Apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo has described APC National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s declaration of his 2023 presidential bid as a project that is “dead on arrival”.
Spokesman of the group, Chief Alex Ogbonnia stated this while reacting to Tinubu’s declaration.
Tinubu has been a hot topic of discussion across the nation since he informed State House correspondents on Monday that he had informed President Muhammadu Buhari during a closed-door meeting of his decision to vie for the presidency in 2023.
However, the former Lagos governor said he has yet to formally inform Nigerians of his decision because consultations with stakeholders were still ongoing.
President Buhari sent tongues wagging on Wednesday when he declared during a televised interview that he would not divulge his favourite for the APC 2023 presidential ticket.
Asked if he had officially informed the president of his decision to run for the presidency, Tinubu said, “I answer that with a categorical yes. I’ve informed the President of my intention, but I have not informed Nigerians yet. I’m still consulting. And I have no problem consulting. And I’ve not set a parameter of limitation to the extent of how many people I will consult.
“You will soon hear; all you want to hear is the categorical declaration. You’ve got that truth from me that I have informed Mr President of my ambition, and you don’t expect more answers than that.”
Tinubu added that the president did not tell him to drop his presidential ambition.
“He is a democrat. He didn’t ask me to stop. He didn’t ask me not to attempt and pursue my ambition. It is a lifelong ambition. So, why do I expect him to say more than that? You are running a democratic dispensation, and you must adopt the principles and the values and virtues of democracy. That’s it,” Tinubu said.
Meanwhile, the Ohanaeze spokesman, Chief Alex Ogbonnia described Tinubu’s declaration as “unfortunate” and against the rules of natural justice.
He said that Tinubu should be joining to defuse tension in the national polity rather than fuelling it by declaring his 2023 presidential bid.
According to him, the South East geopolitical zone should produce the president in 2023.
“It is an assertion rooted in history and experience that any project that is not supported by justice and equity will not succeed,” The Punch quoted Ogbonnia to have said.
“It is a project that is dead on arrival. Because God is a universal entity that he is always interested in truth, fairness and equity. So for anybody embarking on anything that is not rooted in equity and justice will not succeed and this is a countervailing force that has sustained this world from the beginning.
“So Tinubu knows that he is embarking on a cause that has no foundation in anything: foundation in equity and justice, and of course is a project that will not succeed.”
He noted that Tinubu is adding to the crisis in the land because “there is this collective conscience that has been guiding this country. The collective conscience is to culturally determine what is right and what is wrong and to pursue the one that is right and ignore the one that is wrong.
“But all the same, those who have really gone against the convention has often lost, you know at a point General Sani Abacha wanted to continue but he lost; Goodluck Jonathan ran against the current he lost any other person that tries to go against the convention and the current will always lose it. Mr Tinubu is working across purposes with the foundations of this country – foundation rooted in equity and justice.
“He knows that this is the turn of the Igbo and instead of supporting for the Igbo to emerge for peace to reign, for the corporate existence of Nigeria to remain intact, he decided adding to the problem and crisis. So for one to succeed as a matter of facts, patriots should consider the collective interest – the group interest more than self-interest. But in this case now Tinubu is more interested in self-interest. He considered self-interest above group interest or corporate existence of Nigeria. And that is selfishness at its height and any country that has such people is always in problem.
“Ohanaeze’s position is that Tinubu knows that he is doing the wrong thing. He is embarking on a project that is not rooted in equity, justice and fair play, and is against the common current of the conscience of the people and to that extent he will surely lose.”