Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, the Minister of Transportation has said that comments attributed to the Vice Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Peter Obi, that he is not an Igbo man and so, lacks the competence to discuss which region would present the president come 2023 is sad and cheap.
The former Anambra State Governor while commenting on an earlier statement attributed to Amaechi where the minister said that the Igbo cannot lay claims to the presidency because they did not support president Mohammadu Buhari , 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”.
But Amaechi, speaking on the sidelines of an Interactive forum of Maritime Stakeholders in Lagos, said that Obi cannot speak on the matter because his party lost the presidential election.
He explained that right from when he became Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly till date his name has been in the front burner of national politics far more than Peter Obi.
The Minister noted that for the Igbos to get the Presidency in 2023, they must be part of “National Politics”.
According to him: “Peter Obi said I’m not an Igbo man and that I don’t have the locus to discuss whether Igbo Presidency will be or not in 2023. That comment is a very sad and cheap one from him.
“But the truth is that Peter Obi too does not have the locus to speak about Igbo Presidency because he and his party couldn’t win the presidential election.
“Aside from that, it’s most unfortunate that Peter Obi, a man I defeated to become the Chairman of Nigeria Governors Forum(NGF), when we were both governors, can wake up today to say I am not relevant in the polity to talk about national issues when journalists ask me questions about it.
“I think what is important, which I have said to the Igbos severally is that they need to be part of national politics. If they are not part of National Politics they cannot be President.
“National Politics means that an Ikwerre man must have his interest covered by the Igbos If they want to be President. The Yoruba man must have the Igbos cover their interests, the Hausa, Fulani people must also be confident that their interests are covered by the Igbos.
“I support Igbo Presidency. I believe that it’s the Igbo turn to produce the next President of Nigeria because they have not been there before. The country will be unfair to the Igbos if they say it’s not their turn. But it can’t be your turn and you don’t want to fight for it. You want us to wake you up from sleep and say come and take, it is your turn? It doesn’t work like that and it will not work that way. So, Peter Obi should close his mouth. He lost an election which I won and that’s why President Buhari, not Atiku will be sworn-in tomorrow as President,”
