Rattled by the scanty crowd at the South east APC mega rally for President Muhammadu Buhari held in Owerri, the Imo state capital Tuesday, July 2018, the party is now exploring other means to make the South east embrace it with the view of capturing Igbo votes for the 2019 presidential election.
Impeccable sources told The Source that eggheads in the APC are now convinced that the dummy the party is selling to the region to the effect that voting Buhari in 2019 will translate into the emergence of a president of Igbo extraction in 2023 is not enough to convince the people of that region to throw their weight behind the President. It was gathered that prominent South east APC chieftains driving the project are actually aware that the party is selling the zone a dummy as Buhari has settled for Governor Nasir el-Rufia of Kaduna state as successor in 2023.
Many of them, including the Imo state governor, Rochas Okorocha, it was learnt, have been told pointblank that the APC presidential ticket for 2019 is beyond the reach of south east hence those of them shouting themselves hoarse about Buhari and APC’s love for the Igbo and how he intends to install an Igbo president in 2023 are actually scheming for the vice presidential slot for that year’s presidential election.
A former governor of Abia state who is a perennial defector having changed parties more than five times since the dawn of democracy in 1999, the magazine gathered,was specifically mandated by Buhari to ensure that the South east was captured by the APC in 2019.As a way of achieving this task, the former governor who has been doing everything humanely possible to be in the president’s good books is hooked on the mantra of 2023 Igbo presidency to be facilitated by Buhari which he hoped will soften the heart of Igbos towards the president.
Meanwhile, in addition to the promise of an Igbo president in 2023, other promises, including building a sea port in the Azumini axis in Abia state, creating an additional state in the zone among others will soon be made to the South east by the APC and Buhari.
