The former Governor of Abia, Dr Orji Kalu, has predicted victory for President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Feb. 16, Presidential Election.
Kalu told newsmen at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos on Tuesday that Buhari was certain to garner majority vote from the North, stressing that experience had shown that whoever clinched majority of the votes from that region always emerged as president of Nigeria.
According to him, this is further buoyed by the over 14.9 million votes garnered by the incumbent president as the flag bearer during the APC primaries.
“I am confident that with the over 14.9 million votes already in his basket, it will be easy for Buhari to coast home to victory,” Kalu said.
He said the infrastructural revolution embarked upon by the president had boost his electoral pedigree in the Southeast.
“In the Southeast, the president will shore up his electoral chances better than he did in 2015.
“The people of the region have come to realise that Buhari, who was painted in different light, had shown more love for the Igbos through the numerous projects executed in the region,” he said.
He listed some of the achievements of the Buhari led administration to include payment of pension to Biafra soldiers and police; payment of entitlements of former workers of Nigeria Airways Limited; Nigerian Railway Corporation and massive road construction across the Southeast.
Kalu said Buhari would do well electorally in Anambra, with a projected 50 per cent of the votes cast; while he would get over 35 per cent of votes cast in Enugu; and 50 per cent in Ebonyi.
According to him, the president will also get 52 per cent in Imo as well as between 51 and 65 per cent in Abia.
Kalu maintained that there was no division in the Southeast on the choice of Buhari in Feb. 16, presidential election.
He cautioned the Igbo socio cultural organisation, Ohaneze Ndi Igbo, against turning the group into a political party, stressing that the group had no mandate to tell Igbo people, which party or candidate to cast their votes for.
Kalu noted that the Ohaneze comprised people of different political parties, adding that it was therefore wrong for the group to endorse Abubakar Atiku of the Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP) as its preferred candidate.
He said in spite of being optimistic of Buhari’s victory, he was sure that the incumbent president, as a true democrat, would accept the result of the election irrespective of the outcome.
On the allegation that he defected to the APC to escape justice, Kalu insisted that Buhari would not spare anyone who violated the law on account of personal friendship.