Photos: 2023, Prof. Peter Umeadi gathers more support to vie for the presidency as ASATU draws support.
De Erudite Media
By Osigwe Paschal S.
As the election season draws close once again, many politicians who are interested in one position or the other in the nation have started reaching out, making alignments and negotiations that will help them to achieve their dreams.
One of such prominent politician is Prof. Peter Umeadi, a professor of Law and a former Chief Justice of Anambra State. The seasoned retired Justice has declared his intention to run for the post of president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria under the platform of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA).
Since his public declaration of interest in the position of president of Nigeria come 2023, many groups and associations have been coming out to state their readiness to support his candidature, especially groups from the South Eastern part of the country. Groups from the South East bloc such as Anambra State Association of Town Unions (ASATU) led by Barr. Titus Nnabuife (Egbejigbuagu) has come out to state their support. Also, The Association of former presidents of ASATU in the South East has come out to state their readiness to support him so also a lot of other groups from the east.
However, most notable of them all is the assured support of the Igbo National Council (INC) which recently pledged their support to the Rtd Chief Justice and also the association of current presidents of Town Unions of Anambra extraction.
At the event which held in the home of the professor of Law, and covered exclusively by De Erudite Communications media team, many leaders spoke in length about how confident they are that Prof. Umeadi will be able to lead the country well, having led successfully one of the other three arms of government.
In his speech, Barr. Titus Nnabuife (Egbejigbuagu), president Eziowelle autonomous community and President General Anambra State Association of Town Unions (ASATU) stated that “the retired Chief Justice did lots of positive reforms in the judiciary of Anambra State during his time of leading that arm of government in the state. We (ASATU) will support him if APGA gives him their presidential ticket.”
He further reiterated, “anybody who can lead any arm of government in Anambra, understandably one of the most difficult states in Nigeria, will definitely be able to lead any country or even the world if there is something like ‘President of the World’, thus the capacity and capability of Prof. Umeadi to lead Nigeria is not questionable, he can lead the nation well”.
Also speaking, is one of the APGA Chieftain from Nri kingdom, Chief Ogochukwu Egolum (Udonri) said “Prof. Umeadi is the only person for now who has stepped out to indicate interest to contest for the position of president, come 2023 on the platform of APGA and by the special grace of God, the professor will win and this will finally make the dream of Igbo presidency a dream-come-true.”
He further stated that, “as a man of immense capacity and pedigree, he is equal to the task, and if elected will perform well.”
He lauded the courage of the retired justice and extolled his boldness for stepping out to contest to take up the task of president of the country, a position he referred task to be ‘herculean’. He went further to declare his support and that of his colleagues. He however stated, “for now he is the only one coming out from APGA and if any other person later comes out, we will check all of them and choose the best, but for now he is the only one and amongst all those coming out from other platforms, he is the best so far, so we will support him”.
He went ahead to advise the presidential hopeful to remain resolute and consistent as persistence is highly needed in the journey to the presidency and prayed that God will crown the efforts with success.
Meanwhile, recall that in an interview granted to This Day Newspaper by Prof. Umeadi in 2020, and published by the newspaper on 10/12/2020, the professor of law and former Chief Justice of Anambra state, Prof. Umeadi had said, “I have to make a correction here. There are three arms of government – the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. I have been at the helm of affairs in one of them, the judiciary since 2011. I have administered the judiciary in Anambra State from that year until I retired in 2019. You are talking about eight years. That is enough experience for me to administer anywhere else. It doesn’t have to be elective. I am drawing you back to administration. If I ran a judiciary as peculiar as it is in all ramifications, then it is going to be easy for me to administer as president of Nigeria”.
In the interview, he further stated, “I want to be the president of Nigeria to implement policies and not to impress anybody. If you are administering an entity, there are things you find on your desk. I am sure I will give it my best if I am there. Nobody is perfect, but I want to be remembered as a saint when I finish.”
In the light of this, it could be said that politicians are obviously rising to the demands occasioned by the body language and commentaries going on amongst the elites and the masses at large in the country about the next president coming from the eastern bloc of the country this time.
Recall that recently, the expanded body of the associations of middle-belt leaders, southeastern leaders and south south leaders has recently in a joint press statement issued after a general joint meeting of these zonal and ethnic nationalities leaders advised all southern politicians to reject any other position if the slot of the president is not given to them by their respective parties.