As the race for 2023 presidency gets set, a Northern group, Arewa Summit International has urged the former governor of Lagos State and leader of All Progressives Congress, APC Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, VP Yemi Osinbajo and other Southern presidential aspirants to drop their ambitions, saying the region has adopted Chief Whip of the Senate, Orji Uzor Kalu as its candidate.
Speaking with newsmen at the weekend in Yola, Adamawa state capital, the Director-General of the group, Dr. Bashir Lamido said time has come for the country to have a president of Igbo extraction, urging other APC presidential aspirants to support the Abia former Governor.
Lamido added that the decision of the North to support Sen. Kalu is borne out his antecedent as a detribalised nationalist who sees all parts of the country as his constituency.
According to him, “the North won’t support a regional candidate like Tinubu, Osinbajo, Umahi or Amaechi. It is about trust and who can truly defend Nigeria.
“In 2023, we won’t support any regional candidate; Kalu has what it takes to lead Nigeria. He knows Nigeria too well having been in close and brotherly relationship with the North in the past 38 years. We won’t support someone that would emerge and destabilize Nigeria.
“It is important they step down now and adopt Orji Kalu because the North won’t support them. Politics is a game of interest, and Orji Uzor Kalu is the interest of the North and millions of other Nigerians,” he said.
