The National Chairman of the Labour Party, LP, Julius Abure’s remark that the party would support the South-East to achieve its presidential ambition of ruling Nigeria has sparked reactions.

Abure made the remark on Sunday at a rally organised by LP members from the South-East ahead of the Abuja Area Council election scheduled for next year.

The LP National Chairman stated that the South-East needed to realign with other regions to achieve its ambition of ruling Nigeria.

The party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi hails from the South-East.

During the last presidential election, Obi came third behind Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, while President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, APC, won the election.

Speaking, Abure said: “Before the 2023 general election, I used to believe erroneously that South-East people were not united.

“But when Peter Obi joined the party, and I had the privilege of campaigning for him across Nigeria, I discovered that the Igbos are the most united, industrious, hardworking and fearless.

“That is why today, I have no regrets that despite all odds, we zoned the presidential ticket of our party to the South East.

“We powerfully and courageously did that in the 2023 general election. But I think that the Igbos must also go back to the drawing board.

“The Igbos need more realignment with the other sections of the country.

“I want to assure you that the Labour Party is still ready and available to support Ndigbo to realise the ambition of ruling the country in future.”

Abure’s comment brings back to life the clamour for the South-East to produce Nigeria’s president, prior to the 2023 presidential election.

A welcome development, I back any party obeying zoning convention – Osita Okechukwu

Commenting, a founding member of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and former Director General of Voice of Nigeria, VON, Osita Okechukwu, described Abure’s comment as a welcome development.

Okechukwu said political parties were at liberty to create policies that would help them win electoral votes, hence he backs those willing to stick to the zoning convention.

He told Ekwutosblog : “A political party has to decide strategies on how to win an election, so I don’t think it’s wrong because any given political party, their major objective is how do we win electoral votes?

“So if that is their design, it’s a welcome development. In my own party, the APC, we are saying that we will like Mr President to return for a second tenure.

“So for LP, I’m not in any position to say their comment is wrong; in their own wisdom, they are pursuing the same market we are in.

“You know in politics, whatever your own decision that would attract Federal votes, that would be a good one.

“That was the same mistake PDP made in 2023; if they had done what Labour Party is saying, maybe, PDP would have competed effectively, but they were wrong in their calculations, it was an erroneous bridge of the zoning convention.

“I support any party that says the South should complete their own tenure before running to the North.

“In my precise submission, every political party should design a policy that helps them to win electoral votes.

“Secondly, I support any party that is obeying the rotational convention that gives the South-East another minimum of four years before going North again so that there will be harmony, peace, and there will be equity.”

Peter Obi getting closer to Nigerians – Obidient Movement

On his part, the National Coordinator of the Obidient Movement, Tanko Yunusa, said Obi is currently engaged in getting closer to Nigerians.

Yunusa told Ekwutosblog : “Peter Obi is getting closer to the people and the people are responding to his kind of politics which is the politics for the demand of good governance, let’s have a country that all of us will be proud of. That is what’s on the table for him right now.”

On Obi forming an alliance outside Labour Party, he said: “Only time will tell as we move along, his target at the moment is to get closer to the people, making his contributions as regards health issues, where there is sorrow, he would grieve with them, where there is happiness he would join them, he talks about the issue of insecurity as it affects everybody.

“At the same time, he will talk on national issues that would impact positively on the Nigerian people.”

APC, PDP, all parties should zone presidency to South-East – Ohanaeze chieftain

A former deputy National Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chuks Ibegbu, said all political parties should zone their presidency to the South-East.

Ibegbu challenged Abure to stop insulting the South-East because they have made leadership in Nigeria look like that of tribal sentiment.

He had this to say: “Nigeria should stop this attitude of sectionalizing leadership, leadership is not about Yoruba, Igbo, or Hausa-Fulani, that is why we are where we are.

“It’s very naive of Abure to be looking at leadership in terms of South-East, Igbos, Yoruba or whoever. Yes, there should be political equity in Nigeria and everybody, including Tinubu knows that the South-East has been shortchanged politically through internal and eternal political treachery.

“But nobody should take it as an alibi to start making comments that are neither here nor there.

“What we should be talking about is political justice, it’s not just about the Labour Party, what of APC, PDP? What of other parties? Nobody should restrict it to LP as if it’s an Igbo party. Why can’t APC zone its Presidency to the South-East if they want political justice in Nigeria? Why can’t the PDP do the same?

“As a matter of fact, it’s PDP and APC that started this mess because if PDP had zoned its presidency in 2023 to the South-East, it would have sent a positive signal that we want political justice in Nigeria.

“What of APC, if it had zoned its presidency to the South-East, it would have been better; that was why Ogbonnia Onu died, a patriot of the highest order, he was a victim of political injustice in Nigeria.

“So, it’s not a Labour Party issue but a national matter, and all parties in Nigeria – APC, PDP, and all of them should zone their presidency to the South-East if they want political justice; it’s not just Labour Party alone – nobody should single out Labour Party and dangle carrot at us, we have gone beyond that.

“Abure should stop insulting us, it’s not a Labour Party thing, it’s PDP, APC, and all the parties should come together and say we need political justice and until there is political justice we will just be going around.

“All of us will be suffering, look at Tinubu when he became president, the first thing he did was to remove subsidy without any plan for anybody or the nation and today we are suffering.

“Fuel subsidy removal is responsible for the high cost of everything, but we don’t want to sit down and say stop this political shenanigan.

“I know so many Yoruba people voted for Peter Obi, so many Hausa, Fulani people that wanted Nigeria to be better voted for Obi.

“I’m not saying Tinubu is bad but at the end of the day, they tried to make it a tribal issue, we are in the 21st century. What is happening in Congo is due to all these tribal things.

“One of the richest countries in the world is Congo but today look at what is happening there? Look at us in Nigeria, we are one of the richest countries in the world and nobody should die of hunger; the resources in Nigeria are enough for everybody but we are saying this is Yoruba, Hausa, or Fulani and these politicians are using it to deceive us.

“Tinubu lost in Lagos, in Abuja, and even in his hometown, and that is because so many people from the west, the Fulanis wanted a better country. I’m not saying Obi is a saint but until we stop looking at where somebody comes from, we are not going anywhere.

“So, I want to tell Abure to stop insulting our sensibilities because we are not fools, he’s a political merchant. What we want is a better country but there should be political equity which presupposes that the president should come from the South-East.

“He should stop that political gangsterism and there should be an all political party conference of APC, PDP, LP, and all of them should come together to say enough is enough, lets rescue our country by having political justice where they would say the South-East has not produced the president, okay after Tinubu it should not be South-North but let’s pick a South-East person, be it APC, PDP, or whatever, because that’s the only way forward, if not, we will continue suffering.”