Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has faulted Minister of Works David Umahi over his declaration that “it is not yet the turn of the South-East” to produce Nigeria’s president in 2027.

Umahi, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Sunday, urged South-East politicians to drop their presidential ambitions and rally behind President Bola Tinubu for re-election.

Reacting through his media aide and National Coordinator of the Obidient Movement Worldwide, Dr Yunusa Tanko, Obi said only the electorate — not political elites — have the power to decide who becomes president.

“It is a democratic setting, and it is the people who will decide who becomes the next president, not any individual,” Obi told The PUNCH in an exclusive phone interview. “Performance and track record will determine what the people want. That is how it should be.”

He added that while the debate over regional rotation should not ordinarily dominate politics, it had become the reality in Nigeria.

“Ordinarily, we shouldn’t be having talks about whether it should be a southern or northern candidate,” Obi said. “But since it has already been established for the unity of this country, the status quo should remain.”

Umahi had earlier said Tinubu should be allowed to complete his constitutionally permitted eight years in office before the South-East can aspire to the presidency.

“No, it is not our time yet,” Umahi said. “We, the 17 southern governors, met in Asaba before the 2023 election and agreed that the next president should come from the South. The crown came upon President Bola Tinubu. He has to finish his eight years, which belong to all of us — both South and North. After 2031, the South-East can vie.”

The former Ebonyi State governor argued that Tinubu’s administration had been fair to all parts of the country, particularly the South-East, citing multi-billion-naira infrastructure projects underway in the region, including the Enugu–Onitsha Road, Port Harcourt–Aba–Umuahia–Enugu Dual Carriageway, and the Abakaliki–Benue Boundary Trans-Sahara Road.

“Right now, President Bola Tinubu does not want to know where you come from. He is treating everybody very nicely,” Umahi said, urging the region to appreciate the President’s gesture rather than agitate for power.

Umahi’s comments have reignited debate over Nigeria’s zoning and power rotation arrangement.

Since 1999, the South-East has not produced a president, fueling persistent calls for equity and inclusion.

Obi’s reaction reflects growing sentiment among opposition figures that the 2027 contest should be decided by voters, not elite consensus or political coercion.

Analysts say the exchange underscores early maneuverings ahead of the next general election, as politicians begin to draw battle lines between loyalty to the ruling All Progressives Congress and the push for regional balance.

Meanwhile, the Obidient Movement has cautioned the APC against celebrating the wave of defections from opposition parties in the South-East, warning that such moves will not translate into electoral gains for President Tinubu in 2027.

Tanko said the trend of defections was politically motivated and aimed at subverting the will of the people.

“Most of these governors do not have the mandate of the people to do what they are doing,” Tanko said. “They are desperately chasing the funds being doled out by the APC-led Federal Government as a carrot. Many are rushing to collect their share.”

Speaking from Nnewi, Tanko added that coercion and inducement would not change voter sentiment in the region.

“When the chips are down, the people will show their anger,” he said. “The South-East electorate remain loyal to the ideals of justice and accountability.”

Reacting to reports of Enugu State Governor Peter Mbah’s planned defection to the APC, founding APC member Osita Okechukwu described the move as a “defining political moment” and the symbolic end of the PDP’s dominance in the region.

“Governor Mbah’s defection is a pragmatic and inevitable decision,” Okechukwu said. “It marks the total collapse of PDP’s dominance in the South-East — from controlling all five state governments in 1999 to having none in 2025.”

He recalled how the late Senate President Chuba Okadigbo lamented that the PDP “pays good deeds with bad coins,” arguing that years of neglect and disregard for zoning alienated the party from the South-East.

Citing the PDP’s 2023 presidential primary — where no southern aspirant was allowed to contest — and the controversy over the National Secretary position, Okechukwu said the region’s disillusionment had long been foretold.

“The last straw that broke the PDP’s camel’s back was its deliberate marginalisation of the South-East during the National Secretary controversy,” he said.

He also referenced remarks by former Senate President and PDP Board of Trustees Chairman Adolphus Wabara, who once decried the party’s “continued trampling” of the South-East despite its consistent loyalty since 1998.

“Governor Mbah’s exit,” Okechukwu concluded, “is not an isolated event — it is the final chapter in the South-East’s disillusionment with a party that failed to reward faithfulness, fairness, and friendship.” (The PUNCH, but headline rejigged)