2023: Umahi can run for president, says Femi Adesina

Femi Adesina, Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), says Ebonyi State Governor, Dave Umahi, can run for president in come 2023.

He said though the ruling All Progressives Congress has not come out with its zoning formula, Umahi has the right to aspire for any position in government “as long as he can muster the needed support and momentum for victory”.

Adesina in a piece on Friday titled, ‘Dave Umahi’s Heart of Lion’, poured encomiums on the Ebonyi State governor for having the courage to dump the opposition Peoples Democratic Party for the APC.

He said Umahi had been a believer in the Buhari presidency even while he was in the opposition party.

The president’s spokesman wrote, “Umahi had always loved and respected President Muhammadu Buhari, and never hid it, though they were of different political parties. And the President reciprocated in like manner. In fact, the first State the President ever visited in the country and passed the night, was Ebonyi. Umahi was PDP in the exterior, but APC at heart.

“My first inkling of what was on the way was about two years ago. There was a meeting of Progressive Governors (as those elected on the platform of APC are called), and Gov Umahi had sent his deputy to attend. A PDP man among APC Governors? Something was definitely cooking.

“Now, the deed has been done. Gov Umahi has done what Napoleon couldn’t do. He has officially crossed from the PDP to APC. Only a man with the heart of a lion could do that.”

According to The PUNCH,  the APC National Executive Committee on Tuesday approved waivers for Umahi and others who just joined the party to contest elective positions on the party’s platform without waiting for a particular number of years.