Ebonyi State Governor Dave Umahi, says he is encouraged by what the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi is doing.
Gov. Umahi who stated this while speaking to State House Correspondents shortly after a private visit to the President Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja, on Friday, predicted that Obi would garner a significant number of votes from the South-East.
The governor said despite the Labour Party’s poise to take a bulk of the Southeast votes, the APC would emerge victorious in next year’s election.
The former presidential aspirant who described himself as a loyal party man, further said Obi’s political movement would be an effective harbinger for an Igbo presidency.
On the Southeast’s readiness to produce the next president, Umahi said: “What happened during the primaries of PDP and APC, were a kind of miscalculation by our people but to say whether they’re ready for the presidency of the country anytime, I think that the movement of Peter Obi is an eye opener.
“That’s why I said, I love what he’s doing. I’m encouraged by what he’s doing. Because if he’s not doing what he’s doing, it means that the South East would have been forgotten.
“So, while my party takes the victory, he would have prepared a very good ground, for the South East Presidency, so that nobody is going to write us off. And you can see the level of his acceptability, which does not translate to victory over APC.
“I’m sure of that, but it’s a good movement. And it reassures the southeast people and the entire country that we are accepted, you know, that we will one day become the president of this country. It is very important.”
Speaking further, he argued that there is no direct link between the reduced cases of killings in the southeast and the Obi movement.
Lately, there has been an ongoing narrative that the gory violence prevalent in the Southeast is subsiding due to the prospect of Peter Obi clinching the Presidency in 2023.
He said “You cannot technically assign the reduction in the killings for Igbo presidency, you can see that security generally is improving in the country. And it has nothing to do with the movement of Peter Obi.
“Peter Obi movement is a movement that is anchored on equity, justice and fairness. It may not translate to an outright win because I must defend my party, I must wish my party well and I’m having the ticket of my party.
“But whether what he is doing has meaning there, it is not only in the southeast, it does have meaning. So we must never attribute the killings in the southeast to this kind of movement,” he argued.
“Every candidate has a chance to win the elections. Everybody has the chance of winning and chances of losing but you must always have a wish, I wish Peter Obi the victory.
“As a party man, I would wish that our party would win. And if God says no, the next person I wish that should win is Peter Obi. Because I believe strongly and I will say it anywhere in this north-south presidency after the north has taken eight years, there is no moral justification for the north to be seeking to take another eight years, it should go to the south. And so, I’m not wishing Peter Obi away”.
The governor said the visit was to invite Buhari to commission the new N1.2bn Ebonyi State Governor’s Lodge in Abuja in mid-October.
