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... Tita Onyebuchi, Nze < Abuja >

Professor Udenta O, Udenta an Igbo Frontliner, Pioneer Secretary Alliance for Democracy AD, Chieftain of the Eastern Mandate Union, Political activist, a Strategist and Social analyst has said that his support for Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State for President, is born out of his conviction that Gov. Bala is a credible alternative in the face of the calculated gang up against the Southeast by some group of geedy and inconsiderate politicians from the Southwest and Northern parts of the country, who are engrossed in their own selfish desires and interest, abdicating moral and the unity of the country to the wind.

Prof. Udenta made what can be described as a breathtaking assertion while speaking to Journalists in Abuja, the federal capital territory, after accompanying Gov. Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State to a visit to former President Goodluck Jonathan at his Abuja residence. 

Prof. Udenta Udenta said he decided to pitch tent with Gov. Bala Mohammed's Presidential ambition for now since the interest of former President Jonathan is still unclear; saying that the Southeast politicians also have not shown enough zeal in the dynamics of the present political realities of contesting the office of the President, in addition to the inordinate, selfish and immoral quests of some politicians from the Southwest and Northern Nigeria, especially Sen. Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Alhaji Atiku Abukakar who have defied all cautions and threw their conscience to the wind by going ahead with campaigns for their Presidential aspirations in the coming 2023 elections.

Prof Udenta stressed that he has nothing personal against his friends Sen. Ahmed Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar as they are well qualified to run for any political office in the land saying however that it is a matter of moral and conscience that they should support aspirations of the Southeast, for the sake of political balance, equity, fairness and justice, and for moving the country forward.

He explained that during the visit to the Former President, Governor Bala made two cogent remarks; firstly that, he will not contest if Dr Ebele Jonathan steps into the ring of any party platform, secondly, that Gov. Bala introduced him (Udenta) as the leader of the team that he is putting together to advise him on his aspirations for the office of the President.

The Professor noted that he is very well aware that his support for Gov. Bala Mohammed will definitely spark-off serious controversies from the part of the country he hails from, he however stressed that his interest for Gov. Bala Mohammed was born out of practical necessity and political consideration in favour of Ndgbo.

Prof Udenta fumed that the politicians are insincere in their quest for power shift, according to him, the elites are confusing the rest of the people of the country about amorphous power shift to the South which may consequent in the Southwest or Southsouth Presidential power grab, arguing that zoning could have been better defined so that all the six geopolitical zones will be unambiguous, saying that under such circumstance, it is better for the Southeast to have a rear guard action with the like of Bala Mohammed.

The leader of the Eastern Mandate Union (EMU), said his support for Gov. Mohammed was part of a strategic plan to check the Southwest from further incursion into the Presidency in 2023, according to him, the zone does not have the moral rectitude for further expression of interest, the Professor also cautioned voters from the Southaast to refrain from supporting or voting for any candidate from the Southwest or anyother zone in the coming elections.

“I do not expect any proud Easterner to cast a vote for a Southwest 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 Southsouth and the Southwest ought to have spoken powerfully that none of their children should contest for this presidency” he said.

Continuing, Prof Udenta bemourned that "for me, there is no way that Obasanjo 8 years of Presidency, Osinbanjo 8 years of Vice Presidency should not translate into a clear, visible, unambiguous statement for power to shift to that part of the South that has not experienced this Presidential power after all the sacrifices of Ogbonnaya Onu, Ezeife and Ekwueme and the rest of them. 

Prof. Udenta said "Let me explain few myths to further buttress my point, "Falaye and late uncle Bola Ige squared-off at the Royal Hotel in Ibadan and Falaye won and became the AD candidate. The same way Obasanjo defeated Ekwueme and emerged as PDP candidate. The rovan selection was a south west selection of the AD. Dr Chukwuemeka Ezeife who is alive today, purchased the expression Form of the Alliance for Democracy for N1million to participate in that process and he won strong vote of the Southeast and Southsouth of the country. He won in the caucuses of the party in the Southeast and Southsouth, and at the expanded meeting of the AD leadership, the National Working Committee (NWC), National Executive Committee (NEC), but the Board of Trustees, the owners of the party met at the Cultural Centre opposite UTC in Abuja, to decide between Falaye and Ezeife who will be candidate of the party, our leader who was my father, Arthur Nwankwo actually misfired that day; he knows from his grave that I am not lying, and the Southeast and Southsouth went up in anger, led by Bassey Ekpo Bassey. We had the entire North, Southeast and Southsouth with us, Ezeife had beaten Olu Falaye right there in that hall, but after three, four, five hours of robust conversations, they asked Ezeife to step down, which he graciously did without grudges and raised the hands of Olu Falaye. That was how Falaye emerged as the Party's candidate."

Prof Udenta vividly pained, in an emotionally laden gesture lamented that, how could some people who were assumed to have human conscience continue to pretend as if a section of the country who laboured, sacrified and put in so much for the unity and development of the nation, does not exist?, saying that the Southwest of this country should ordinarily stand morally disqualified to run for the office of the President until the Southeast has taken their turn, and that whoever is in the Southwest called by whichever name presenting himself for 2023 Presidential seat, to me, is rapacious in his appetite and insufferably greedy to seek for the office." he said.

Prof. Udenta stated that "being the Secretary of the summit of the two aligning parties, the AD/APP, I am very comfortable to say that no Nigerian born and alive can discuss the formation principles and historical emergence of this Republic and the forces that shaped it’s direction and trajectory without mentioning Udenta O, Udenta’s view points, practice and performance into consideration.

Lamenting further he said, when they talk about zoning to the South, so far, the construct of zoning to the South is fraudulent, mischievous, duplicitous and full of concealment of intentions. It’s based on false binary of the North and South, as if these two entities are without subdivisions or structural units in them. 

"Therefore there is need for a clear-cut definition of the South in the powershift and rotational Politics, to allow only people from the Southeast extraction to present candidates for the office of the President, otherwise the best alternative way to go for Ndigbo is to pitch tent with Gov. Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State who is from the Northeast, because the Southeast will in that arrangement be sure of atleast Vice Presidency Position.

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