The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Imo State, Uche Nwosu, on Sunday said President Muhammadu Buhari would win massive votes in the South-East in 2019 despite the decision of the Peoples Democratic Party presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, to pick his running mate from the geopolitical zone.
Nwosu, who spoke to newsmen in Owerri, said the nomination of a former governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, as Atiku’s running mate would make no impact.
Describing Obi’s nomination as a Greek gift to Ndigbo, the Imo APC governorship candidate said that the people of the zone should wait till 2023 to produce the President rather than accepting”a vice presidential slot which is more of a spare tyre.”
Nwosu said, “I don’t think that the nomination of the PDP presidential running mate from the South-East will affect anything, because President Muhammadu Buhari has made a landmark decision, I call him a man of his word.
“One thing is sure and that is President Buhari cannot be compared to Atiku Abubakar. President Buhari is a man of integrity and remember that the country was almost gone before he came in and since he came in, you can see that every part of our economy is doing well and our integrity abroad has been restored now.
“ President Buhari remains the best for the Ndigbo and the country. The Ndigbo will wait till 2023 to produce the President after Buhari has served out his second term than this vice-presidential slot to the South-East.
“Anybody from the South-East who is supporting Atiku is making a very big mistake. We cannot afford to wait for another eight years to have an Igbo man as President, I think it is a carrot that is being dangled before the Ndigbo but we must reject it.
“We cannot wait for another eight years. We prefer to vote for President Buhari and in the next four years, power will return to the South-East. So the issue of Vice-President cannot bring anything to the South-East.
“You cannot compare a Vice-President to a President. So, the issue of bringing Peter Obi is to deceive the Ndigbo again and make them continue the waiting game all over again. What we are asking for as the Ndigbo is a President, not Vice-President, that is not what we need.
“When President Buhari finishes in 2023, it will be the turn of the Ndigbo, so no Igbo man that is deep in politics, will think of supporting Atiku Abubakar, who will want to stay for another eight years, no that is not acceptable. So we shall vote for Buhari en masse to ensure that the Ndigbo will only have to wait for four years.”
He said that Buhari was sincere and committed to handing over power to the South-East people after his second term in office.
Nwosu also dismissed insinuations that the APC might have been weakened by the crisis arising from the just-concluded primaries.
He said, “I don’t think it has affected the party in any way; it is politics and the most important thing is that at the end of the whole thing, we must resolve such crises. All the issues arising from the primaries will be resolved because the APC is a big party and the party in power; it is not a problem at all.
“I think our national chairman (Adams Oshiomhole) has all it takes to bring the APC to victory in 2019, remember that before now the party was in a shambles and nobody was hearing about the party. The former leadership did not visit any state throughout the time they were there. Nobody knew that the APC was in existence but now people know that there is the APC.
“Adams Oshiomhole is a man you can trust with power and office. Immediately he took over, you can see the vibrancy in the leadership of the APC, and I am convinced that he will lead the party to victory in 2019.”
(Punchng)
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