South-east leaders resolve to support Tinubu’s administration

Leaders of the South-east say they have resolved to support the administration of President Bola Tinubu.

The leaders made the resolution at the end of their emergency meeting in Enugu on Thursday.

The meeting was chaired by the President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, and attended by serving and past National Assembly members from the South-east, traditional rulers, and other members of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, among others.

Support for Tinubu

In a communiqué issued at the end of the meeting, the leaders said, as law-abiding citizens of Nigeria, they have resolved to support Mr Tinubu given that the Supreme Court has affirmed his victory in the 2023 general election.

“Meanwhile, an expanded meeting of Igbo leaders comprising all the South-east governors will soon be convened to develop options and proffer solutions and guidance to all the sons and daughters of Igbo land on the way forward,” the communique read in part.

Connecting the dot

Mr Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was declared the winner of the 25 February presidential election after polling a total of 8,794,726 votes.

Two other leading candidates in the election – Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and his Labour Party (LP) counterpart, Peter Obi – came second and third respectively.

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Mr Obi and Atiku challenged Mr Tinubu’s victory at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, Abuja, and later at the Supreme Court.

But Mr Tinubu won in all the courts which affirmed his victory at the last year’s general election.

Meanwhile, before the presidential election, there were calls from South-east leaders that the region should be allowed to produce a Nigerian president for the first time in 2023.

The hope of many residents of the South-east was dashed when the ruling APC and the main opposition PDP, the two dominant political parties in Nigeria, picked their candidates outside the region during their separate presidential primaries in May, last year.

But the hope was later rekindled after Mr Obi, a former governor of Anambra State, dumped the PDP and defected to the LP where he later emerged as the party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 election.

Although Mr Obi was not the only presidential candidate from the South-east, the LP candidate enjoyed swelling support across the country ahead of the election, mainly in South-east and South-south regions.