Ebonyi State Governor David Umahi has declared his intention to run for president in 2023 on the platform of the Congress of all progressives (APC).
He made his intention public shortly after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday at the State House in Abuja.
This comes a day after a former Lagos state governor, Bola Tinubu, revealed his plan to run for office on the APC ballot.
Tinubu said, after meeting with Buhari on Monday, that he would run for the position of president.
Umahi, in an interview with House correspondents, said that he had told the president about his ambition to compete for the seat if the party zoned the ticket to the southern region.
“We discuss politics as the growth of our party, APC, in Nigeria and the Southeast. And of course, you know, the interest of the southeast, for the seat of the presidency in 2023.
“And of course, I told the president that, regardless of what the party’s decision is, that we will abide by, if the party opens the ticket or the zones to the southern part of Nigeria that I think with what I have implemented In the last six more years, I will be running for president on the APC platform.
“So, I told him and of course, he believes that whoever wants to run for president of this country should have a broad consultation, go to all the leaders and that we must do everything possible to eliminate ethnicity and religion in our policy to that this the country can grow ”, he said.
Like the APC national leader, Mr. Umahi vowed to replicate his exploits as governor nationwide if he finally manages to blow up the party’s ballot and win the presidential election.
The governor, who will finish his second term in 2023, was one of the three governors of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) who got rid of the party for the ruling party between the end of November 2020 and June 2021.
Umahi left the PDP in November 2020, six months before his Cross River counterpart Ben Ayade defected. Zamfara State Governor Bello Matawalle was the last to ditch the PDP last year.
The governor of Ebonyi had argued that his defection had nothing to do with the 2023 presidential ballot but with bringing the Southeast region to the center.
“I want to clarify that I never sought (for) the presidential candidacy of the PPD and I will not do it. So, whoever said that I moved to APC because they refused to zone my ticket is being very malicious, ”the governor had explained at the time.
However, with Mr. Umahi’s statement, it is possible that he is competing for the APC presidential candidacy with Mr. Tinubu and Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello, who had declared his intention to contest the presidential elections in the APC platform.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, also from the APC, may be a candidate but has not officially declared his intention to run.
The governor of Ebonyi joins some of the Southeastern politicians who have expressed interest in occupying the highest political office in the nation.
Last year, a former Senate president, Paul Anyim, a member of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), announced his plan to run for president, whether his party locates the space in the southeast or not.
Previously, Kingsley Moghalu from Anambra State and Sam Ohuabunwa from Abia State had previously indicated their interest in the race.