A group, South East Mandate, which is pushing for power shift to the region next year, has berated some Southeast governors for allegedly endorsing Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike for president.
The group lamented that while most Igbos are campaigning for the South East to produce the next President, the two Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors threw their support for
The group said: “Wike was in Enugu on 27, 2022, for the Enugu State special PDP Stakeholders meeting. The meeting was attended by Enugu State PDP leaders, including the Speaker, Edward Obosi, and Members of the House of Assembly. National Vice Chairman of the PDP, South East zone, Ali Odefa and the Enugu State Chairman of the party, Augustine Nnamani. Members of Enugu State National Assembly caucus, and other senior stakeholders and leaders, were also in attendance.
“The meeting adopted a resolution to endorse Wike as their candidate for the PDP presidential ticket for the 2023 election. Shortly after, the two governors, manouvered the Southeast Zonal Executive Committee meeting, held on Sunday March 27 at Enugu State Government House, to adopt a resolution calling for the zoning of the presidential ticket of the PDP to the South, a move which fits nicely into Wike’s game plan. There was no mention of the South East. Ikpeazu, who on Wednesday 23rd March hosted PDP Governors overnight at his Umuobiakwa village estate, where strategies for the Wike campaign were fine-tuned, is expected soon to organize an Abia PDP Stakeholders meeting, where Nyesom Wike will be endorsed as the Abia candidate for PDP Presidential ticket.
“Unsuspecting participants of the Enugu meeting are already expressing regret at the betrayal of the Igbo Presidency Project.
The South East Mandate is hereby calling on Ndigbo to rise and condemn this act of betrayal. We demand that all political parties in the country pick their 2023 presidential candidates from the Southeast. South East region has sacrificed a lot and must be allowed to produce the next President of the country.
“It is particularly insulting, that Wike has serially denied any socio-cultural affiliations with the Igbos, but the two PDP governors have been bought over by the legendary generosity of the Rivers State governor who by our account, spontaneously made N50million available to the meeting at Enugu, for *kolanuts,* in exchange for his jaundiced, inconsequential endorsement”.
The organisation has been at the forefront of the advocacy for a president from Igboland, the Igbos being the singular ethnic group in the South East of Nigeria, with kinsmen in Delta State and parts of Rivers State. In the post-civil war political history of Nigeria, the Igbos have never produced either a military Head of State, or a civilian President.