Former Deputy of the House of Representatives, Emeka Ihedioha, has slammed supporters of Peter Obi in the South East region of the country as saboteurs governed by emotions whose support for the Labour Party candidate hurts the region’s chances of producing the country’s president.
He said this while addressing a gathering of the region’s chieftains at an event where Atiku Abubakar of the PDP made an outreach to the region by floating the kite of an Igbo presidency, a coy the PDP has used since 1999 to command the region’s loyalty to little results.
According to Ihedioha, the reality of Peter Obi’s inability to muster victory in key northern states in the country, as well as in other regions outside of the South East, makes his presidential ambition a flight of fancy that will end in a sure defeat.
He, therefore, challenged the wisdom of the region queuing behind a candidate sure to fail as opposed to partnering with the scheming Atiku who has yet again paid lip service to an Igbo presidency if he is supported to emerge in 2023.
He said: “There is what we call passion and there’s what we call emotion. They are two different things for people who went to school like me. Emotions don’t win elections. You must be realistic to win elections.’
“You must plan to win election and that is where I belong. I want to tell you, I have the key to the direction of where Igbo should go.”
Ihedioha’s comments seek to detract from Obi’s divisive posturing as an ethnic champion running for the presidency to herald the rise of the Igbos. Peter Obi’s popularity is confined to his region where he has been accused of collaborating with IPOB, the murderous secessionist group enforcing movement restrictions in several states across the southeast.
Obi has also aimed attacks at other Nigerians, infamously branding the Yorubas envious, money-led voters, while repeating a smear in a CNN interview that northerners live in slums.