2023 Presidency: South-East group strategizes for consensus

A political pressure group made up of stakeholders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the South-East region, the South East Mandate ((SEM), has announced plans to ensure that the zone presents an acceptable candidate for the 2023 presidential election.

Convener of the Group, Senator Julius Ucha, made the disclosure while addressing journalists after its National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting in Enugu.

“This platform is expected to provide opportunities through which we can vigorously debate our interests, set our priorities and tailor them to achieve our common purpose.

 “If we have a forum where we exhaust our republican energies and channel it to a common cause without making a public show of our differences, most Nigerians will be denied the space to always tag us as a people who will never agree on a common course,” Senator Ucha said.

The group urged President Muhammadu Buhari to facilitate the process of APC nominating their presidential candidate from a trusted member of the party of South-East extraction.

Ucha identified trust, latent fear, suspicion and prejudice as key issues holding the South-East down in Nigeria political equation.

“We decided to work on them. At what point will a leader in Nigeria see a Southeasterner as one he can hand over to on trust?

“And we ask, how are we going to work hard as a pressure group to convince Nigerians to trust us, what shall we do to erase this latent fear about us?

“How will Southeast Mandate operate to erase the prejudices against us, what shall we do as a people to obliterate the suspicion against us?” He queried.

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The group urged President Muhammadu Buhari to facilitate the process of APC nominating their presidential candidate from a trusted member of the party who is of south-east extraction.

The former Chairman, Senate Committee on Works said the group would persuade the people of South-East extraction who have presidential ambition for them to see the need of coming together to present a candidate that will be generally acceptable and can drive the process.

“Any group working towards the actualization of Nigeria President of South-East extraction, we are in synergy with them.

“Every political party in Nigeria is aware that South-East is ripe for the presidency, we are talking of justice, we are talking of equity, everyone who has conscience knows that South-East is a solid part of Nigeria and it should have the opportunity to have the presidency of this country” he added.

Also in attendance at the meeting were Sen Tony Agbo, Dcn. Ideato C. Ideato Okoli, the Caretaker Committee Chairman of Enugu APC, Dr Ben Nwoye and a host of other dignitaries from across the South-East states

Zainab Sa’id