Why I Will Not Declare For President Now — Orji Kalu

The Senator representing Abia North in the National Assembly, Orji Uzor Kalu has said though he has the interest and desire to run for president in 2023 that he would not declare an interest “without the full support of other regions”.

The Senator in a Facebook post this morning said that he is committed to this pursuit, but that everywhere in the world, politics is situational and that of Nigeria is exceptionally situational.

The statement titled: “2023 Presidency: The Fairness I Know”, further said that the situation in Nigeria is that without the support of other regions, it would amount to a shadow chase for a South-Easterner to be President. “This is the reason I have been on the frontline of the call that the two major political parties, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) should zone their presidential tickets to the South-East as they did for the South-West in 1999.

“In the absence of this zoning, I shall return to the Senate and stay away from the presidential contest. The reality is that the North is more advantageous to win elections in this democratic setting”, the former governor of Abia State said.

While expressing shock at the number of aspirants coming from the South-West and the South-South, Senator Kalu insists that it is embarrassing that these aspirants (APC and PDP) have no single respect and concern for the South-East.

“I had thought they would think about the South-East; I thought they would support us. The amount of money being spent by these aspirants is alarming and they have forgotten that money alone cannot buy the presidency.

The Senator described as a joke the clamour by some, particularly Southern commentators and aspirants rooting for a Southern President on the premise of fairness, equity and justice.

“How can you talk about these morals when you are not even fair to your brothers?

“If there is anything like “fairness”, “equity” and “justice”, it should be the entire South pushing for a president of South-East extraction. Anything less than that is “hypocritical”, “unjustifiable” and “inordinate”. Some ‘persons’ are even claiming God’s anointed choice in 2023. Unfortunately, it is not all prayers that God answers; at least not inordinate ones.

“What moral justification does a Southerner who refused to be fair to his brothers have against a Northerner running for president? It will be very insensitive, unreasonable and disrespectful for any Southern man to criticize a presidential aspirant from the North on the ground that the North has done eight years and power should return to the South”.

The South-West and the South-South, he insists, have completed their tenures as ‘President and Vice President’. “They should have the courage to support their brothers from the South-East. If the next president after President Muhammadu Buhari does not come from the South-East, there would be nothing unfair and unjust if he/she comes from Daura.

“This country belongs to all of us and the unity of the country should be paramount. If not for selfishness and greed, how can you say that where a president comes from does not matter simply because you don’t want to support a president of Nigeria from the South East, but turn around to clamour for a power shift to the South? How do we explain this to the younger generation? Let the wise and courageous stay firm on their convictions and not swing on the two sides of the Atlantic”, he said.