The Chairman Emeritus of DAAR Communications Plc, High Chief Raymond Dokpesi, has solicited the support of North-Central People’s Forum for the presidential ambition of former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar in 2023.
He stated this when he led other Nigerians supporting Atiku’s 2023 presidential aspiration on a courtesy visit to Forum’s secretariat, in Abuja, on Tuesday.
Dokpesi said that their support for the ex-VP’s presidential ambition was borne out of his laudable achievements, particularly in the areas of governance, youth empowerment as well as ethnic and religious tolerance, among others.
He also told the Forum that a vote of confidence has been passed in Atiku, stressing that Nigerians want him to contest for president in 2023.
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“The challenges we are facing today as a country are complicated. The hope of the younger generation is totally dashed. Our hospitals are rather described as graveyards right now. Our schools are closed and we have over 14 million children out of school.
“Today, you hear agitations for the dismemberment of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Those agitations are coming from all sections of the country. The economy, I dare also say, is in shambles right now.
“All these put together are created by the type of leadership we have in the country. They are a result of how we have organized and managed ourselves. They were not made by God
“Therefore, looking at the challenges that we have, we conducted some polls across the nation, bearing in mind the circumstances that we are experiencing in the country.
“We asked Nigerians: How do we get out of this quagmire? For me, Nigeria must remain united. There are no problems that are insurmountable, and cannot to be resolved.
“So, if we want to resolve the matter, I am going to call on this Forum to, in the interest of this country and the generations yet unborn to make the necessary sacrifice and view the situation dispassionately and not based on sentiments.
“We have set out the criteria, and have identified the issues, and said that the kind of leadership we need in this country must be a courageous, fair, tested and proven leadership with cognate experience in the management of the affairs of the conclusion, rightly or wrongly, that the person that has the quality to unite Nigeria at this point in time is Waziri Atiku Abubakar.
“We must put a square peg in a square hole. We must not allow some people who want to disintegrate this country to succeed,” he said.
The media mogul maintained that he was supporting a northern presidency in the 2023 elections because they had been marginalised with the death of former President Umaru Musa Yar’ Adua in 2010.
Dokpesi, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party, argued that it will not be fair and just should power return to the South in 2023, even though the regime of President Muhammadu Buhari would have done eight years.
According to him, his support for northern presidency was in line with the PDP agreement during the party’s convention in 2006.
He said, “2023 is still the turn of the North based on the PDP agreement and calculation. The records of the PDP are there. Some people said why should we bring a Fulani man again, and I said have we not been living with Fulani people? I was brought up by a Fulani man, Bamanga Tukur.
“Nigerians must unite and deal with element brought into the country for destabilisation. We are here to plead and cry to the leaders of North Central not to relent in their sacrifices for the country.”
Responding, the National Chairman of the North-Central People’s Forum, Arc. Gabriel Yakubu Aduku, said that stakeholders of the organisation would meet and take a common position on the matter.
Aduku said that though the Forum had a non-partisan mandate, it was concerned about the welfare of the people and had no doubt on Atiku’s capacity to be the next president of the country in 2023.
“A person like Atiku Abubakar means a lot to this country. We are non-partisan, but we are concerned about development. Our interest is in how the people of the North-central, which have been alienated by past administration or the convenience of political parties, will benefit,” Aduku stated.
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