Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi has said that the South East could not bargain for the 2023 presidency on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) having failed to support the party in the 2019 general election.
He stated this in an interview published by Saturday Sun.
Amaechi recalled that in the period leading to the just-concluded election, he had appealed to the South East to support Buhari and the APC.
The former Rivers State Governor noted that such support would have made it easier for the region to produce the president in 2023.
Reminded that he was the first APC politician to promise the Igbos the 2023 presidency, Amaechi said, “I was the first to do that but I don’t know what the situation is now.
“I don’t know what they will do now for voting against the APC. For refusing to support the APC, they cannot come to the table to demand the presidency slot.
“For people like us in the APC, if the Igbo had come and voted Buhari, they would boldly tell Mr President and the National Chairman of the party that presidency should go the Southeast since the South-south; South-west and North-west have produced president. What argument would the Southeast come up with now to convince anybody that they deserve the slot for 2023 president?”
Meanwhile, Amaechi explained that he might not be running for the presidency in 2023 because of age handicap.
Dispelling rumours that he could run, the Director General of the Buhari Campaign Organisation in the 2015 and 2019 elections said, “I am not up to age of those contesting for the positions because the president is for those that are 70 years and above. It is implied in the constitution that you must be 70 years and above to be the President and you must be 68 years to be the Vice President. I am just 54 years this month, May. And since I am not qualified by age, how can anyone say that I am going for the positions?”
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