The acclaimed national leader of All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, last Monday, informed State House correspondents after a meeting with President Buhari at the Presidential Villa in Abuja that he has informed the President, of his ambition to contest for the 2023 presidential election, stressing that, it has been his lifelong ambition to become the President of Nigeria. Even, though he is to inform Nigerians.
Part of the things he claimed, as his strength was the confidence, vision and capacity to build on the foundation laid by the President.
In a swift reaction, the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, through its spokesman, Chief Alex Ogbonnia, described APC National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s declaration of his 2023 presidential bid as a project that is “dead on arrival”.
Chief Ogbonnia, further described Tinubu’s declaration as “unfortunate” and against the rules of natural justice. He said that Tinubu should be joining to defuse tension in the national polity rather than fuelling it by declaring his 2023 presidential bid.
According to him, the South East geopolitical zone should produce the president in 2023, insisting that “It is an assertion rooted in history and experience that any project that is not supported by justice and equity will not succeed. It is a project that is dead on arrival. Because God is a universal entity that he is always interested in truth, fairness and equity. So for anybody embarking on anything that is not rooted in equity and justice will not succeed and this is a countervailing force that has sustained this world from the beginning.
“So Tinubu, knows that he is embarking on a cause that has no foundation in anything: foundation in equity and justice and of course is a project that will not succeed.”
He noted that Tinubu is adding to the crisis in the land because “there is this collective conscience that has been guiding this country and those who have really gone against the convention has often lost, you know at a point General Sani Abacha wanted to continue but he lost; Goodluck Jonathan ran against the current and he lost.
“Therefore, any other person that tries to go against the convention and the current will always lose it. Mr Tinubu is working across purposes with the foundations of this country – foundation rooted in equity and justice. He knows that this is the turn of the Igbos and instead of supporting for the Igbo to emerge for peace to reign, for the corporate existence of Nigeria to remain intact; he decided adding to the problem and crisis.
Concluding, he said, “Ohanaeze’s position is that Tinubu knows that he is doing the wrong thing. He is embarking on a project that is not rooted in equity, justice and fair play, and is against the common current of the conscience of the people and to that extent he will surely lose.”
Therefore, Alhaji Tinubu, and other intenders from the South West, intending should comprehend that from 1999, Olusegun Obasanjo, from that divide held sway for eight (8) years and it returned to the North, with Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, after which providence returned it to the South with Goodluck Jonathan, from South-South, holding sway for six (6) years, then it returned to the North with Muhammadu Buhari, hence fairness, Justice and equity demand that South-East should produce the next president of the nation.
It is therefore, News Echo’s position that Bola Tinubu or any intender from South-West, should be patriotic enough to consider the collective interest of the nation rather than self-interest and support a Nigerian prudential candidate from South-East extraction.
