Wike castigates Ohanaeze Ndigbo saying nobody discussed an Igbo presidency with him

GOVERNOR Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has confirmed reports that the southeast geo-political zone did not told take a quest for the presidency of Nigeria seriously after he told Ohanaeze Ndigbo that nobody discussed zoning the office to Igbos with him.

Although not constitutional, Nigeria's component parts have a gentleman's agreement that the presidency will rotate between the north and the south of the country. President Muhammadu Buhari's tenure will end in May this year and being a Fulani northern Muslim, it was expected  that his successor would come from southern Nigeria.

Since the return to democracy in 1999, the southwest has produced President Olusegun Obasanjo and the south-south President Goodluck Jonathan, so ideally, come 2023, the presidency should automatically have gone to the southeast. However, this did not happen as neither of Nigeria's two main parties selected an Igbo candidate as their presidential flagbearer.

Neither the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) nor the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) selected an Igbo candidate to fight the 2023 presidential battle. Unable to secure the PDP ticket, former Anambra State governor Peter Obi left and joined the Labour Party on whose platform he stood.

On February 25, the elections held and the Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec), declared Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of the APC the winner. This has raised question marks as to why the southeast did not produce the president and this is fuelling discontent across the geo-political zone.

Last week, Governor Wike hosted Ohanaeze Ndigbo leaders on Port Harcourt, where he told them that nobody discussed Igbo presidency with him in the run-up to the elections. At the meeting, Dr Alex Ogbonnia, Ohaneze Ndigbo's publicity secretary, had confronted Governor Wike over his alleged role against Governor Obi during the presidential election.

According to Dr Ogbonnia, the Rivers governor explained that the Southern Governors Forum first met at Asaba and agreed that power must shift to the south after President Muhammadu Buhari. He also explained that the governors later met in Enugu in September 2021 to reaffirm their position for power to shift to the south but added that throughout the meetings, the issue of presidency to the southeast was never on the table.

Governor Wike also explained that throughout his political adventure, he tried as much as possible to maintain the position of the southern governors. He expressed disgust that during the PDP presidential primary elections, several well-known people of the southeast betrayed him and sabotaged the southern interest by voting for a candidate from the northern part of the country.

Furthermore, Governor Wike added that his unalloyed commitment to the south motivated him to provide logistics for Peter Obi when he was in Rivers State for the presidential campaign. He noted that conversely, he refused to provide even a campaign ground for Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of his own PDP.

“I am a man with the courage of my convictions and have no reasons to tell lies or to owe an apology to anyone. I am always ready to defend my actions any day and at any time and I did not rig the presidential election against Obi," Governor Wike added.