Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State may be commencing the mobilization of support for his 2023 presidential ambition, battling with identity crisis. National Daily gathered that Governor Umahi, at a reception in Abakaliki on Thursday following his declaration for the 2023 presidential race, denounced the struggle for a Biafra Republic, declaring that Ebonyi State is not will not be part of the struggle for the actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra. The governor, therefore, cut off Ebonyi from the collective struggle of the Igbo, particularly, the non-state actors, creating foundational challenges of home support in his presidential ambition.
Governor Umahi was cited to have declared: “… I have been saying it, if anybody tells you about Biafra, tell them Ebonyi State will never be part of Biafra. We are not Biafra.
“We have been so oppressed and now, we are finding our feet and you want us to go back. We will not. We will not.”
Governor Umahi insisted that Ebonyi State is better in a fair and equitable Nigeria, than Biafra. He maintained that indigenes of the state have investments everywhere across Nigeria, adding that “one cannot set fire to his own house.”
The Ebonyi governor reiterated that some stakeholders in Nigeria have been expressing fears that the emergence of a president from the southeast may divide the country. Umahi reiterated his argument that Igbo people have huge investments across the country, asserting that thinking of secession when in power would be impossible.
Umahi had stated: “Some enemies of the Southeast say if we become president, we will divide the country. How will we divide the country when we have investments everywhere?”
He declared that “anyone that wants to cause insecurity in the Southeast must be crushed.”