NDC: Igbos Won’t Be Fooled by Obi’s Four‑Year Presidency Plan — Ikonne

By Omeiza Ajayi

ABUJA – Prince Paul Ikonne, a senatorial aspirant and a senior member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abia South, dismissed the Nigerian Democratic Congress’s (NDC) proposal and former Anambra Governor Peter Obi’s suggestion that a president should serve only a single four‑year term. He argued that the South‑East region will demand an eight‑year tenure when it eventually elects a president.

Ikonne, who had recently been the Executive Secretary of the National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA), made the comments during a media interaction in Abuja on Thursday. The day after launching a grassroots mobilisation group called Asiwaju Tsunami in 2027, he said the 2027 election would be markedly different from the 2023 cycle, describing Tinubu’s first victory as a “wind” and predicting a “tsunami” in the next election.

Regarding Obi’s single‑term proposal, Ikonne questioned the logic of a four‑year commitment, saying it would short‑change the zone while other regions had enjoyed full two‑term presidencies.

“Why would he come and say that he wants to be President for four years? So he is trying to deprive the southeasterners when other zones are doing eight years. No South‑east man will vote for such a thing. No, not at all,” he said. “We are not looking for a President who will just be there for four years. We want to produce, when the time comes, the Igbo President that will be there for eight years.”

Ikonne criticised the practicality of a four‑year term, suggesting that much of the time would be spent on bureaucratic formalities before any substantial work could begin. “So, the Igbos will not make that mistake, and we will not be deceived to say let people come just for four years. To do what exactly? It may take him two years to appoint his ministers. Before they finish taking him around the Villa, finish meeting with the Permanent Secretaries and all that, four years will be over,” he added.

The APC leader asserted that support for President Tinubu’s re‑election is now unanimous across the South‑East, citing Abia Governor Alex Otti’s switch from the Labour Party to the President’s camp as evidence. “One clear indication is that when the governor who came on board to govern through the Labour Party is now supporting the President, that means the President doesn’t have any opposition in Abia state. So that is one clear assurance,” Ikonne said.

He linked Tinubu’s growing popularity in the zone to the administration’s fiscal federalism approach, arguing that the President’s decision to channel resources directly to state governments has begun to yield visible results. “I guess I have seen what is happening in terms of development within the South‑East and the kind of resources that the President has left in the hands of the governors. So people now know that, indeed, with the President’s mindset of allowing the funds to go straight to the governors, he means well for Nigerians.”

“He wants democracy, he wants dividends of democracy to come from bottom up, which is what it should be. Development doesn’t come from the national level; it should come from the state and the local government, and the President has pushed resources down to the governors in order to implement developmental projects that will impact the lives of people.”

“So Abians are ready to vote for the President again because there will not be any opposing party from Abia state. And I’m sure the traders in Abia are excited to have the President come back for the second time,” he added.

Ikonne also revealed that Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma has formed a team—of which he is a member—to take Tinubu’s re‑election campaign into Igbo communities, from shop to shop and market to market, across the country, not just within the South‑East.

When asked about the NDC’s decision to zone its presidential ticket to the South, Ikonne interpreted the move as an indirect endorsement of Tinubu completing two terms. “What they have just said is that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu should complete his eight years, because the North completed eight years. If they have zoned it to the North, then you now say, okay, there’s competition, there’s questioning, there’s a decision that one zone should not. But for the fact that they say they have zoned their ticket to the South means that they are confirming that Asiwaju should conclude and complete his eight years, which is what has been the practice since democracy started in Nigeria,” he argued.

“So 2023 was wind, but in 2027, Asiwaju is coming with a tsunami. And you can see that all the state governors in the Southeast, they are all supporting the president. In the 2027 election, you now see that there will not be any governor in the South‑East that will not be supporting the president. It wasn’t so in 2023. So the tsunami that will hit Nigeria will start from the South‑East, most especially from Abia South Senatorial District,” he added.

Regarding his intention to challenge long‑serving Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe in Abia South, Ikonne was blunt. He said that two decades in the Senate without a single visible constituency project made Abaribe’s continued tenure untenable. “Senator Abaribe is already coming back home. This is 20 years in the Senate, and there is nothing to show for it. There is nowhere you will go and you will see any constituency project in the entire Abia South. It is interesting to note that Abia South is the engine hub of Abia state and by extension the South‑East because Aba is the commercial nerve centre for the South‑East. Abia South is also the oil‑producing zone for Abia state. Yet there is nothing to show for it,” he said.

Ikonne argued that Abaribe’s split from Peter Obi before the 2023 election further eroded his political capital, while successive party changes—from APGA to ADC to the Labour