Yahaya Bello: North-Central deserves presidency more than South-East( 2023)

According to Vanguard Newspaper, GOVERNOR Yahaya Bello of Kogi State, yesterday said the north-central has been the most marginalized in the country since 1960 when it gained its independence and is most deserving of the presidency come 2023.

It eas said that Governor Bello was reacting to the Igbo apex socio-cultural group, Ohaneze

Ndigbo’s insistence that zoning the presidency to the Southeast will remain a fundamental ingredient for national unity.

Recall that the President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Prof. George Obiozor had in a statement on Monday, said that wherever the next president of Nigeria comes from will send a strong message to Ndigbo (Igbo people).

But the Kogi State Governor, according to the report said he would formally declare his intention to run for the presidency after the convention of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, explained that he was in Aso Rock to brief President Muhammadu Buhari on the state of insecurity in his state.

It was gathered that he also made mentioned that, the north-central has never produced the president nor vice president of the country, and it was only proper that the zone should be allowed to produce the next President of the country in 2023.

It was stated that fielding question on the southeast position on the 2023 Presidency, Bello said, “Well, if you’re talking of southeast then you will equally talk of north-central not only since 1999 but since 1960. So what do you say of north-central both the president and vice president?

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He said further “So put the situation of the southeast and that of north-central side by side, then who is more disadvantaged in terms of the position of presidency both presidents and vice presidents? So if you put both sides together, then let’s do justice. And whichever way you look at it, I’m eminently qualified.”

Asked the quality of the person that should take over from President Buhari in 2023 and if he informed the President in their meeting about his ambition, he said: “Mr. President would want a vibrant, experienced, energetic, patriotic Nigerian to take over from him and in all of the qualities that Nigerians are yearning, or looking for today, I possess all of these qualities by the special grace of God.

“Nigerians are yearning and asking me to run for the President come 2023 and by the special grace of God I will not turn down that offer. Also, Mr. President is one of the Nigerians like I said, who would want a qualified person to take over from him.

Informing him is between myself and him, it is not what I should come to the public to tell the world that I have informed Mr. President, that I want to run. But surely in days, and possibly weeks ahead we are going to come to the public to declare our intention by the special grace of God.”

Another question thrown to him by Vanguard, reminded that the presidency by 2023 would have stayed eight years in the north and going by the north, south divide, the APC might zone it to the south, he said: “First I’m an advocate of capacity and ability to serve.

In Nigeria today, we need somebody who can serve the country. Today if you’re flying from one place to another, you don’t care who the pilot is, but who is that person who is experienced to fly from one point to another. Also coming from the angle of the north and south divide then let us be very fair and equitable.

“Then you look into the number of years the north has held this position and the number of years the south has held this position. If you add eight years to what the South has had and then look at the north, then you know that there’s injustice as far as that is concerned.

“So if we’re talking about justice, fairness and equity, we’re not just looking at the eight years by the grace of God of that of President Muhammadu Buhari, we should add them together to the number of years the north has had it since 1999 till date, and the number of years south have had it since 1999 till date. Whichever divide whichever argument that comes up I perfectly fit into the arguments.”

He was further asked by Vanguard Newspaper, what he has done to merit or qualify to run for the presidency, Bello said: “First, on what have I done to merit the presidency of this country, you simply refer to 2016 when I assumed office, compared it to this moment security-wise, in terms of unity in terms of infrastructural development. I think we should not be laid back to the extent that we don’t read and research. I don’t have to come to the television to be blowing my trumpet. You come to Kogi state, you’ll see exactly what we have done.

“Simple, you can visit our website and then you’re going to see what we’ve done. Visit kogipedia.net you’re going to see the much we have done. We have surpassed more than any other person can ever imagine.

“In terms of unity, Kogi State today is more united than ever before. Today, nobody cares where you come from or the religion you practice, Nigerians are yearning for this.

“In terms of security, before if you travel through Kogi state, you hold your breath, today you can travel day and night. Yes pockets of an issue sometimes, but it can never be the situation it was in 2016.”

He was also asked if he will still declare after the convention and he said: “I shall declare after February by the grace of God.”

Asked if the loopholes he has spotted in areas of insecurity will be tackled in his presidency, Bello said: “Insecurity the current administration has done greatly in ensuring that the incessant bombs and several other you know worse situations we faced in the past does not occur again. I’m sure we have the statistics of what we had before. And now let me tell you that the successes of this current government in security are underreported and maybe is politically motivated. However, there are still areas that we shall look into.

“I am going to take security, by especially the grace of God, from the grassroots to the top and we are going to be very decisive in tackling insecurity in this country. We’re not going to play with the lives of our citizens, we shall not play politics with it.

“The loopholes that are being spotted in insecurity today it is we too. Today in Kogi state every citizen is potential security personnel. If every Nigerian takes it as their business insecurity will come down to the barest minimum. So we should be ready to take on the insecurity head-on by ourselves. We shouldn’t just be reliant on the law enforcement agencies.

“Let me tell you, the insecurity will continue to report, and then hyping some of our faultlines, in the media will not help us. In America, take statistics of the insecurity that they had between 2020/2021 even up to date and compare it with Nigeria. You will discover that we have just overhyped ours. I think we should downplay some of our fault lines.”

He was also asked if he plans to formally inform President Buhari about his ambition as others have done, he said: “Well, what is important now is the state of my state. I came to give the situation of my state to Mr. Precedent that would give time comfort of mind, that as a governor, I am effectively managing my state to the best of my ability within the limited resources coupled with all the challenges. And what is important also is the stability of this country.

“For those of us that belong to the younger generation, what we are doing to calm nerves that is much more important at this stage and also to ensure that our party remains solid under President Muhammadu Buhari and all the efforts that are being put in place to ensure that we have a solid party. So, these are more important for now. Then thereafter, we shall come on board to announce to the world what our ambitions are.“

And he was asked about the state of security in the state, Bello said: “Yes, like you all know, Kogi state as at the time I assumed office used to be the most dangerous crime state before. But as of today with a special grace of God, Kogi state is the safest state as far as Nigeria is concerned.”

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