South-East Cries Injustice
Former Lagos state Governor, Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Tuesday emerged the All Progressives Congress flagbearer for the 2023 presidential contest. He beat 22 other aspirants to win the prize.
The presidential primary election was the high point of the party’s National Convention held in Abuja.
Tinubu scored a total of 1,271 votes to beat former Transportation Minister Rotimi Amechi and Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo to second and third places, respectively. Amaechi garnered 316 votes while Osinbajo got 235 votes.
Former Minister of Sciences and Technology Ogbonnaya Onu scored 1vote while Senate President Ahmad Lawan got 146 votes. Former Imo State Governor Senator Rochas Okorocha, recorded no votes.
Other Results:
Chukwuemeka Nwajuiba – one vote
David Umahi – 38 votes
Tunde Bakare – zero vote
Ahmed Rufai Sanni Yerima – four votes
Rotimi Amaechi – 316 votes
Yemi Osinbajo – 235 votes
Rochas Okorocha – zero vote
Yahaya Bello – 47 votes
Tien Jack-Rich – zero vote
Christopher Onu – one vote
Ikeobasi Mokelu – zero vote
Ben Ayade – 37 votes
Ahmad Lawan – 152 votes
While the Tinubu camp has erupted in celebration, the cry of injustice from presidential aspirants from the South-East is still ringing.
Most of the aspirants from the South-East said the party ought to have specifically zoned its presidential ticket to the South East which is the only geopolitical zone in Southern Nigeria that has not tasted the presidency.
They spoke prior to the commencement of voting at the National Convention.
They said, by denying the South-East the ticket, the APC deliberately lost the opportunity to address that injustice, adding that it was against the understanding reached before the Convention.
Two of the aspirants from the zone, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba and Ken Nnamani, who claimed the party did not keep to its promise on zoning the position to the South East, withdrew from the contest.
While Nwajiuba did not bother to attend the convention that held at the Eagle Square in Abuja, Nnamani who had issued a withdrawal statement the previous day, said the party’s decision not to micro-zone the position to the South-East had robbed the exercise of fairness.
A third aspirant, immediate past Minister of Science and Technology, Ogbonnaya Onu, in his speech at the convention lamented that the party let the South East down.
He recalled a similar situation in 1999 when the South-West needed to be pacified over the unfair annulment of the June 12, 1993 election presumably won by MKO Abiola. “I had won the APP presidential primaries in 1999 and I was the party’s presidential candidate, but I had to relinquish it in the interest of justice for the South-West,” he said.
The APP flag for the presidential contest was offered to Chief Olu Falae who eventually lost the 1999 election to Olusegun Obasanjo of the Peoples Democracy Party.
Onu said now that the South East finds itself in a similar position, its cries are ignored. “Where is justice, where is justice?” he cried repeatedly.
While Ebonyi State Governor David Nweze Umahi also spoke in the same line, the two other aspirants from the zone, Mrs Uju Ohanenye and Ikeobasi Mokelu who also addressed the Convention, did not make any reference to the expectation of the South East geopolitical zone on the issue.
Facts have also emerged on why the immediate past Minister of State for Education, Emeka Nwajiuba, boycotted the special convention for the election of the presidential candidate.
According to his brother, Prof Chinedum Nwajiuba, a former University Vice Chancellor, the Minister stayed away from the convention when it dawned on him that the earlier consensus arrangement as a method of electing the flag bearer of the party had collapsed.
In a statement issued early Tuesday, the brother said that the understanding from the highest levels prior to the Minister’s involvement, and considering his role in the founding of the APC, was that of consensus as was with the National Chairmanship a few months ago.
He chose to be absent at the venue of the primary election because of the turn of events and the fact that he did not want to be part of “the Dollar and Naira bazaar.”
When he was called upon to come and make a speech, he was not at the venue. He was the only one of the 23 aspirants that failed to show up for the exercise.
