2023: Tinubu, Osinbajo, Wike, Others Have No Respect For South East – Orji Kalu

A former governor of Abia State and presidential aspirant, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, has berated presidential aspirants from the South West and South South regions for joining the 2023 presidential race.

Naija News reports that some of the presidential aspirants from the South West and South South include the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, National leader of the APC, Bola Ahmed Tinubu; Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi.

In a statement he personally signed on Tuesday, the Senate Chief claimed that the South-West and South-South presidential aspirants have no single respect and concern for the South East region.

The former governor urged the presidential hopefuls to jettison their presidential ambitions and support the South East for the presidency.

He also raised an alarm over the amount of money being spent by the aspirants from the two regions, saying that money alone cannot buy the presidency.

Kalu, however, asked the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to zone their presidential tickets to the South East.

He said: “I am even shocked with the number of aspirants coming from the South West and the South South. It is embarrassing that these aspirants (APC and PDP) have no single respect and concern for the South East. I had thought they would think about the South-East; I thought they would support us,” Kalu’s statement reads in part.

“The amount of money being spent by these aspirants is alarming and they have forgotten that money alone cannot buy the presidency.

“It has become a joke to an ordinary Nigerian who hears Southern commentators and aspirants rooting for a Southern President on the premise of fairness, equity and justice. How can you talk about these morals when you are not even fair to your own brothers?

“If there is anything like “fairness”, “equity” and “justice”, it should be the entire South pushing for a president of South-East extraction. Anything less than that is “hypocritical”, “unjustifiable” and “inordinate”. Some ‘persons’ are even claiming God’s anointed choice in 2023. Unfortunately, it is not all prayers that God answers; at least not inordinate ones.

“What moral justification does a Southerner who refused to be fair to his brothers have against a Northerner running for president? It will be very insensitive, unreasonable and disrespectful for any Southern man to criticize a presidential aspirant from the North on the ground that the North has done eight years and power should return to the South.

“The South West and the South South have successfully completed their tenures as ‘President and Vice President’.They should have the courage to support their brothers from the South East. If the next president after President Muhammadu Buhari does not come from the South East , there would be nothing unfair and unjust if he/she comes from Daura.”