THE Edo state capital Benin was a beehive of activity Wednesday and Thursday as two Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), aspirants, Senate President Bukola Saraki and former Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido stormed the secretariat to drum support for their presidential bid.
Saraki who breezed in on Wednesday night lamented that the nation has not been so divided as it is presently, because of the maladministration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
On his part, Lamido who was in Benin yesterday lashed out at Buhari and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), for impoverishing Nigerians.
Lamido said that the APC as a party was built on lies and propaganda and was leading the country to a path of destruction.
He, however, advised that Nigerians must eschew sentiment and vote for competency in the forthcoming 2019 election in order to get the nation back on the right track.
He made the passionate appeal when he visited the Edo State party secretariat of PDP to solicit support ahead of the party’s delegates congress.
adding that the nation at this moment needed a president that can unite the nation as one.
ALSO READ: Naira appreciates against dollar at investors’ window
“Unfortunately the country is at the point where we need to take some very tough decision for the present and for the future.
The country has never been so divided than as it today under President Muhammadu. We need to unite this country. And in uniting this country, we must have a president that can speak for Nigeria, we must have a president that everybody has a sense of belonging, we must have a president that you all feel that is representing you, you have a president that does not in anyway do injustice to anybody, we must have a president and a government where Edo State has a key role on the people, where things are done by justice and equity, it is not the time where you will cede all appointments to only one part of the country.
“It is time for us to unite and to do that, we must move away from electing a president based on sentiment.
The Senate president averred that it is time for Nigerians to look for a leader that has the capacity to grow the nation’s economy pointing out that there is no place in the world where its economy grows by chance but has to be worked out by its citizens and with a competent leader directing its affairs.
“It is time for us to look for a president that understands what it takes to grow a country. Country that has grown, did not grow by chance, country that has grown, did not grow by try and error, country that we talked about, the Asia countrythat developed Asians Tigers, grew because they had a visionary leaders, they had a leader that understood what the issues are.”
The former Jigawa governor said that the APC national chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole abandoned the Labour Party which he ought to naturally belong to in place of the APC, noting that he had never for once stood up for Nigerian workers by advocating for a new minimum wage.
and then