Politics
APC Will Not Reward Igbo Betrayal With Presidency
By Ayodele Oluwafemi
Asserting that the Igbo have not played good politics since 2015, a senior official of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC has told the region to forget about the 2015 presidential ticket of the party.
The admission came from the region’s highest elected party officer in the national executive of the party, Emma Ibediro, the national organizing secretary.
Speaking in an interview with journalists in Abuja, Ibediro noted with concern that the region returned the lowest amount of votes for the president among the six geopolitical zones as he said that the region lacked the bargaining power to negotiate for the 2023 presidency.
He also rebuffed claims of marginalization of the Southeast by the APC.
“I don’t want to be emphatic that there must be an Igbo President because this party is not built on the platform of dictating to the people what they want.
“If you check the percentage of population of members of APC and check the population of Nigerians, you will see that all members of the party are even less than five per cent of the population and we are talking about a president that will be a president of Nigeria, not a president of APC.
“So, first of all, under whatever platform you want to achieve that aspiration, you have to work to get yourself acceptable to that platform. It is not going to be an automatic award that Nigerians should give South-east ticket for the president.
“What happens if the APC gives ticket automatically to somebody from the South-east and he doesn’t win the very election. Have you considered that?”, he queried.
Observing that the Igbo did not play good politics since 2015, he said: “the south-east needs to play good politics, the politics of engagement, the politics of consultation, the politics of getting the other parts of Nigeria involved in their aspirations. But for now I don’t think we are playing good politics. It is a question of give and take, I’m an Igbo man and I need to be very objective.
“The President campaigned in all the five states of the South-east, just like he campaigned in every other state, but what was the return in terms of votes? You also need to encourage people to do something for you. You cannot at every point be asking for something without giving something back.”
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