Hon. Jimoh Adewunmi Babafemi says northern stakeholders and political leaders need to stop allowing themselves to be pushed further into betraying the Chief Whip of the Senate, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu.
Babafemi stated this in a chat with newsmen on Friday in Transcorp Hilton Abuja, while reacting to a recent outburst by the National Coordinator, Buhari/Osinbajo Support Group, Ebunola Martins, who said that the next Nigerian president to succeed Muhammadu Buhari in 2023 should come from the South-East region.
During the Morning Show on Arise TV on Tuesday, Ebunola Martins had spoken on issues ahead of the 2023 presidential election.
According to Martins, the two major political parties in the country should produce their candidates from Igboland as it was done in 1999 when the South-West fielded former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Chief Olu Falae of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Peoples Party (APP) respectively.
Babafemi said neither the All Progressives Congress nor the president must turn their back on Senator Kalu in 2023 given his immense sacrifices to the unity of Nigeria.
He described Kalu as a large-hearted man who had been serially betrayed in the past by northern leaders despite being tested and trusted by the North.
Babafemi stressed that any further betrayal would also justify the insinuation that the North cannot be trusted.
“A whole lot of questions against the North will be thrown open before 2023 election. If they don’t trust Bola Tinubu and they don’t trust Nnamdi Kanu and Sunday Ighoho, don’t they also trust Orji Kalu, their own person?” he asked.
Babafemi said the former governor won many enemies for no reasons other than supporting the North at all times.
“The same people he is defending and showing loyalty are the same people I think are killlng him. In 2007, they promised him president but gave it to his close ally, late Musa Yar’Adua.
“They cannot continue to pretend they love him and yet they betray him behind. They killed some of his businesses and sponsored his six months imprisonment; then turned around to accuse Obasanjo and Tinubu of being behind his ordeals. We know everything!”
He asked the North to support Orji Kalu as their choice for 2023, openly.
“Look at Ebunola Martins, despite being a Yoruba man, he openly declared support for a Nigerian president of South-East extraction. Why can’t the northerners do same? Must they perpetually remain in power ?
“Behind the scene, they would tell you Kalu is the best for Nigeria. They would tell you that in the entire southern region it’s only Kalu that has the reach, capacity, political and economic experience to lead Nigeria. It is time to support Kalu openly. Let the North champion South-East ‘s agenda in 2023. They should support him to become the president and stop betraying him,” he said.
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