Peter Obi Hits Ameachi After ‘2023 Presidency’ Comment

The Former Governor of Anambra State and the Vice Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in the February 23 general elections, Peter Obi has taken a swipe at Rotimi Ameachi over his comment that the South East cannot demand the 2023 presidency.

Ameachi who is the Minister of Transportation, had on May 18 while speaking to journalists said the Igbo have nothing to bring to the negotiation table for 2023 presidency, stressing that the region’s decision to support candidate of the opposition party was an error.

According to him, “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.

“But 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?”

Obi noted that Ameachi lacks the competence to talk about which geo-political zone will produce the president in 2023 because he lacks political relevance in Rivers State.

While speaking to Journalists after the lecture/book presentation in honour of Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike in Port Harcourt on Monday, Obi wondered why Amaechi who is not from South East would want to speak for the zone.

Flanked by Senator Uche Ekwunife and Senator-Elect, Sandy Onoh, Obi said: “Amaechi is not from the South East, so he cannot speak for us.

“He is not in any position to make such statements because even him that is in APC, he did not contribute anything to the success of that election.

“He did not even achieve anything in his own state. Those of us from the South East who are from the PDP contributed to the success of our party”.

“For example, PDP in my state got 95percent. They (APC) didn’t even get 25percent in Rivers State. So he is not competent to speak on the Presidency in 2023”.

On the second term inauguration of Governor Wike, he said that the Rivers State Governor has performed exceptionally well, as evidenced by his numerous projects.

He said: “What is happening in Rivers State is that every area has seen very visible improvement. He has done very well.

“The lecture and book presentation elucidated the performance of the Rivers State Governor “.

On the growing insecurity in the country, Obi said the only way to achieve peace is for the Buhari Administration to unite the people and tackle insecurity headlong.

“Everybody has to be involved. The President has to work with the governors and the Governors should work with the local government councils. We are Nigerians. We have no other country, so everyone must be involved “, he said.

The PDP vice presidential candidate said that the major way to end insecurity is to create jobs for the teeming unemployed youths.

He said: “As Long as the youths remain unemployed, we have a crisis “.

He noted that INEC should be made to be independent, so that they can work without favouring any group.