SOUTH EAST Patriots’ Assembly (SEPA) which backed Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the just-concluded presidential election has praised the Supreme Court for not wasting precious time in quashing an appeal filed by former Minister of State for Education, Mr. Emeka Nwajiuba against the President-elect’s emergence at the party’s presidential primary last year.
The group said that with the final ruling by the apex court, the former junior minister, his Ndigbo co-travellers and all other Nigerians who voted for or against the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate should accept that Nigeria now has President-elect Bola Tinubu who emerged from a valid constitutional electoral process now awaiting official inauguration on May 29, 2023.
SEPA’s Chief Media Strategist, Hon. Emeka Nwankpa, in a statement in Abuja yesterday praised the court for refusing to waste its precious time over what he called ‘’Nwajiuba’s frivolous and dangerous antics’’ to scuttle the democratic choice of his party.
Part of SEPA’s statement read: ‘We wholeheartedly hail the ruling of the Supreme Court against Mr. Emeka Nwajiuba’s frivolous and dangerous antics which, in our view, are capable of portraying the political direction of the South East wing of the APC in bad light. He was not the only aspirant from the region who contested against Bola Tinubu but he has shown that he is a bad party man representing Ndigbo. SEPA is against such tendentious treachery which is alien to our people’s culture.
“Now that Emeka Nwajiuba’s race has run the race, he has fought a bad fight, he can take a rest and continue as a party man or find some other useful thing to do than prancing up and down looking for what was not lost. Or better still, he should commit himself to remedying his record as one of the worst failed minister in a critical education sector where university students were at home for almost a year.
“In saner climes, as a former minister of state for education whose senior minister, Adama Adamu had publicly declared that he failed, Nwajiuba should never seek a higher office more so the office of the president.
Hon. Emeka Nwankpa said that SEPA was committed to seeing that overall economic growth, critical good governance and the return of peace take firm root and flourish in the Southeast under the Administration of the incoming President-elect Bola Tinubu come next month.
According to him, SEPA will stop at nothing to galvanize increased public support and solidarity to the President-elect among all well-meaning Ndigbo indigenes resident in the South East and across the entire country to ensure that his government fully works for Ndigbo’s collective interest based on his sterling record as a tested and trusted manager of Nigeria’s delicate diversity, maintaining that the nation needed him at a time as this.
“SEPA recalls that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu made Lagos a sweet home to all Nigerians as a former governor of the foremost State. Till date, our Igbo brothers and sisters are the most travelled among all Nigerians. Wherever they go they make their home as peace-loving people. The recent happenings in Lagos during the elections were totally unnecessary and utterly regrettable.
“What actually played out in Lagos was that a few impressionable youths lacking historical grasp of years of harmonious co-existence between Yorubas and Igbos unduly allowed politics to cause deep and unnecessary chaos, suspicion and division. However, SEPA is pleased to note that with the conclusion of the elections, well-meaning Nigerians across board have opted to wade in and stop further hostilities.
“On the whole, SEPA is confident that our next president is Nigerians’ collective choice to herald a glorious era for the nation, he is a national icon who proved to be an excellent host to Ndigbo and other Nigerians when he was Lagos governor driving on his qualities as a leader best suited and prepared to manage Nigeria’s delicate diversity.
“To all intents and purposes, President-elect Bola Tinubu has the answers to the huge challenges of Nigeria’s diversity. Finally, a Daniel has come to judgment, Nigeria now stands on the cusp of history.
“A million Emeka Nwajiuba’s shall not stop the ongoing march to a Bola Tinubu government. We hereby advise and caution him against acting as a spoiler. The Ndigbo have suffered enough being out of the national loop, notable Igbo sons and daughters now want the Southeast back into mainstream national politics’’, he said.
Nwajiuba had last year resigned from President Muhammadu Buhari’s cabinet to contest for the APC presidential primary, had sought, among others a declaration of the court to nullify the votes scored by Tinubu in the last APC’s presidential primary election on alleged account of vote buying, but the apex court struck out the suit saying that the time to file such suit had elapsed.
Signed:
Hon. Emeka Nwankpa
Chief Media Strategist, SEPA
