Stephen, Ukandu Umuahia
Former Governor of Abia State and the Chief Whip of the Senate, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, has said that South-East cannot secure the presidential ticket of any political party without ‘gentleman agreement’ with other ge-opolitical zones.
The Abia North Senator was responding to a remark by elder statesman and Chairman of Pan Niger Delta Elders Forum PANDEF, Chief Edwin Clark, that he had betrayed Ndigbo by abandoning his presidential bid only to declare support for Ahmed Lawan from North-East.
Kalu who took to his Facebook wall, said he was not a traitor but only took the decision based on the current political realities.
The former Governor said he had personally championed the Nigerian President of Igbo extraction project long before those mouthing the campaign today, but only took a detour following the refusal of the two major political parties to cede their presidential tickets to the zone.
According to him: “I was shocked that even the zone the entire South-East supported in unity including myself in 2011 and 2015 respectively, has the highest number of contestants without thinking of their brothers, knowing full well that the South-East zone has remained the only zone in southern Nigeria that has not produced the nation’s president since the rotation convention dispensation that began in 1999.
“Coming to this late hour to support the South-East is rather suspicious to me if they couldn’t do it two years ago. The truth is, Chief Edwin Clark knows the South-East cannot get the ticket of any party in an open contest as it is today without a gentleman’s agreement to concede it to the South-East.”
Kalu further claimed that a number of the members of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, were secretly supporting a candidate from the North-East so that the South-East might produce the next president in eight years’ time instead of waiting for 16 years.
“It is rather surprising to me that Chief Edwin Clark didn’t call the majority of other Southerners including governors working against the South-East to order or the names he called me.
“What did you say or do when all the aspirants from the South-South and South-West were buying forms to run against South-Easterners who have always supported them.
“I know some people want us to keep quiet and then allow other Southerners to take the turn of the South-East. If you meant well for the South-East, you could have discouraged other aspirants from running for President. Nothing stops the South from supporting only presidential aspirants from the South-East. The betrayers are those who don’t care about the South-East. We are wiser.”
The Senate Chief Whip, however, commended Clark for his support for the South East but noted that the support was coming rather late.
“I want to sincerely commend him for openly supporting the South-East geopolitical zone to produce the next President of Nigeria.
“It is imperative I remind him that I didn’t betray my people, rather I am doing my best to reintegrate them into mainstream politics.
“In the last two years, I have been at the forefront agitating for a Nigerian President of South-East extraction, when most of them were all saying “Southern Presidency.”
