By CHARLES IWUOHA

Imo state governor, Hope Uzodinma, has said that the South-Eastern part of Nigeria was denied the opportunity to produce the next president of the country owing to a lack of equity.

Uzodinma spoke on a Channels TV programme, saying that the south-east should produce the next president, but they will not due injustice being meted out to that part of the country.

He said: “From the political calculations available, the sentiment of the people in the south-east is that they deserve to produce the president because the reason why this power is moving from the north to the south is that the current president is from the North having served for eight years.

“The reason why the South-East is asking for it is that when the power came to the South it went to the South-West and was there for eight years and the next time it came to the south it went to the South-South and it was there for seven years plus.

“The natural thing to do and the justice of the case is that now that power is coming again to the south and since it is only three geo-political zones that made up the South, it should come to the South-East, having been in the South-West and South-South.

“In a situation where equity should be the issue we (South-East) don’t need to struggle for it. But here again, you see how it has come. We will continue to hope that one day God will touch the heart of our brothers and sisters to do that which belongs to us.”

Uzodinma said the presidential hopefuls from the south-east who withdrew from the race to support northern candidates did so because they hoped to produce the next president when power returns to the South.

He explained that, “this is what has to be discussed at the party level because it is a serious matter. Because we are dealing with human beings here.

“You cannot just wake up and take any decision, there are consequences to every action. Those are the things that will be discussed and something must be done.

“Most of our people (presidential hopefuls) here who came from the south-east, when they saw that it will be difficult clinching to the ticket they opted for a northern candidate.

“The reason is very simple because when a northern candidate stays for eight years and then the power will come back to the south; this time around maybe we (South-East) will have the opportunity.”

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