• As Anyim, Kalu, Mohghalu announce intent
A group, Balance and Equity Group (BEG), has urged South East politicians and technocrats, who desire to contest the president of Nigeria to declare their intent without further delay.
Founder and National Coordinator of the group, Chris Arinze, gave the charge in Onitsha, Anambra State, yesterday, while briefing newsmen on their journey in the preparation for the 2023 presidential election, adding that the group was working for a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction.
He said the politicians’ declaration of interest and ambition had become imperative because BEG had put structures in place to conduct a Presidential Interest Debate (PID) for all the aspirants to select the best and acceptable candidate of Igbo extraction to be presented to Nigerians.
Arinze stressed that the BEG had determined that the 2023 presidential election would not be for corrupt politicians and those above 65 years, warning that any politician who did not meet the criteria should forget contesting, as Nigerians had become wiser.
He commended Ebonyi State Governor, Dave Umahi, former President of the Senate, Anyim Pius Anyim and former Abia State Governor, Orji Uzor Kalu for declaring their interest, promising that any Igbo aspirant who emerges, would make a good president for the country.
BESIDES, Kalu has said he was being pressured to declare his intention to run for the presidency and visit President Muhammadu Buhari, as recently done by National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu and Ebonyi State Governor, David Umahi.
In a statement issued, yesterday, Kalu, a former governor of Abia State believed to be nursing ambition to succeed President Buhari, said he was waiting to see if the APC would cede the presidency ticket to the South, adding that would determine his visit to the President.
“I have been pressured with requests to declare my intention to run for the presidency of our country and visit the President following visits by other politicians to the President,” he said.
MEANWHILE, ahead of the 2023 general elections, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has asked Nigerians to reject Umahi’s presidential ambition, saying as governor of Ebonyi State, he threatened journalists covering the state, if they continued to report stories that would create panic in the state.
It said Umahi remained one of the worst civilian governors of modern day Nigeria, adding that he had been advised to shelve his dream of vying for the presidency of the country or resign as governor of Ebonyi State to enable his deputy to complete his tenure.
In a statement issued yesterday in Abuja, by its National Coordinator Emmanuel Onwubiko and Media Director, Zainab Yusuf, HURIWA urged Nigerians to dismiss Umahi’s notice to run for the presidency of Nigeria, describing it as a dream, which must not be allowed to materialise.
