By Chinedu Jideofo-Ogbuagu

Chief Ignatius Nwachukwu, I also read what Mr Ibrahim Lamin wrote and I did not see hate or insult in it.

He has expressed what we of South-East APC Presidency Project 2023 have been saying since January 2020.

Reading between the lines of what Ibrahim wrote, I can see a man who – in line with the general mood of the nation – wants a South-Easterner to succeed President Buhari and is offering useful advice to South-East political leaders.

Do you know the latest language from South-East APC leaders that people are looking up to to declare to contest for the Presidency?

They are waiting for President Buhari to “appoint” them presidential candidate of APC. Yes, you heard me right, they want Buhari to APPOINT them presidential candidate!

I can see frustration in Ibrahim’s tone that South-Easterners are not demonstrating the kind and level of seriousness expected of a people who want to produce President of Nigeria.

Please, Chief Nwachukwu, the circumstances of emergence of Obasanjo, Yar’Adua and Jonathan cannot be replicated. We are in an entirely different scenario in respect of 2023 and should deal accordingly.

The only thing my Project team doesn’t have to put a credible South-Easterner in Aso Rock Presidential Villa in 2023 is money. We have everything else.

And it is not as if South-Easterners don’t have money to fund the campaign, but we detect lack of self-confidence, self-belief, self-esteem and selflessness in rich South-Easterners with money, including some of them in Government.

I will tell you that South-Easterners funded Obasanjo, Yar’Adua, Jonathan and Buhari. As we speak, they are giving money and other material support to Tinubu, Atiku, Tambuwal, Amaechi and about all other rumoured presidential aspirants who are not from the South-East – even Yerima Ahmed Sani!

Why won’t they fund the collective quest for emergence of President of Nigeria of South-East extraction, which we have championed for over 2 years unrelentingly – at huge financial costs to me personally?

Can you blame Ibrahim for that? If we hear the truth, let us accept it. Let us not be like others who say that truth is “hate speech”.

Let me also inform us that the only South-East moneyman who has expressed interest in supporting South-East presidential interest is Arthur Eze, but his intended support is to an individual (Governor Dave Umahi) and only if Umahi becomes anointed by President Buhari!

So, you can see the selfishness and backwardness in their thinking. And you can be sure that if Umahi was crowned President without election, Arthur Eze would extract a share of national treasury from him – as he used to do in Anambra State.

Like other individuals given to coveting public funds and assets, the South-East moneymen lack patriotism; they are only after personal benefits. The condition of Nigeria and the South-East itself doesn’t matter to them.

Chief Nwachukwu, you may start the “Igbo National Assembly” conversation from proper orientation of rich South-Easterners.

But remember that our agitation is for emergence of President of Nigeria of SOUTH-EAST (not “Igbo”) extraction; before some people start telling us that Amaechi and others from South-South and North-Central are also Igbo.

Presidency is supposed to rotate from geopolitical zone to geopolitical zone and not from ethnic group to ethnic group.

Finally, Sir, if South-East moneymen cannot be persuaded to fund a project like ours that is committed to emergence of ANY credible South-Easterner as President Buhari’s successor, try persuading South-Easterners who are not moneybags.

If every adult South-Easterner sacrifices N10,000 to the Project now, well before party primaries, South-East will win Nigeria’s Presidency in 2023 – with support of at least 80% of Nigerians (like Ibrahim) who are desirous of that outcome.

Nigerians of other geopolitical zones would even support us financially if they saw South-East lead in this regard.

Having a sizable campaign warchest early enough is key to the South-East winning 2023 Presidency. We must not deceive ourselves otherwise.

Chinedu Jideofo-Ogbuagu is the National Coordinator of the South-East APC Presidency Project 2023.