Nigeria: Why I'm Buhari's Running Mate - Okadigbo. By Tony Edike

21 JANUARY 2003 Enugu — FORMER Senate President and Vice Presidential candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Dr. Chuba Okadigbo says his acceptance to be General Muhammadu Buhari's running mate is the shortest way the Igbo can produce a Nigerian president. Okadigbo who arrived Enugu weekend to commence his campaign tour of the South East said his acceptance to run was the shortest road to the presidency for Ndigbo in the right of the reality on the ground. If Obasanjo/Atiku continue by winning this election in the event of that hypothetical absurdity, it will mean eight years of Obasanjo, eight years of the presidency in the South, so that when it goes to the North, there will be another eight years and Igbo people will have been without the presidency for sixteen (16) years," he said. "Under the arrangement of the ANPP power will shift back to the North, and in four years time, it will come back here (South East), therefore, this ticket is the fastest and shortest way to presidential power for somebody from this part (South East) of the country in four years", he added. Fielding questions from journalists as to whether his candidature would not jeopardise the chances of other Igbos in the presidential contest, Okadigbo said: "I sought to be the president of Nigeria of Igbo extraction and will want the people of Nigeria, which includes Ndigbo to think accordingly and more accordingly.