Mr Osita Okechukwu, Director-General, Voice of Nigeria (VON), has advised the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and former two-term Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, to jettison his 2023 presidential ambition.
He gave the advice in a statement on Sunday in Abuja, adding that Tinubu should rather be a Kingmaker and back a younger presidential candidate from the South-East.
According to the statement, Okechukwu, a foundation member of the APC, gave the advice at the 2021 Eke Day in Abuja.
“If I am consulted by our national leader, His Excellency, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on whether he should run or not for the exalted office of the President of Nigeria in 2023, my candid advice will be that he should use his abundant Almighty God’s endowment to unite the APC, and unite the South and by extension our beloved country, by backing a candidate from the South East,” he said.
Okechukwu further advised Tinubu to throw his weight behind a younger person from the South, especially the South-East geopolitical zone, to emerge as the country’s next president in 2023.
He said by so doing, Tinubu would have united the South forever.
The VON boss added that if Tinubu widens his search, he would definitely find a credible candidate from the South-East who would easily defeat the presumed candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.
According to Okechukwu, by so doing, Tinubu would have wittingly used one stone to kill two birds, unite the APC, and unite the South and by extension, the entire country.
He emphasised that it would be statesmanlike for Tinubu to be a Kingmaker instead of “throwing his hat into the ring”.
He said Tinubu would have his name written in gold if he utilised his God’s endowed resources to support anyone from the South-East to be Nigeria’s next president of Igbo extraction, against any other person because of the zoning arrangement.
“The rotation started from the South-West in 1999 and therefore, going by equity and natural justice, the South-East should be allowed to produce the country’s next president in 2023.
“The zoning convention has governed the 4th Republic since 1999, a convention which states that the president should rotate between North and South.
“It started in 1999 from the South-West, with Chief Olusegun Obasanjo as president, secondly, our brothers in the South South had their turn to preside over Nigeria.
“South-East is the only geopolitical zone in the South which had not presided over Nigeria, except the six months of Gen. Aguiyi Ironsi’s stint,” Okechukwu said.
