As the intrigues, scheming, alignments and realignments ahead of the 2023 presidential election ricochet across the country; many South East politicians are surreptitiously nursing presidential ambitions across party lines.
While former governor of Imo State, Senator Rochas Okorocha and erstwhile Abia State chief security officer, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, are clandestinely working out their strategies and plots in the ruling All Peoples Congress, APC, the broom party is said to be calmly considering the minister of state for education, Hon. Emeka Nwajiuba as a joker for presidential candidate for APC. Nwajiuba’s links with the north, presidency and particularly Predident Muhammadu Buhari himself are really intimidating.
For instance, Nwajiuba himself is a minister, his elder brother is the serving vice chancellor of Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ebonyi State, while against every calculation, Nwajiuba arm twisted Governor Hope Uzodimma to produce the APC governorship candidate, Chief Frank Ibezim, from the same local council with him, in the Imo North senatorial bye election billed for October 31. With these huge pluses on his side, Nwajiuba, according to reliable sources, is making inroads to the north and presidency in preparations for the 2023 presidential election.
A former governor of Anambra State, Dr. Peter Obi, according to report, is also warming up for the number one political seat in the country on the platform of the PDP. Obi, News Echo can authoritatively report, has gone far with his consultations. “Obi will continue doing massive consultations and, when the time comes, he will run one of the biggest campaigns during the electioneering. However, if he doesn’t succeed, he will be accommodated by anyone who wins the PDP presidential ticket”, informs this newspaper.
Obi earned the love of Anambra people and the respect of most Nigerians due to his transparency, accountability, diligence, simplicity, vision and creative governance during his eight years rule in Anambra State.
Unlike most governors, he never aspired going to the national assembly as a senator.
Equally, a one-time deputy governor of Abia State who now represents Abia Central in the national assembly, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, sources reveal, has his eyes on both the governorship election of his own state as well as keeping a tab of the 2023 presidential election.
Abaribe has been the toast of most Igbo people, particularly the youths and IPOB members who see him as their hero based on how he speaks out against what is perceived as injustices against Ndigbo. Abaribe signed the bill bond of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and even fought for his release when he was incarcerated. Abaribe has been in the senate talking in defence of Ndigbo in all fronts and this has given a big plus before Igbo people.
It has also been recorded that Ebonyi State governor, Engineer David Umahi is very much in the 2023 presidential election plans. Indeed, it is said that Umahi is so much loved by both APC and PDP in the north. So far, Umahi has been quite wonderful in his outing as governor in his home state, though civil servants have been accusing him of drastically cutting down their statutory allowances all in the name of developing the state.
More aspirants it is suspected will most likely throw their caps.
