As reactions continue to trail the comments by the minister of Transportation, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, that Igbo people must not demand the presidency slot in 2023 for their refusal to back the All Progressive Congress (APC), Vice Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the just concluded presidential election and Former Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi, on Monday, said that the minister lacks the authority to talk about the geo-political zone that will produce the President in 2023 because of his political irrelevance in Rivers State.
Ameachi, on May 21, while speaking in an interview with The Sun, attributed this to the fact that the Igbo have nothing to bring to the table in 2023.
According to him: “I don’t know what they will do now for voting against the APC.
“For refusing to support the APC, they cannot come to the table to demand the presidency slot.
“For people like us in the APC, if the Igbo had come and voted Buhari, they would boldly tell Mr President and the National Chairman of the party that presidency should go the Southeast since the South-south; South-west and North-west have produced president. What argument would the Southeast come up with now to convince anybody that they deserve the slot for 2023 president?”
He said only possible way for an Igbo President to emerge is if a pressure political group that will reach the grass roots is formed.
“They need to bring caucus together, set up structures at the states and local government levels that will be meeting regularly.
“They also need to fund those structures. If these things happen, APC will continue to rule the country but I have a problem with the fact that everybody is not completely involved. When I say that everybody is not completely involved, it is not that because people are holding meetings, there are not anywhere people are holding meetings more than the other, but just that we need to play more party politics.”
But Obi, while addressing journalists after the lecture/book presentation in honour of Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike in Port Harcourt, wondered why Amaechi who is not from South East would want to speak for the zone.
He said: “Amaechi is not from the South East, so he cannot speak for us.
“He is not in any position to make such statements because even him that is in APC, he did not contribute anything to the success of that election.
“He did not even achieve anything in his own state. Those of us from the South East who are from the PDP contributed to the success of our party”.
Speaking further, he said: “For example, PDP in my state got 95percent. They (APC) didn’t even get 25percent in Rivers State. So he is not competent to speak on the Presidency in 2023”.
Obi said the only way to achieve peace is for the Buhari Administration to unite the people and tackle insecurity headlong.
“Everybody has to be involved. The President has to work with the governors and the Governors should work with the local government councils. We are Nigerians. We have no other country, so everyone must be involved “, he said.
