By Emmanuel Iheaka
The Southeast chapter of the Renewed Hope for Greater Nigeria (RHGN), has resolved to engage leading Igbo statesmen to persuade former Anambra State governor and presidential candidate of the Nigerian Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr. Peter Obi, to withdraw from the 2027 contest and support President Bola Tinubu’s re-election.
Leader of the group in Southeast, Mazi Franklin Ngoforo, disclosed this in Owerri on Saturday after a meeting on how to secure victory for President Tinubu in all polling units across the five Southeast states.
He said the organisation would approach the leadership of Ohanaeze Ndigbo under Senator John Azuta Mbata, alongside elder statesmen including Chief Emeka Anyaoku and Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe, to urge them to lead a delegation to Obi.
According to him, the proposed intervention is not intended to diminish Obi or question his political stature, but to persuade him to place the long-term strategic interests of Ndigbo above the immediate pursuit of a presidential ticket.
Ngoforo said the objective would be to get Obi to examine the 2027 contest and realize that a broader political bargain could put the Southeast in a stronger position to secure the presidency in the nearest future.
He said the more consequential question should be what the Southeast can gain by building a strategic political relationship with the Southwest.
Ngoforo noted that withTinubu constitutionally limited to one more term if re-elected, the Southeast should consider supporting the Southwest now while building a political compact capable of yielding uncontested dividends when power next returns to the South.
Rather than viewing 2027 solely as a contest to be won or lost, he said Ndigbo should view it as an opportunity to accumulate political goodwill and establish reciprocal obligations with other regions.
Ngoforo appealed to Obi to consider that withdrawing from the 2027 race would not necessarily represent the end of his presidential journey, but deferring the ambition to the appropriate time.
“The issue is bigger than one election and bigger than one individual,” Ngoforo said, insisting that the political question before Ndigbo should be how to turn today’s alliances into tomorrow’s presidency.
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