Onoh warns against insults on Peter Obi

By Dennis Agbo Former Enugu State House of Assembly member and former South-East spokesman for the Bola Tinubu Presidential Campaign Council, Denge Josef Umunnakwe Onoh, has urged political actors in the South-East to refrain from what he described as personal attacks and insults against former Anambra State governor and 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi. Onoh, in a statement made available to journalists in Abuja, said recent public exchanges involving Anambra State Governor Chukwuma Soludo and Minister of Works, David Umahi, among other political actors, should not be allowed to undermine the region’s collective political interests.

He said while political differences and divergent choices were legitimate in a democracy, publicly disparaging prominent politicians from the region for what he described as short-term political gains could weaken the South-East’s influence at the national level. “We must look at the broader political matrix of Nigeria,” Onoh said. According to him, major political blocs in the country understand the importance of protecting their prominent political figures despite internal disagreements, because undermining a leading politician could reduce the collective bargaining power of the wider group. Onoh warned that failure by South-East political leaders to build what he described as a cohesive and mutually respectful front could leave the region as “political nomads” — individually successful but without a stable political anchor in national affairs. He also cited what he described as historical instances of political actors sacrificing regional solidarity for temporary external patronage. “History does not lie. Look closely at those who historically betrayed regional cohesion or targeted their own frontline figures to curry temporary…