A former Minister of Aviation, Osita Chidoka, has said the Southeast would need to engage in political alliance and build a strong coalition with other geopolitical zones to win the Presidency.
Chidoka made this known during an interview on FLO 94.9 FM Umuahia, stating that the present approach being applied by politicians in the zone cannot guarantee a victory for a presidential candidate of Southeast extraction.
He said the coalition is the only route to help the zone achieve its ambition of producing the President of Nigeria.
According to Chidoka, the southwest geopolitical region, which was always in opposition, realized the need to be in the centre, and the Southeast needed to learn from it.
He further explained that such realization by the Southwest was them appropriating the strategy of alliance with the North, which, in return, had made them relevant since the return of democracy in 1999.
He made it clear that no zone can achieve the task of producing the country’s President just by counting only on votes or key candidates from her area, as obtained in the Southeast during the last presidential poll.
The former Minister pointed out that because votes from the Southeast are consistently cast in favour of one candidate, any ideal alliance made by the region with other power blocs may result in the victory of someone from the East in an election.
He maintained that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) could have won the 2023 Presidency if it zoned the ticket to the Southeast with a Northerner as the running mate.
He said, “The South East should return to the coalition and negotiate with other regions to win the Presidency. It is something we can’t go alone.”
