…Drums support for Bala Mohammed
By Myke Uzendu, Abuja
Former National Secretary of the defunct Alliance for Democracy (AD) Prof. Udenta Udenta has described the present zoning of political positions in the country as dubious, insisting that no voter from the South East should vote for a Presidential candidate from the South West geopolitical zone.
Udenta further declared his support for the Presidential aspiration of Bauchi state governor, Bala Mohammed who according to him comes from the North East region that is as politically marginalized as the South East.
The former Director with the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR) Abuja in a Press Conference on Monday at the NUJ Press Centre, Abuja explained that his support for Gov. Mohammed despite the deafening drum for a President of Igbo extraction was because no politician from the South East with Presidential ambition has approached him for support and collaboration.
Udenta who was also one of the coordinators of Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) that worked for the ill-fated re-election of President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015 accused the South West of attempting to institutionalize political hegemony which was also a stock in trade of the North West by expressing interest in the Presidency in 2023 even as the zone had produced a president for eight years and a Vice-President for another eight years while the South East and North East as well as North Central are yet to have a shot.
The leader of the Eastern Mandate Union (EMU), said he support for Gov. Mohammed was part of a strategic plan to check the South West from further incursion into the Presidency in 2023 for according to him, the zone does not have the moral rectitude for further expression of interest. He also cautioned voters from the South East to refrain from supporting or voting for any candidate from the South West.
“I do not expect any proud Easterner to cast a vote for a South West Presidential candidate. The southwest of this country stands morally disqualified. Whoever is in the southwest, called by whichever name is rapacious in his appetite, and insufferably greedy to seek for this purpose. The PDP and the APC in the south south and the Southwest ought to have spoken powerfully, none of our children will contest for this presidency” he said.
He further explained that the principle of power rotation, zoning or power shift between the north and south was amorphously couched by politician to create confusion so as to usurp the opportunities of weaker zones from being elected into the Presidency. He argued that zoning could have been better defined so that all the six geopolitical zones will be unambiguously mentioned.
He said, “The current construct of power shift to the south, is fraudulent, is mischievous, is duplicitous. It conceals the issue of a South East marginalization through the creation of false binary structure, a binary between the north and the south.
“Politicians are duplicitous, and not sincere in their quest for power shift. So when the leads are confusing the rest of the country about an amorphous power shift to the south with the consequent in the southwest power position club, or a south south pole position or grab, it is better to have a regard action with the likes of Bala Muhammad who is eminently qualified.
“Now, I’m not dealing with his competence, which is very clear. The doctrine of necessity, he led the integrity group in the Senate without looking at geography and demography.
“And considering the factor as it affects my people, overwhelmed by this dubious, fraudulent, indeterminate power shift to the south, it is better to have a progressive northerner as part of our own collective bargaining and conversation in the southeast.
“It is better to have a President even from the north that will mainstream our people into the political strategic and defense power play, so as not to lose completely.
On why he is not working with Senator Pius Anyim or Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa that have already declared interest for the 2023 presidency, he continued,
“I’m not a wizard to know what you want. I’m not going to ask anybody to come and become president and if you want to become president, and you don’t even meet me and asked me clearly to help you in becoming president, how will I know you really want my support to become the president?
“But for God’s sake, you and I are not aspiring to be president. We don’t know who is aspiring to be president unless you step out to say you want to become president. Bala has made some statements in the past here and there, nobody took that very serious until he went to see Jonathan and that’s a very official move, a former president and the whole world covered it
“But the one I’m not going to stand, with spiritual guidance from God, with intellectual strength I have, with my moron tissues, to see my generation, after 16 years of the presidency, anybody from that side of town, to step out and say you want to become president, that’s an insult to our people, diminishing their humanity. It does not show fidelity, compassion, brotherhood. These are things which you see in politics, but people like us are there to expose them. And this is what I’m beginning to do today in this conversation to expose these shenanigans” he said.
