South- South leader, Chief Edwin Clark, yesterday, took a swipe at the Presidency, saying that when the time comes for the people of the South-East to produce the President of the country, nobody can stop them.

According to the Ijaw leader, giving the people of the South-East region a condition that their presidency in 2023 could only be guaranteed and achieved if they vote for President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019 was unnecessary and must be condemned in all its ramifications.

The elder statesman was reacting to a statement by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, that the South-East endorsement of Buhari’s re -election will secure their presidency in 2023.

Clark said that what was required in Nigeria at the moment and years to come was good governance.

Speaking with journalists in Abuja after he paid a condolence visit to Governor Henry Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State over the death of his mother, Ma Goldcoast Dickson, the elder statesman lampooned the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, on the assertion that for the South-East people to have the presidency in 2023, they must vote for Buhari.

Clark said, “That is a very unusual statement. Is it a threat or an appeal? Nigerians will always vote for the candidates they believe in, candidates that will rule Nigeria without any trouble, without religious fanaticism, someone who doesn’t believe in ethnicity, somebody competent enough, healthy enough to rule Nigeria .

“This is the greatest country in Africa; by the way, the Igbo are in the South-East, they are part of this country from the First Republic. No one has put them aside; so when the time comes for the Igbo to be the President of Nigeria, nobody will dispute to it or stop them.”

Earlier, Clark, who noted that he was at the residence of the governor to sympathize with him over the death of his mother, said that Dickson’s mum will be a very happy mother after giving her a befitting burial that had been slated for January next year in Delta State, adding that the mother left behind a very dynamic and progressive son.

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, (SGF), Mr. Boss Mustapha, had, while speaking with journalists after a meeting between Buhari and the South-East governors at the Presidential Villa on Wednesday, urged the Igbo to endorse Buhari’s re- election bid in order to secure the presidency in 2023.

Mustapha had said: “This obviously might not be most appropriate time. You remember there was a programme in the south-east where Mr. President asked me to represent him and I flew the kite by telling the south-eastern states that their quickest and easiest means to presidency is to support President Muhammadu Buhari’s second term”.

•Sourced from a Vanguard report

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