Nigeria too fractured for inexperienced presidential candidates to govern ― Okowa

Delta State governor and the vice presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, has said that Nigeria is currently too fractured for an inexperienced person to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari.

Okowa declared that only former Vice President and presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar, has what it takes to rights all the wrongs done to the nation by the present administration.

This is coming even as about 60 Nigerian youth groups declared their support for the actualisation of Atiku Abubakar’s presidency in 2023.

Speaking Friday in Abuja at an event organised by Green Assembly Initiative (GAI) to mark International Youths Day 2022, Okowa wondered why the country will not allow much-talked about state police to secure lives and properties or embrace a national health insurance policy for all, promising that Atiku’s government will do it for the benefit of Nigerians.

According to the Delta State governor, Nigeria today appears very frightening. He however stated that all hope is not lost while he added if Nigerians work together and trust one another, the rebuilding process can start.

“And our building process starts on 2023 when Atiku Abubakar becomes President. People ask I don’t want to play politics. I do not believe in all those who are running for the presidency. The way we look at what is going on today in Nigeria, there are loads of problems. And if we do not elect the right person, we’ll find ourselves getting somebody who is going to get the seats and still confused on that seat, because the problems will overwhelm him because he will not even know how to start.

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“It’s much easier to govern in a nation where the rule of law is not taken for granted because institutions are already working. But in a country like Nigeria and in most African countries where the issues are different, requires a lot of deep talks, requires a lot of experience, a positive experience that can truly enable you to govern and to be able to bring everybody to the table and inclusive in governance.

“Not too many people have such experiences. I believe that Nigeria today is too fractured and there are so many contending voices. People are speaking in different directions. Our oneness is being threatened. Why? Not because of the north or south, Muslims and Christians, but because there’s frustration everywhere, there’s poverty everywhere. We don’t seem to have the answers because everything just appears to be going downhill.

“And then the issue of social security is no longer there. The security in the land is worsening; our economy is in terrible shape. We cannot continue in that state. We must prioritize our priorities. We must continue to look at the right things, what we ought to do.”

While sympathising with Nigerians, especially the youths for the difficult times in Nigeria, the vice presidential candidate said: “Youth has a role to assist or to work with the leadership of this country, to begin to re-educate our people to re-emphasise education, to re-emphasise family management, population management, re-emphasise the issues that can truly help us. There are barriers everywhere in our life; we cannot continue to frustrate the youth. So, we need to begin a consensus together. That is what Atiku Abubakar stands for.

“That was Nigeria today, we do not have the depth of knowledge, the only man who seems to have that depth of knowledge to take us out of where we are is Atiku Abubakar. He’s the only one that has had a similar experience in 1999. Together with former President Olusegun Obasanjo, they’re able to take us out of a difficult situation.

“It is not about the PDP or APC, is about who can salvage us at the moment, we must think around so that we will not allow the trauma in our minds to make us take the wrong decision. When it comes to security demand, today you’re going to hear from Amotekun. You’re going to hear various voices, even the governors are crying. And they have begun to equip themselves with weapons, even unlawfully.

“So the right thing is to ensure that the states are able to have their own police where they are officially equipped. And then they can go out in support of whatever the Federal Government police are doing, to secure the land,” Okowa stated.

Speaking on the theme of the International Youth Day, 2022, titled: “Inter-generational solidarity: Creating a world for all ages”, the chairman of the Green Assembly Initiative (GAI), Comrade Duke Alamboye, said it is quite disturbing the struggling social services, the challenges of insecurity, dilapidated infrastructure and the cry of Nigerians is what the country has been inundated with on a daily basis over the years.

While declaring the support of 60 youth groups for Atiku Abubakar, Alamboye said: “Anyone in victimized shoes will be dampened by the vociferous suggestion that what we need is to unite and maintain solidarity. However, the advocates of Nigerian problems posit religion, ethnicity, and the issue of restructuring the Nigerian federal system as the bane of our problem but the real problem lies with not maintaining a strong and progressive bond between generations in the midst of these differences.”

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