Former member of the House of Representatives and Director-General of Tinubu Support Management Council, Hon. Abdulmumin Jibrin, has said the wisest thing the southeast can and should do, is to support Bola Tinubu’s presidential ambition.
Jibrin who stated this in an interview with New Telegraph, said there’s a lot of sympathy for the southeast over their inability to produce the nation’s president for a long time, but attributes the failures to poor political strategy.
He said although the South East seems determined to produce the next President in 2023, he however, added that the region is still not ready, and advised they support Tinubu’s candidacy which would be their easiest route to power in the future.
He said, “On the issue of South-East, I also sympathize with the zone because we all do. A lot of us who have been working behind the scene with Tinubu, including Tinubu himself understand these issues.
“But I think what happened over the years was that and I have had this conversation with a lot of my friends from the south eastern part of the country; traditionally they always play centre politics. It was the South-West that was playing regional politics. The South-West realized that they have to play central politics just like what late MKO Abiola did. While the South- West were planning and strategizing to come to centre, the South-East were shifting back to regional politics.
“So, they shifted back and therefore, the South-West dominated the centre. The South- East would have to put a little bit of effort to get to the centre in terms of the overall nature of the politics that they are playing.
“Secondly, they also have to demonstrate that they are really interested in the presidency. I will give you an example, there is a dominant party of south eastern people in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) but they rarely come out to show interest even when they have competent people to contest.
“Apart from Senator Anyim Pius Anyim who came out recently, nobody is coming out and they are there debating zoning of the presidency to the northern part of the country. So, you can now see that they are not even pushing as hard as they should for the PDP to take the presidency to the southern part of the country, which is in fairness what should happen.
“I think the people of south eastern part of the country needs to re-examine the politics that they are playing, build a strategy around what they want to do because this is an opportunity for them and they can come in and support Tinubu. It is the best opportunity they have in the future to have the presidency, and you know why, because he is a man of his words.
“If he gives his word, he is going to do it. When he said I’m going to support Alliance for Democracy (AD), he did it. When he said I’m going to support Action Congress (AC), he did it. When he said I’m going to do Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), he did it. When he said I’m going to support President Muhammadu Buhari, he did it.
“He never for a moment betrayed the president. So, that is the sort of person that he is. So, I call on the South-East and I have been talking to a lot of friends of ours from the South-East, this is an opportunity. Joining the Bola Tinubu presidential bid is their best chances to have the presidency in future.”
