Temidayo Akinsuyi and Chijioke Agwu
Lagos / Abakaliki – South-West leaders have cautioned South-East leaders to eschew all forms of acrimony and rally around Peter Obi, former governor of Anambra State, who has been picked as the vice presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the 2019 election.
Some South-East leaders of the PDP had expressed indignation that they were unaware that the party’s presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, had picked Obi as running mate in next year’s election.
Governors Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu State), Dave Umahi (Ebonyi), and Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia), as well as Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, former House of Representatives Speaker, Emeka Ihedioha, and former Ebonyi State governor, Sam Egwu, among others, said the report of Obi’s choice was a rumour to them.
However, speaking to Daily Independent on Tuesday, Chief Olabode George, a former Deputy National Chairman of the PDP, warned the South-East leaders not to scuttle the chances of the region in producing the president in 2023.
While urging them to rally around Obi and speak with one voice, George said zoning the vice presidential slot of the PDP to the South-East was a great honour which they should cherish.
He added that other regions in the country are watching the ongoing developments and that acrimonious voices from the region would send negative messages to other Nigerians.
He said: “My advice to our Igbo brothers is ‘Nwayo, nwayo’. Let them cool down. Anybody of Igbo extraction should bury any acrimony and support the vice presidential candidate.
“They should be united now so that in 2023, when the presidency comes to the South, it must go to the South-East. So, I want to beg them that they should be patient.
“If they do, that will show other Nigerians that there is unity, oneness, peace, and togetherness in the South-East.
“Any acrimonious voices coming from there will send a negative message to other Nigerians. This is a time they must act as one and join hands for the progress of the South-East.
“Nigerians from other zones are watching. It is a great honour being bestowed on them by choosing the vice presidential candidate from their zone. They should all join hands together and rally behind Peter Obi.”
Also speaking, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, a former Minister of Transport, warned South-East leaders against actions that might jeopardise the region’s chances in the future.
Babatope, a member of the PDP’s Board of Trustees (BoT) who also described Obi’s choice as a laudable decision by Atiku, urged Igbo leaders to support him so as to achieve success for the PDP in the presidential elections.
“Those leaders in the South-East opposing Peter Obi don’t know him. I know him very well. He is a very good fellow. I worked with him in 2015 during the Goodluck Jonathan presidential campaign. He is a decent man and an excellent manager of men and resources.
“I don’t know why they are opposing him. I have always argued that the South-East should produce the vice presidential candidate and now that Obi has been chosen, I think the best thing for the leaders in the zone to do is to rally behind him.”
In his remark, Yinka Odumakin, National Publicity Secretary of Afenifere, said the Igbo leaders should think deeply and stop dissipating their energies on whether the decision to choose Obi as running mate to Atiku was right or not.
He said since leaders in the zone had agreed that what was paramount to them was the restructuring of the country, they should support the candidate who had promised to make that his priority if elected.
According to him, “The Yoruba have a saying, ‘Yoruba Ronu’, which means Yoruba think deeply. In Igbo language, it is Igbo ronu. So, the Igbo should ronu.
“One of them has been picked as vice presidential candidate. The best thing for them is to rally around him. This is not the time for the dissipation of energy. They should also not forget that what is paramount to us is restructuring. The Yoruba have the vice president now, what have they achieved?”
Daily Independent also gathered that Obi has begun personal moves to individually appease the aggrieved leaders in a bid to win their support.
A source close to the governor said in the last few days Obi had met key leaders of the region such as Ike Ekweremadu, Deputy Senate President, who is rumoured to be the leader of the opposition against his choice.
He is also believed to have met with Theodore Orji, former Abia State governor; Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe, lawmaker representing Abia South Senatorial District; Senator Ben Obi, and other leaders.
“Since the opposition began, Obi has been meeting with key leaders of the zone on individual basis, soliciting their support, and I believe this will continue in the next couple of days. He will also issue an official statement on the issue soon,” the source said.
Another source said Atiku, who is currently in the United Kingdom (UK), will meet with the party leaders in the South-East who are believed to be unhappy with his choice of Obi.
“The disappointment of some PDP leaders in the South-East is something I know Atiku will look at once he comes back from the UK,” the source said.
He added: “He’s willing to meet with South-East PDP leaders to discuss, but the option would not be about changing Peter Obi; the option would be about discussing every other political appointment with them before announcing them.
“Atiku is very open to discussing with those who are aggrieved; he wants to carry everyone along, and that’s the reason you’ve not seen him tweet about Obi’s emergence as his running mate.
“The campaign organisation has come out to say this is the running mate, but for Atiku personally, he would have to carry everyone along, which is why he has been silent about it on social media.”
S-East Govs Not Against Obi As Atiku VP Pick — Gov Umahi
South East governors have dispelled the trending report that the forum was against the nomination of former governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, as the running mate to the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
David Umahi, governor of Ebonyi State, who is the Chairman of the forum, told newsmen in Abakaliki on Tuesday that the governors and leaders of the zone were only worried because the decision that led to the nomination of Obi was taken outside the zone and without the input of the zone’s leaders.
He said that the development detracted from the respect due to the governors and leaders of the zone.
Umahi also wondered why nobody from Ebonyi State made the list of the initial nominees considered by the presidential candidate for his running mate, lamenting that the act smacked of marginalisation of the state.
He described Obi as a good friend, adding that the former Anambra governor was highly qualified to be the vice president of the nation judging from his track records, character, and competencies.
The Ebonyi governor, who was just appointed the South East Coordinator of Atiku/Obi Campaign Organisation, said he had no interest in the position, stressing that his current preoccupation was completing his second term and developing Ebonyi State.
“We have never said that Obi is not good for us; we have nothing against Obi, but we want – when decisions that concern us are being taken we want – to be part of that decision.
“Number two, the five names submitted, of course no governor in South-East wants to be vice president; everybody wants to finish his tenure.
“The five names for VP should have been five names from the five South-East states, but there was no name from Ebonyi and Imo states. I am a fighter of marginalisation of Ebonyi people.”
“If we are going to vote, we must be treated with equity. These are the issues; two names came from Anambra, one from Enugu, and one from Abia. So, what is wrong in having someone from Ebonyi and then one from Imo?
“These are the issues, but they are not as terrible as is being looked at. I know that my people put me on social media talking so many things about me, but it doesn’t move me.
“We must sit down with the presidential candidate and say look, if we work together, we must be part of the decision making.
“I am not talking about myself; I am talking about the leadership of the South-East.
“If six people can come from other regions to take decision and there is nobody from the South-East, and our people think it is right, so be it.
“Nobody is against Obi. The leaders of Ndigbo are saying that when decisions are taken and you invite people from other regions, invite people from the South-East.
“They never issued any statement and anybody from the South-East that is saying that my stand is not good is not a human being, because tomorrow is bigger than today.
“If Atiku had just announced his running mate without other people from other regions seeing the list and making inputs or choices, we wouldn’t have been bothered because nobody chooses a VP for anybody, it is like a wife.
“So, but if other people were there, at least one person from the South-East should have been there.
“Two, in particular, Ebonyi State shouldn’t have been neglected even if we will not make the list because the choice is for the man.
“You remember that one of the reasons that an Ebonyi man is not too comfortable with the issue of region is that we are afraid of further marginalisation. So, these are the issues.
“Obi is my friend. You would have seen our pictures on the social media. Yes, he is my good friend and we have worked together very very well, and he said something to me and said look, ‘if I were you, I will be more bitter, I will make greater noise than you are making’.
“Obi understands. And let me give you one shocking news. I was told in the course of our meeting in Enugu that somebody asked Chekwas Okorie why is it that Igbo don’t vote for their vice presidential candidates and Chekwas told him that any day the Igbo man chooses his vice presidential candidate, the Igbo man will vote for the vice presidential candidate, and if you check, be it Ekwueme or any other, you will find out that we have never voted along that line.”
https://www.independent.ng/south-west-leaders-caution-igbos-over-peter-obi/amp/
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