In an interview via MIC On Podcast FROM 24:49, PDP chieftain Segun Sowunmi expressed his long-standing concern over the imbalance in Nigeria’s political leadership, particularly the continued exclusion of the Southeast from the presidency. His reflection was rooted in a personal sense of fairness and national unity, which, he revealed, had often restrained his own presidential ambitions.
Sowunmi recounted how Nigeria’s leadership history—from Olusegun Obasanjo to Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, Muhammadu Buhari, and now Bola Tinubu—has excluded the Southeast. He believes that for Nigeria’s democracy to truly mature and for conversations around leadership to evolve beyond ethnicity, a President of Igbo extraction must emerge. According to him, only then can the country move past the persistent rhetoric of ethnic origins in leadership debates.
He expressed hope that Peter Obi, as a prominent figure from the Southeast, would consolidate his political strengths, not just for his personal ambition, but for the broader goal of national inclusiveness and stability. Sowunmi stressed that Nigeria’s founding structure as a federation of three regions—Eastern, Western, and Northern, should reflect in its leadership history.
WHAT HE SAID
“The major thing that has actually been keeping me back as always been my sense of fairness. I had always said that because Obasanjo had been President, Yar’dua has been President, Buhari has been President, Bola Tinubu is President now, I’ve been uncomfortable with the fact that the Southeastern person has not produced the Presidency and to some extent and to some extent I’ve always felt that the best time to start saying let’s discuss this thing differently if we’ve been able to get an Igbo President or a President of Igbo extraction, so that the conversation around the Presidency of Nigeria Leadership will no longer be a conversation of oh he’s from here, he’s from here or he’s from here.”
“I’m very hopeful that Peter Obi will get his act together because for such a fellow beyond even the price of Presidency for me I can see the price of the stability of the constituent part of the country which is that should we have a nation that received an article of independence by three zones, eastern region, western region, northern region. I’m not comfortable with the fact that the eastern region can’t Produce the Presidency and I want them to produce the Presidency.”
Explore More News By Using The Button Below.