By Chinedu Jideofo-Ogbuagu
South East APC Presidency Project 2023 must remain focused and determined to win 2023 presidency in spite of discouraging rumours, gossips and propaganda by detractors and the chickenhearted.
From June 2015 when South-East APC Integrity Group was established to prepare the ground for emergence of President of Nigeria of South-East extraction in 2023, and January 2020 when South-East APC Presidency Project 2023 was launched by the Group, we have come a long way.
And no one – no matter how highly placed – will get the chance to distract, divert, discourage or deceive us.
Emergence of Nigeria President of South-East extraction must be in 2023 or never.
We must achieve our Project agenda even as we know that the individuals that most South-Easterners would look up to to step forward as presidential hopefuls are corrupt, timid, weak, selfish, treacherous or given to political trading.
We know that they would sell out so as for them to become presidential running mate, Senate President, national chairman of party, Speaker of House of Representatives, SGF, minister or any other political appointee in 2023 or even in 2027.
Shame on them. 98% of South-Easterners want a South-Easterner to succeed President Buhari in 2023 and they want South-East political leaders to lead the zone in that direction against all odds.
They never expected that producing President of Nigeria would be a stroll in the park, so they would not accept any excuses from weak, selfish and corrupt South-East leaders for failing to take presidential power in 2023 whatever the odds might be.
70%-80% of Nigerians of the other five geopolitical zones also want President Buhari’s successor to come from the South-East, and they would be highly disappointed if South-East political leaders chickened out of the 2023 presidential race because of their weakness, selfishness and corruption.
If the South-East does not produce President of Nigeria in 2023 when the general mood of Nigeria is in its favour, when again will it trust itself and the rest of the country trust it to produce President of Nigeria? That is the one reason why it is either 2023 or never.
Another reason why it is 2023 or never for South-East (and we must be blunt about this) is that most Nigerians consider promise of President of Nigeria of South-East extraction in 2023 as the only hope that will sustain oneness of Nigeria even up to 2023.
Many can see Nigeria virtually unraveling or disintegrating in 2022/2023 without realistic prospect of a South-Easterner becoming sworn in as President on 29th May 2023.
If Nigeria ends before that date, there won’t again be a Nigeria for a South-Easterner to preside over.
Given the foregoing, it behoves on the South-Easterners, supported by all non-South-Easterners of Nigerian patriotism and moral conscience to reject all attempts by selfish and irresponsible politicians to scheme out the South-East from the 2023 Presidency.
Scheming out the South-East from 2023 Presidency would mean bloody crises of unimaginable proportions that Nigeria cannot survive.
However, a South-Easterner of sterling quality is needed now to step forward, pick up the 2023 gauntlet and run through all obstacles to Aso Rock Presidential VIlla on 29th May 2023 – on APC, PDP or any other party platform.
APC – for quite obvious reasons – is the most preferred platform. If it is too dumb to see that even its own survival depends on a South-Easterner as its 2023 presidential flagbearer, and if PDP tows the same self-destructive line of thinking that they are God or that the world revolves around them, then the South-East must help both APC and PDP to die by producing President of Nigeria on a third party platform.
If APC and PDP don’t want Nigeria to survive with President of Nigeria of South-East extraction in 2023, both parties should die first.
South-East APC Presidency Project 2023 or South-East Presidency Project 2023 has everything needed to produce President of Nigeria of South-East extraction on APC or any other party platform, except the quantum of cash needed to fund the movement.
But if South-East money men donated hundreds of billions of naira for Covid-19 palliative in 2020 that simply disappeared, why would they not use a fraction of that amount of charitable donation to take the Presidency and help Nigeria to not only survive but to become secure, peaceful, united and prosperous – with every South-Easterner now enjoying the belongingness and freedom to excel denied him/her since 1914, particularly since 1970?
No one must be allowed to trade off what South-Easterners and all other Nigerians stand to gain from President of Nigeria of South-East extraction from 29th May 2023.
Let that lionheart step forward and we shall take the Presidency with 50 million Nigerians votes.
Chinedu Jideofo-Ogbuagu, National Coordinator, South-East APC Presidency Project 2023 (A project of South-East APC Integrity Group).09052910866, 08023163451
