The All Progressives Congress and its presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, have been criticized for choosing a stand-in running mate before the deadline set by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Ifeanyi Okowa, the governor of Delta State and vice-presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, has said this is not a wise move.
He spoke on Thursday while appearing on the Channels Television current affairs program Politics Today.
Okowa claimed that Tinubu’s choice of Kaburi Masari, a political ally from Katsina State, as an interim running mate only highlighted the APC’s lack of organizational rigor.
Okowa added that he is an Igbo from the Delta in the South-South, despite the South-East’s claim to the presidency.
He said the North-East had the right to agitate for the presidential seat as both zones had yet to produce a president of the country.
He noted that they have to gain power through a democratic process, urging them to keep pushing for it.
“When we were talking about the issues of presidency, if the PANDEF – it is not just about PANDEF, or South-West’s Afenifere, or the Middle Belt or the Ohanaeze (in the South-East) alone; in their collective voice, if they had insisted that ‘the presidency, we want it this time and it must be from the South-East’…a good request. But the real truth is they were just asking for a southern presidency without trying to situate it where ordinarily it should be,” he stated.
