Senator Orji Kalu has said that Chief Edwin Clark betrayed the South-East and the region’s quest to produce the next president in 2023.
Kalu in a statement on Thursday asserted that Clark’s “late hour” support for the South East is rather suspicious. He said that the encouragement could have come at least two years earlier. Few days ago, the respected statesman from the south-south had said that Kalu was a “traitor” even though the former Abia State governor is one of the oldest vocal frontline politicians in the South-East.
According to Clark, Senator Kalu’s sincerity and transparency were in doubt. These all stemmed from the fact that the lawmaker recently shelved his presidential ambitions and endorsed the candidacy of Senate President Ahmed Lawan.
In his defence, Kalu was of the opinion that the South-East cannot get the ticket of any party in an open contest without a gentleman’s agreement. “If aspirants from the South-West and South-South cannot support their brothers from the South-East, It is only politically correct to support the North-East geo-political zone,” Kalu noted in his reply to Clark. He further stated that it would the shortest route for the South-East zone to produce the president “after eight years instead of waiting for another 16 years”.
The parliamentarian said it was rather surprising to him that Chief Edwin Clark didn’t call the majority of other Southerners including governors working against the South-East “to order or the names he called me. If you meant well for the South East, you could have discouraged other aspirants against running for President,” Kalu said.
Senator Kalu believes that “nothing stops the South from supporting only presidential aspirants from the South East. The betrayers are those who don’t care about the South. We are wiser”.
He alleged that majority of the Southerners “in his party (PDP) are secretly supporting a Northeasterner to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari”.
