Chief Whip of the Senate and 2023 presidential aspirant, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu on Tuesday lambasted South-West and South-South presidential hopefuls, saying “it is embarrassing that these aspirants from both the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have no single respect and concern for the South East”.
POLITICS NIGERIA reports that Kalu is one of the several presidential aspirants of southeast extraction hoping to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023. He is a member of the ruling APC.
In a statement this morning, the former Abia State Governor expressed his displeasure with the ‘unfairness, inequity and injustice’ the southeast region is suffering.
National leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu (Southwest); former Senate President Bukola Saraki (North); Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State (North); Nyesom Wike of Rivers State (South-south) and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (Southwest) are among the presidential aspirants from both the APC and PDP.
“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.”
