A presidential aspirant in the All Progressives Congress (APC), Moses Ayom, has called on the ruling party to zone its presidential ticket to the middle belt as he believes that having the presidency will remedy the injustice the zone has suffered.
In a statement made available to the media in Abuja on Sunday, he commended President Muhammadu Buhari for assenting to the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill, 2022 but urged him to go a step further by ensuring that the middle belt secures the APC ticket for next year’s election.
He also praised the president for the APC’s decision to zone the office of the national chairman to the north central.
While noting that a middle belt presidency is long overdue, he added: “There is no better time than this period when President Buhari who has been known internationally and locally for his commitment to justice, equity, and fairness to do this.”
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Ayom assured that if Buhari heeds the call, history will be kind to him as the leader who upholds justice, equity, and fairness and as well prove that he does not just pay lip service to the virtues.
He stated: “We in the Middlebelt are tired of being mere passengers and onlookers in this vehicle called Nigeria. The impression is being created that political power at the highest echelon is a ping pong game between the far north and the south while the middle belt is a mere net to be used in scoring points.
“Now is the time to be assured that we are equal stakeholders and not second or third rate citizens in Nigeria.
“Nigeria has the opportunity to correct the injustices meted out on the people of the middle belt. The middle belt is the thread that knits Nigeria together. Now is the time to make us feel integral in the affairs of our fatherland.”
He called on Nigerians to join hands in the fight for equity, fairness and justice and support the Middlebelt to produce the next president.
Ayom, who sent a special congratulatory message to President Buhari for signing the Electoral Act, expressed confidence that the amended law will deepen democracy in Nigeria
He stated that the signing of the Electoral Bill “has put to rest the needless apprehensions from prophets of doom, who choose to unnecessarily heat up the body polity for pecuniary reasons.”
He told the President: “You have put your name in gold by sanctioning electoral sanity, transparency and legitimacy by appending your signature to this Act. This will no doubt encourage well-meaning Nigerians who were hitherto scared of the unpredictability of the electoral system, to now get involved.”
The presidential aspirant promised that if elected “I would continue in the same developmental and accountable trajectory and trail you have blazed when I take over from you in 2023.”
Ayom said that as an insider in President Buhari’s economic diversification team, and one who was on the entourage of the President to China in 2016 where he signed a mining deal with SBN China (the biggest manufacturer of mining equipment in the World), he is in a better position to consolidate on the foundation of the administration’s gains.
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