South-East shouldn’t struggle to produce Nigeria’s next president — Uzodimma

Governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodimma, has said the South-East is being denied the opportunity to produce the next president through the big parties due to lack of equity.

He expressed the view that where there is sincerity of purpose and justice, the region should not be struggling to get that should have naturally come to them

He stated this on Wednesday when he featured on Sunrise Daily, a Channels TV programme.

Even as he identified with the clamour for the political parties to zone their presidential tickets to the South-East, Uzodimma said it was not going to happen because of lack of sincerity of purpose.

In May, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) conducted its special convention, but Atiku Abubakar, who is from the North, was elected as the party’s presidential candidate.

The presidential primary election of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is currently underway in Abuja, but two hopefuls, Bola Tinubu and Yemi Osinbajo who are from the South-West are leading the race.

Uzodimma who is the chairman of the APC special convention, said, “From the view of political calculation, the sentiment of the people in the south-east is that they deserve to produce the president because the reason why this power is moving from the north to the south is that the current president is from the north having served for daughter years,” he said.

“The reason why the south-east is asking for it is that when the power came to the south it went to the south-west and was there for eight years and the next time it came to the south it went to the south-south and it was there for seven years plus.

“The natural thing to do and the justice of the case is that now that power is coming again to the south and since it is only three geo-political zones that made up the south, it should come to the south-east, having been in the south-west and south-south.

“In a situation where equity should be the issue we (south-east) don’t need to struggle for it. But here again, you see how it has come. We will continue to hope that one day God will touch the heart of our brothers and sisters to do that which belongs to us.”

Uzodimma said the presidential hopefuls from the South-East who withdrew from the race to support northern candidates did so because they hoped to produce the next president when power returns to the South.

“This is what has to be discussed at the party level because it is a serious matter. Because we are dealing with human beings here. You cannot just wake up and take any decision, there are consequences to every action. Those are the things that will be discussed and something must be done,” he said.

“Most of our people (presidential hopefuls) here who came from the south-east, when they saw that it will be difficult clinching to the ticket they opted for a northern candidate.

“The reason is very simple because when a northern candidate stays for eight years and then the power will come back to the south; this time around maybe we (south-east) will have the opportunity.”