From Magnus Eze, Enugu
An All Progressives Congress (APC) group, South East Mandate (SEM), has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to facilitate the process of nominating a presidential candidate from trusted members of the party from the South East for the 2023 poll.
It said its aim was the actualisation of a president of South East extraction as successor to President Buhari.
The group urged political parties in Nigeria to cede its presidential ticket to the South East in the spirit of justice, equity and good conscience.
Convener of the group, Senator Julius Ucha, who briefed newsmen after their National Executive Council, identified lack of trust, latent fear, suspicion and prejudices as some of the factors holding the South East down in Nigeria’s political equation, saying it was poised to reverse the trend.
He also listed inability of the region to build a common platform to articulate their common interest as another challenge to its political growth.
He noted that this was what the group intended to resolve by building the platform.
“If we have a forum where we exhaust our republican energies and channel it to a common cause without making a public show of our differences, most Nigerians will be denied the space to always tag us as a people who will never agree on a common course.”
Ucha said the South East was a solid part of Nigeria and should be allowed to producing the president because equality is equity.
He also disclosed that they were ready to partner with any group that is working for the actualisation of a President of South East origin in 2023.