Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State has said that the South-East and North-East have the most legitimate claim to the presidency in 2023.
Mohammed, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential aspirant, said this on Friday in Awka during his consultation with the party faithful in Anambra.
He contended that the two geo-political zones had yet to produce the nation’s president in a democratic dispensation.
He said: “The Igbo nation is critical in the Nigerian project.
“Their entrepreneurial ingenuity and apprenticeship should be imbibed by other parts of the country as a model for addressing poverty and unemployment.’’
Mohammed appealed to the prospective party delegates to the upcoming national convention to elect him to fly the party’s flag.
He, however, said he would support whosoever emerged as candidate from the primary in order to ensure that PDP wrestled power from the ruling-All Progressives Congress.
He said, “I am presenting myself for election and I seek your support.
“But if I do not win, I will support the eventual candidate because we have to rescue Nigeria.
The presidential hopeful said he was duty bound to accept the outcome of the primary election as a true party man.
He said that he joined the presidential race to address the nation’s multiple challenges, if elected.
He expressed concern over the nation’s high level of indebtedness and how the loans had been utilised.
He said, “If elected, I will end the era of borrowing and increase the country’s capacity to create wealth.”
Responding, a chieftain of the party in the state, Chief Okey Muo-Aroh, spoke on PDP’s decision to jettison the zoning of the presidential position to any section of the country.
Muo-Aroh said that as an opposition, the party would not want to go into the election with the luggage of excluding a section of the country.
He urged the party’s national leadership to address the issues that led to the botched congresses in the state and avert a potential electoral disaster for PDP in Anambra in 2023.