UPP presidential candidate sad over Kerry’s meeting with Jonathan, Buhari

The presidential candidate of the United Progressive Party, UPP, Chekwas Okorie, has said he is unhappy with the United States of America’s Secretary of State, John Kerry, for not inviting him for a meeting with candidates of other parties during his visit to Nigeria last weekend.

Mr. Kerry on Sunday met with the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, President Goodluck Jonathan and his All Progressives Congress, APC, counterpart, Muhmmadu Buhari.

At the meeting, Mr. Kerry asked the two frontline candidates to ensure the February elections were violence-free.

However, in a statement on Thursday, Mr. Okorie expressed sadness that the secretary of sate met with only “two sides of the same coin.”

“I am not sure what message the distinguished Secretary wanted to send to Nigerians and the world with the meetings, but lending his weight to the notion that there are only two parties or two candidates contesting the 2015 election was not appropriate,” Mr. Okorie said.

According to Mr. Okorie, the race for president in Nigeria is between him, President Jonathan and General Buhari.

He said, “As the representative of a relatively progressive President Obama, it would have been appropriate for Kerry to also meet with the only viable, authentic progressive candidate for president in the 2015 general elections, which is me.”

The UPP presidential flag-bearer said his is the only progressive party presenting an authentic progressive for president of Nigeria in the upcoming election scheduled for February 14, 2015.

He said the party was anchored on the Eastern leg of Nigeria’s storied geopolitical balancing beam and that “the UPP is a national party that has the tiger’s head as its logo, and “Love and Unity” as its motto. At least 25% of the electorate in each of the 36 states of Nigeria is comprised of people from the South East, which the UPP considers the anchor of its national constituency.”