2023: My Presidential Ambition Predicated On Popular Vote-Umeadi
A presidential aspirant in the 2023 elections, Professor Peter Umeadi, has declared that he stands a chance of winning the election, if the votes of the people would be allowed to count.
The presidential aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) said this while addressing the South-West coordinators of the support group for his ambition at Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, at the weekend.
Umeadi, Emeritus Chief Judge of Anambra State and a life bencher, said his aspiration is predicated on popular votes at the polls from a majority of Nigerians, based on a desire to entrench a new political culture.
He said: “As I stand here, it is correct to say that my aspiration, my face and my name have spread to all the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria.
“Together as citizens, we have a duty. Let us respect the ballot. Let us canvass and sustain free and fair elections. Let only valid votes count. Validity of votes permeate capacity to vote, down to announcement of the correct results.”
He said his ambition has the support of the North-West zone where Barrister Yakubu Ahmed Mohammed is leading other coordinators in Kaduna, Kano, Jigawa, Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto and Kebbi states.
In the South-East, he said Dr (Mrs) Nkechi Ibeneme is coordinating Abia, Anambra, Enugu, Imo, and Ebonyi states, while past presidents of town unions in the zone, at a meeting held last January, unanimously endorsed him as the Igbo candidate for the 2023 presidential election.
The presidential aspirant said he was in Ibadan in furtherance of his consultations “to fashion new political structure across the six geopolitical zones in Nigeria, looking forward to the presidential election in 2023.
“This march began in March 2019 when I joined the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) at Nri Ward I, in my hometown Agukwu Nri.
“Today, I return to Ibadan flanked by men and women who have volunteered across the six states of the South-West, spanning Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Ekiti, Ondo and Osun, led by the energetic and enigmatic Arc Olatubosun Adedeji, to assist my struggle to entrench a new political culture.
“I thank the coordinators of the six states for standing by me to propagate my vision and undertaking to galvanise our dear country, including the old and young, rich and poor, literate or not, from different religious persuasions, and from all the six geopolitical zones.
“Uppermost in my mind is how to reconcile with ourselves from across the length and breadth of our dear country and proceed to reposition the Federal Republic of Nigeria in four years after the presidential election of 2023.
“Let me posit that we could only achieve the reconciliation with humility and self- effacement. Collectively, the governing class, that is, men and women who find themselves entrusted with power to govern, should learn to remove themselves from the picture.
“Governance should be seen for what it is, holding forth for the masses of Nigerian citizens. We should show that the natural and human resources of our richly endowed country would be applied to and for the benefit of the greatest number of our citizens.
“The detachment from personal gain should steer us away from corruption and double standards with their attendant ills.
“We should draw a line whereby henceforth probity, accountability and dedication would reflect in all our actions, both as the leaders and the followership, in our public and private lives.
“Moving on from that line, all our output should reflect a future of patriotism and collective reconstruction and mutual uplifting of all segments of our society. The corrupt, parochial, divisive ways of the past should be taboo and completely forgotten,” he declared.
Umeadi said his interest in politics was fired by the feats of his late uncle, Chief Philips Umeadi (SAN), who was the running mate of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, SAN, in the 1979 presidential election.
He said his late uncle introduced him to Awolowo after he finished his Law programme in 1979, adding that he was received in the Awolowo home at Ikenne, Ogun State by the wife of the sage, the late Chief (Mrs) HID Awolowo.
“We spent three nights at the Awolowo home on that event. I observed at first hand the fondness which my uncle enjoyed from the Yeye Oodua.
“When she passed on, the family of the late Chief Philip Umeadi SAN (former vice presidential candidate of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) and the larger Abana Mmankwo family of Agukwu Nri) put up an obituary on 25/11/2015.
“The obituary read inter alia ‘We are endeared to the late matriach for her generous benefaction of our father, brother and uncle which became inevitable to his nomination on such a formidable Christian/Christian ticket of which late Chief Philip Umeadi SAN remained grateful in his lifetime.
“‘Even when he had to move on, he would, in his character, publicly support interests of that auspicious and illustrious family anywhere in Nigeria. The descendants of Abana Mmankwo family are grateful indeed.'”
The South-West coordinators of the Umeadi support group, led by Arc Olatubosun Adedeji, pledged to work for the realisation ambition of the APGA presidential aspirant, declaring that it is high time Nigeria and Nigerians moved away from money politics.
