2023 Election: why Nigerians shouldn’t vote for candidates based on ethnicity, religion – RI boss

Chairman, Rimax Institute of Computer Studies and chieftain of All Progressives Congress in Lagos State, Chief Livinus Okwara, has urged Nigerians to vote for credible and trusted candidates in the forthcoming general elections in the country, saying that is the only way to move the country forward appreciably. 

He made the call at a news conference in Lagos on Saturday. 

According to him, most politicians in Nigeria vie for political offices for their selfish and pecuniary gains, particularly to amass wealth for themselves and their cronies at the expense of general interests. 

He said that is why people should not vote for candidates from the presidential to state houses of assembly elections based on ethnic or religious affiliations but rather on their competency and track records in their previous offices. 

Okwara, who said he dislikes people moving from one party to another, argued that of all the political parties in the country as of today, only the All Progressives Congress (APC) has a genuine interest in advancing the course of humanity and also lifts the country economy to an appreciable height. 

He said it was not as if the outgoing government of President Muhammadu Buhari, for example, had tackled major challenges confronting the country and its people, such as insecurity, poverty, unemployment, and so forth. The administration has made some landmark achievements and is likewise on the path to truly reviving Nigeria’s battered economy. 

He said Buhari’s government is unable to do more than what it had done not because of his person but for the country that is under tight economic conditions such as living on borrowing to fight insurgency and also carrying out some other responsibilities such as the provision of infrastructures and giving out free money as social security to most poor people and vulnerable in the country.

He said he believes that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of APC in the coming election, would surely perform credibly if voted into power. 

He said Tinubu did not only perform very well when he was a governor of Lagos State for eight years, but he also laid down the developmental plans for the state, which his various successors sustained to make the state a model for other states of the federation. 

He said only that testimony alone is enough for Nigerians to see Tinubu as the best candidate for the next Nigerian president.