2023 Presidency: VON DG tells former Governor to support young candidate 

An All Progressives Congress (APC) leader, and former governor of Lagos State, Mr Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has been advised to unite the Southern part of Nigeria by supporting a young candidate, preferably from the Southeast, to run for Nigeria’s President in 2023.

The Director-General of Voice of Nigeria, Mr Osita Okechukwu, stated this while entertaining questions from journalists at the 2021 Eke Day in Abuja.

Mr Okechukwu said it was time for Mr Tinubu to abandon his Presidential ambition and be a kingmaker. He added that his opinion was that this was not the season for Mr Tinubu to be president.

“If consulted by our national leader, His Excellency, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on whether he should run or not for the exalted office of the President of Nigeria in 2023, my candid advice will be that he should use his abundant endowment to unite the APC. Unite the South and by extension our beloved country, by backing a candidate from the Southeast.” 

Mr Okechukwu said some northerners have complained that they are reluctant to support southern candidates because of lack of cohesion among the two major geopolitical zones in the South and that Tinubu has the power to change such perception.

“If Tinubu widens his search he will find a credible candidate from the Southeast who will easily defeat the presumed candidate of the PDP, former Vice President, His Excellency, Atiku Abubakar. By so doing, he would have wittingly used one stone to kill two birds – unite the APC, and unite the South and by extension, the entire country,” he added.

The VON DG further explained that this was the season for generational transformation and added that he didn’t know anything about an agreement between President Buhari and Tinubu in 2015.

“The scriptures said there is time for everything which happens on earth. I am one of those Buharists who have tremendous respect for Asiwaju for the critical supplement he added to Buhari’s 12 million Vote-Bank, which resulted in our 2015 presidential election victory. It is not a mean feat when you consider that with Buhari’s Vote-Bank, we could not win in 2003, 2007 and 2011, until the merger of the legacy political parties, where Tinubu played a significant role.

“I don’t know of any agreement; all I know is that there was a raging debate on the proprietary of Muslim/Muslim ticket as to whether it can guarantee the victory of the APC at the 2015 presidential election.

“This was what, to the best of my knowledge, denied Tinubu the Vice Presidential slot and not the scanty insinuation of breach of the agreement. The scale of Muslim/Muslim tickets was weighty, unlike in 1993 Abiola/Kingibe tickets. It was thoroughly debated and dropped to defeat phobia. 

“Whereas one cannot canvas age in any particular manner; we at the same time need generational transformation,” Okechukwu said.

Suzan O.