Umahi Says It's Not Igbo Turn, And He Wants To Be President

David Umahi stood in Benin on Thursday and told everyone that it is not the turn of the Igbo to produce Nigeria's president, and that the turn belongs to President Bola Tinubu. The Minister of Works said it while defending the administration's road projects, but he did not stop there. He said, "I want to be president, but it's not yet our turn. It's the turn of President Bola Tinubu."

Let us be honest about what he is doing. Power rotates between North and South, not between individuals. Obasanjo from the South-West did eight years, Goodluck Jonathan from the South-South did five. Only the South-East has not produced a president since 1999. So when a man from Ebonyi says it is not yet our turn, you have to ask him when exactly it will be our turn. Public affairs analyst Adedayo Oluwatosin put it plainly, that Umahi is scheming for a vice presidential slot in 2031 and that the statement is full of deceit and jealousy. Umahi also took a swipe at Peter Obi, saying "when that guy said that Peter Obi is not my match, it took me 10 minutes to think about it." But the same Obi bought a property worth one million pounds in the UK in 1996, before Umahi had anything close to that record.

This is not about Obi versus Umahi. It is about a man who has held every office in Ebonyi telling his own people to wait while he eyes another position. If it is not our turn now, and power returns to the North in 2031, when will it ever be our turn? Be honest, is Umahi speaking for the South-East or for himself?