2019: What We Told Buhari About Igbo Presidency – General Okoloagu

A board of Trustees (BoT) member of the All Progressives Congress, APC, General JOJ Okoloagu, retd, has revealed what he and other leaders of the party in the South-East told President Muhammadu Buhari concerning Igbo presidency.

The APC chieftain also maintained that Buhari will defeat those ganging up against him (Buhari) in 2019.

Okoloagu, a three-time senatorial candidate in Enugu State and member of the Buhari Support Group in the South East, said that the President did not say no when they told him that Igbo man will take over from him in 2023.

He said this in an interview with Daily Trust, where he also insisted that the shortest route to Igbo presidency was through the APC.

He said, “So, for the Igbos, they must embrace the APC because there is an understanding. I am a chieftain of the APC, in January this year, we met with Mr President and expressed our desire to take over from him and he never said no

“The shortest route to Igbo presidency in Nigeria is through the APC. I saw a coalition of political parties.

“I have equally seen the number of people who are indicating interest to challenge Buhari come 2019. By political birth right, it is the turn of the Southeast.

“Any sensible Southeast man will not gang up against the APC when you know that the APC by our zoning will be beaming its searchlight on the Southeast come 2023.

“Whoever engages in any gang up will be deceiving himself. You don’t give power on the basis of tribal or ethnic nationality.

“If a political party has overwhelming majority and all of them come from the same tribe, they will govern the country. The constitution is there.

“That is why I am calling on my brothers from the south-east zone to see reasons with me in this regard. Forget about religious sentiment.

“There is no religion there. The situation in Sokoto and Zamfara has provided light to what some people have been calling the killing of Christians in other states of the country.

“What is going on is the killing of Nigerians! In fact, most of the victims in the North now are Muslims. If you do a census of the dead, you will discover that more Muslims have died.

“So it is not religious killings. It is also instructive to state that anybody taking over from President Buhari will do eight years. So any sensible politician should know that the shortest cut for him is the APC.

“But tragically, so many Igbos are in the PDP today and no amount of gang up against President Buhari will work. He will win the presidency again in 2019.

“The problem is that when you get much money in this country today, you underrate the intelligence of the poor man. Yes, there is money in the hands of the PDP, but Nigerians cannot forget in a hurry what they did while in power.

“They messed up the entire country in every ramification. The point is that President Muhammadu Buhari or any other person the APC fields for the presidency in 2019 will win the election.

“But you cannot take over just because you are Igbo, you can only take over if you belong to the party, the APC.”