South-east residents react to Atiku’s ‘stepping stone to Igbo president’ comment

Some residents of South East Nigeria have spoken out over the latest comment made by the presidential candidate People’s Democratic Party (PDP), that if Atiku Abubakar is elected in 2023, it would serve as a “stepping stone” to the Igbo presidency.

Atiku stated this on December 15 in Awka, Anambra State when he left his campaign for the South East region.

“I will be the step of an Igbo president of this country. I have shown in my action because this is the third time I am running with an Igbo man. If you really want to produce a president, vote the Atiku-Okowa ticket”, Atiku say A crowd of Igbo people gathered in the hall.

But some residents of the region who spoke to PREMIUM TIMES dismissed the promise as “a political talk” aimed at “misleading” the people of the region ahead of the 2023 general elections.

The residents, who have spoken separately, have expressed their support Labor Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi.

Mr Obi is from Agulu, an Igbo speaking community in Anaocha Local Government Area of ​​South East Nigeria.

‘It’s an insult’

“It is an insult to the Igbo race and also to the entire nation of Nigeria that Atiku came and boasted of being a step to emerge for the presidency of Nigeria from a certain section of the country,” a resident of Ikem Okuhu. Enugu State, he said of Atiku’s promise.

Mr. Okuhu stressed that only the Nigerian people, not Atiku, can decide their president from anywhere in the country.

He said the comment suggested that the Igbo cannot produce a president without the support of Atiku.

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He added that Atiku, who hails from the north-east of Nigeria, should be accused of violating the zoning arrangement that should facilitate the emergence of a president in southern Nigeria.

On his part, Kingsley Izuogu, a resident of Abia State, said the comment was “stupid”.

Mr. Izuogu, a lecturer at Abia State University, Uturu, noted that the PDP candidate’s promise was beyond an insult to the Igbo people.

“Who is the Igbo to act as a stepping stone to the realization of the presidency? When did we degenerate to this level? You know, these people talk out of every mouth,” he said.

“It’s not their fault. It’s just because our people have sold themselves.”

Arinze Ajaezu, a resident of Anambra State, told PREMIUM TIMES that Atiku does not have the capacity to make anyone in Nigeria president.

“The presidency is not a prize. He (Atiku) is playing politics. All these politicians have ways of talking to their followers to convince them (to help),” he said.

Ajaezu said there was no “feeling or movement” to show that Atiku had visited Anambra, noting that only “a few PDP members” attended.

“There was no sentiment or movement to suggest Atiku to campaign in Anambra,” he said, adding that the PDP candidate does not enjoy the support of the residents of the state.

“If he hopes to get votes in Anambra State, he is deluding himself. Anambra State is for the presidential candidate of the Labor Party,” he said.

For Rose Joseph-Ume, a resident of Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, the PDP candidate’s comment was a statement of “selfishness”.

Like others, Mrs. Joseph-Ume, a mother of one son, said the choice of who will be the president of Nigeria is not in the hands of an individual.

“So I think it is the most selfish, baseless and hypocritical statement I have ever heard,” he said of Atiku’s promise.

He said that given that Nigerian laws prevent the emergence of the country’s president through general elections, the PDP candidate’s promise was “disrespectful to the rule of law” and “the will of the public vote”.

Jonah Onuoha, a professor at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, said the Igbo have been “used and dumped” several times in the past by some politicians with similar promises.

Mr. Onuoha, a political science professor, said if Atiku meant well for the Igbo, he would have dropped it for an Igbo person in the PDP presidential primaries.

“The Igbos cannot be fooled by such promises. I don’t think anyone (from the region) will believe and vote,” he said.

“The Igbos are likely to vote for Peter Obi because such promises cannot move anyone. No one will vote for Atiku based on his promise to hand over to the Igbo people.”

A call for a president from the South East

Southeast leaders have called for the region to be allowed to produce a president for the first time in 2023.

But the verdict Congress of All Progressives and the main opposition PDP, Nigeria’s two main political parties, chose candidates from outside the region in their May presidential primaries.

Later, both parties ignored the region in their selection of vice-presidential candidates.

Some leaders in the region have argued that the emergence of the Nigerian president from the South-East would end the Biafra agitation in the region.