The speculation came like wave but Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State promptly dismissed all talks that his party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, would field him for the 2019 presidential election.
A statement signed by his Senior Special Assistant on Media, James Eze read thusly: “Our attention has been drawn to some speculative reports in the media alleging that the Governor of Anambra State, Chief Willie Obiano may run for the office of the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in the coming 2019 elections. We hereby refute the said reports as totally untrue, false and misleading. Governor Obiano has no intention of running for president.”
The statement further read: “After recording a historic victory at the November 18, 2017 gubernatorial election in which Ndi Anambra gave him an overwhelming mandate, Governor Obiano is totally committed to initiating new revolutionary projects that will transform the state and justify the people’s confidence in his second term in office. Consequently, all reports about the likelihood of Governor Obiano running for president in 2019 are a manifestation of speculation carried too far and have no shred of truth to them. We therefore urge the general public to disregard these reports in their entirety as they are totally false.”
Corroborating the governor’s stand is the National Chairman of APGA, Dr Victor Ike Oye who stated that APGA does not have the predisposition of fielding a candidate for 2019 Presidency. He said: “Our preoccupation for now is how to maximize the opportunity presented by the recent Anambra Governorship election victory to win more states, especially in the Southeast where agitation for self-determination has assumed a worrisome proportion of recent.”
The people of Anambra should rather prod the governor to focus on more productive things for the state should he had announced his desire to run for the Presidency of which he did not. They should rather counsel in such scenario that instead of dissipating energy on a presidential contest Governor Obiano can get Buhari to undertake a massive focus on roads and other Federal infrastructural matters in the Southeast. The Governor can as well get the Federal Government to refund a hanging N43 billion expended by Anambra State on federal roads.
