As the 2023 presidential election draws close, politicians are beginning to declare their intentions to hold the most important office in Nigeria.
On Monday, the All Progressive Congress (APC) chieftain, Bola Ahmed Tinubu said he has duly informed President Muhammadu Buhari of his intention to succeed him come 2023. Barely 24 hours after Tinubu made this known, his party member, the governor of Ebonyi state, Dave Umahi, said he has also told the President that he would run for the presidency.
Umahi made this known on Tuesday while speaking to State House correspondents after meeting behind closed doors with the President at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. He said Buhari had asked him to seek the support of the people after discussing the matter with him.
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Umahi, whose desire to become either the president or the vice president, was suspected after he decamped from Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to APC, citing the former’s unreadiness to cede the presidential ticket to the Southeast, said he is not bothered that Tinibu, a leader of his new party, has declared his intention to run.
“I told Mr President, that without prejudice to whatever will be the decision of the party, which we shall abide by, that if the party throws the ticket open or zoned to southern part of Nigeria that I believe that with what I have put in place in the past six years plus, that I’ll be running for presidency, on the platform of APC.
“So I told him and of course, he believes that whoever wants to run for president of this country must have to consult widely, go to all the leaders and that we must do everything to remove ethnicity and religion in our politics. So that this country can grow,” Umahi said.
When asked what his chances of emerging as the presidential candidate of the APC are, given Tinubu’s declared intent to run and the fact that he is a newbie in the party. He said he was not in the contest with anybody but himself.
“The Bible that I swore with a section of in 1 Samuel says that by strength shall no man prevail, and power and might belong to God. He chooses whomever he wills and he will do that in 2020.
“I’m not in contest with anybody I’m in contest with myself,” he answered.
He also said he needed to clear with the president first, when asked whether he has consulted widely as Buhari had suggested to him.
“I wouldn’t have done that without first come in to clear with Mr. President that there is this feelings in Southeast that have not been president and that people feel that those of our leaders in the various political parties should indicate interest to contest.
“And this is fair, this is important. But at the end of the day, it is God Almighty and the political parties that will also decide,” he said.
On the needed support of the people from the Southeast, Umahi was asked if he has informed the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohaneze Ndigbo of his ambition, and he said: “Ohaneze leadership should not play politics. Yes, they can speak for the interest of the southeast, they can speak for fair treatment to southeast as people but as a matter of equity, justice and fairness, and leaving a level playing field for all the political parties and the aspirants.
“They should not dabble into politics or whom to support or whom not to support. I think that they will hear it just like they heard from the other political parties’ aspirants. We will also write them to notify them that yes, they have capable sons and daughters that if God wills, that could do this job.”
On the question about what Nigerians should expect from his presidency if he contests and wins, Umahi said: “Yeah. God willing, and if it’s the wish of the people of this country, Umahi’s presidency, we’ll be looking at the same thing we did in Ebonyi state.
“Before we came on board, we were a state written off, we had nothing to write home about in infrastructure. But I must commend the first two civilian governors Dr. Sam Egwu and Chief Martin Elechi, they did quite a lot, because they came in the midst of the dust of the nation, Ebonyi State. And so they had quite a lot of challenges. So I can say that they laid the foundation upon which I started to build. And so there are a lot of things that we have done in Ebonyi.
“We have the best government house, you can see anyway, we have the best Exco chamber and the largest you cannot see anyway. And so we intend to replicate the same thing.
“And I believe that with the little resources we have and people have been asking us how did you do it? Or how do you do it? And it’s all about patriotism. It’s all about fear of God, it’s all about bringing in our experience to be bear.
“I have been into construction since I graduated. So I have a lot to give in terms of how to run governance as business because you have to have the heart to help the people and that’s what we’ve demonstrated in Ebonyi.
“So we want to treat the nation if God permits, that what we’ve done becomes a microcosm of the macrocosm, of which we expect. We also believe strongly that we’ll be able to continue with what Mr. President has done. One of the greatest problems we have in this country is ethnicity, religion, and unpatriotic features of a lot of people. And I think that there is a need to engage starting from where Mr. President would have stopped.”