senator Orji Kalu, has said
multiple presidential aspirants from the South-East will not diminish the
region’s chances of producing the next President come 2023.
Kalu, a former governor of Abia State, has not hidden his
desire to contest in the 2023 presidential election. While he’s yet to declare
his ambition, the Governor of Ebonyi State, David Umahi, and former Senate
President, Anyim Pius Anyim, both from the South-East, have declared their
ambition to run for the presidency.
This led to insinuations that the South-East is not united
at forging a common front, which might ruin the region’s chances of producing
the next President.
However, Kalu who spoke during an interview with Silverbird Television on Friday rebuffed the assertions. According to him, since 1999, no region had ever presented a single candidate before winning elections.
The Senator recalled how former President Olusegun Obasanjo,
Bola Ige and Olu Falae, all from the South-West geopolitical zone of the
country, contested the 1999 presidential election.
He said the belief that Igbo must come together to present a
single candidate in order to produce the next President of Nigeria were mere
blackmails promoted by the media.
He said, “No region forges a common front and I have just
given you an example. When Obasanjo ran for elections in 1999, Olu Falae, Bola
Ige and three other Yoruba(men) were also contesting for the same presidency.
Did that stop the emergence of a President from the South-West? So what are you
talking about? It is the beauty of constitutional democracy, the more the
merrier, people must contest and the people must choose who can do the job.
“That Orji Kalu came to contest and another Igboman comes
out does not mean you won’t vote Orji Kalu. The beauty of democracy is in the
ability to make a choice. That is why I initially told my friends (Tinubu,
Umahi and Anyim) in the sitting room where we were eating that I won’t run but
the beauty of it is that people later persuaded me to come and run because they
know that I’m capable of doing the job.
“They know that I have the experience of the job. They know that I have local and international connections. They know I have an excellent understanding of the country. And when you look at me you see the face of Nigeria.”
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