The 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, has responded to recent remarks by Minister of Works, David Umahi, who asserted that it is not yet the turn of the South-East to produce Nigeria’s president.
Recall that Umahi had urged politicians from the region to shelve any ambitions for the 2027 presidency and instead support President Bola Tinubu’s bid for re-election.
Umahi, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Sunday, argued that the South-East must wait until Tinubu completes a constitutionally allowed second term before seeking the presidency.
“No, it is not our time yet. We, the 17 southern governors, met in Asaba before the 2023 election and agreed that the next president should come from the South,” he said.
“The crown came upon President Bola Tinubu. He has to finish his eight years, which belong to all of us — both South and North. After 2031, the South-East can vie.”
He also emphasized that the current administration has shown fairness to all geopolitical zones, including the South-East. Citing ongoing infrastructure projects such as the Enugu–Onitsha Road, Port Harcourt–Aba–Umuahia–Enugu Dual Carriageway, and the Abakaliki–Benue Boundary Trans-Sahara Road, Umahi stated: “Right now, President Bola Tinubu does not want to know where you come from. He is treating everybody very nicely.”
In reaction, Peter Obi, through his media aide and National Coordinator of the Obidient Movement Worldwide, Dr. Yunusa Tanko, said democratic leadership is determined by the electorate, not by political leaders or elite consensus.
“It is a democratic setting, and it is the people who will decide who becomes the next president, not any individual,” Tanko said.
He further emphasized that performance and competence, not ethnicity or regional affiliation, should guide electoral choices. “Performance and track record, not tribe, will determine what the people want. That is how it should be,” he added.
Tanko acknowledged that although regional power rotation should not be the primary basis of leadership in a democratic society, it has become an embedded feature of Nigeria’s political structure. “Ordinarily, we shouldn’t be having talks about whether it should be a southern or northern candidate. But since it has already been established for the unity of this country, the status quo should remain,” he stated.
