By Charles Adingupu
Outgoing Ebonyi State Governor and candidate for the Senate Presidency, David Umahi has revealed how the President-Elect, Bola Tinubu, persuaded him to drop his ambition to be Senate President of the 10th National Assembly.
The Governor told newsmen at the newly constructed Muhammadu Buhari International Airport, Onueke in Ebonyi State, that Tinubu was instrumental to his decision to step down for the former Minister for Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio who has been named APC consensus candidate.
The National Working Committee of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) on Monday ratified the zoning formula proposed by Tinubu with Akpabio emerging as the preferred candidate for the Senate top job.
Despite the party’s decision some party members rejected the candidacy of the former Akwa Ibom State governor, insisting that the position be zoned to their geo-political zones.
Umahi who said he had to accept Tinubu’s request for greater regional unity disclosed that, “the leader of the party who is the president-elect called me and I feel it is an honour to have called me and I consulted with him while he was in Paris, and he said we were going to talk about it,” he said.
“So, when he came back, he called me and we had a meeting, and he said: Please, I Have committed myself, and it is his right to do that, this is the president-elect. By 29th May, he is going to be the president of the country. So, if he had made promises of course when you are running for such office you must make promises . So I won’t be a clog in the wheel of his progress, so I had to accept.”
The governor, was however, optimistic that party faithfuls as himself will eventually reap the rewards for their loyalty to Tinubu’s administration.
“So, I also accepted for the interest of the South-East. Let it not look as if we are in opposition. We just oppose everything. Politics is all about dialogue, it is about give and take, and if we surrender now, or I said No, what will have happened?
“So, I had to in the interest of the South East, and since we didn’t get that one, I am sure by God’s special grace, the efforts some of us made in marketing APC in the South East, we are going to get some other things that are tangible,” he assured.
