Kogi State Governor and a Presidential aspirant on the All Progressives Congress (APC) platform, Yahaya Bello, has rejected the northern Governor’s endorsement of a southern presidential candidate for the 2023 elections.
Recall that on Saturday eleven northern Governors of the APC recommended to President Muhammadu Buhari that the search for the party’s presidential flag bearer should be limited to aspirants from the southern states.
However, on Sunday, Bello expressed optimism that he would emerge as the consensus candidate of the ruling party, considering his administration’s achievements and successes in Kogi on security, unity and progress.
Noting that the party’s candidate must be able to give Nigerians the right kind of leadership, Bello maintained that the best candidate would be chosen irrespective of region, tribe, or religion.
He said, “Mr President has always been providing a very wonderful leadership, the National Chairman has equally been providing a superlative leadership for our party and for our country and yesterday’s (Saturday) meeting was one of them.
“For us as aspirants in the forthcoming primary elections, we were asked to make a consensus among ourselves on who will emerge so that we can come up with one formidable candidate against the PDP.
“It is very gladdening and I know that by the grace of God, we are going to come up with the one strong candidate.”
“And, I am very optimistic that I, Yahaya Bello, as the candidate to build on the leadership and successes of President Muhammadu Buhari, will emerge as the consensus candidate by the special grace of God, considering our achievements and successes in Kogi on security, unity and progress.”
He said further that, “Nigeria of today is all out for who is coming to solve Nigeria’s problem and not where you come from and that leadership, I by the special grace of God will provide for Nigeria.
“By the special grace of God, we are going to come out stronger than ever before. This kind of anxieties were expressed in the last convention that came up with Sen. Abdullahi Adamu as the National Chairman and other committee members.
“This kind of anxieties came up when we were electing our senators, governors and all our candidates across boards three weeks ago and we all came out very strongly.
“By the special grace of God, I am optimistic that we are going to come out very strongly.
“By the special grace of God, I Yahaya Bello of Kogi State shall win that convention and the flag bearer of the All Progressives Congress for the general elections come 2023,” he added.
Nigerian NewsDirect reports that eleven northern All Progressives Congress (APC) Governors, ahead of the party’s convention, met and declared their support for a southern presidential candidate.
In a statement jointly signed by the Governors on Saturday, they disclosed that, “After careful deliberation, we wish to state our firm conviction that after eight years in office of President Muhammadu Buhari, the presidential candidate of the APC for the 2023 elections should be one of our teeming members from the southern states of Nigeria.”
The Governors appealed to all aspirants from the northern states to withdraw and allow only the aspirants from the south to proceed to the primaries.
According to the governors, “It is a question of honour for the APC, an obligation that is not in any way affected by the decisions taken by another political party.
“We affirm that upholding this principle is in the interest of building a stronger, more united and more progressive country.”