A presidential aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and governor of Kogi State Yahaya Bello has dispelled claims that his shot at the presidency in 2023 by clinching the party’s ticket was getting slim following the increasing number of bigwigs in the contest.
Through the head of the directorate of the media and publicity of his campaign council, Mrs Yemi Kolapo, the governor said he was not intimidated by the big names.
The governor who spoke at an interactive session with journalists in Abuja yesterday, he was also not threatened by consensus arrangement, insisting his chances of clinching the party’s ticket was bright provided the selection process adopted by the party is fair.
At the GYB seminar for journalists last weekend, the governor had said he was not scared by the big name.
Kolapo who was represented by the state commissioner for information, Evangelist Kingsley Fanwo, said he was not intimidated by the profile of other APC presidential aspirants, even as he noted that the old brigades are the ones that should be afraid of him.
Others at the session were the chief press secretary to the governor, Muhammed Onogwu; senior special assistant to the governor on Electronic Media, Mrs Billy Avoyi Nwogu, the special adviser on print media to the governor, Mike Ozigi.
Fanwo said, “It is not about what they have been or done in the past. When you compare that to what someone is doing at the moment, I think they are the ones that should be intimidated right now because it is not about what you have achieved in the past.
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“It is strictly what you are doing now. Governor Bello has been chief executive of his state for over six years and he is going to do a great job for Nigeria”.
The Yahaya Bello Presidential Campaign Organisation also dispelled the zoning arrangement in the APC, saying ahead of next year’s general election, Nigerians must vote for competence rather than ethnic sentiments.
Noting that only a courageous youth like the Kogi state governor can destroy the monster called zoning, the campaign team wondered what Nigeria has benefited from its long years of zoning political offices after independence in 1960.
The Bello presidential campaign organization also dismissed any zoning arrangement in the APC, noting that ahead of next year’s general election, Nigerians must vote for competence rather than ethnic sentiments.
On the choice of Governor Bello in using Abuja for his presidential declaration, the campaign council listed three issues which he said Nigerians must focus on ahead of the election.
Fanwo said, “We did not do backyard declaration whereby some people will say they want to do thanksgiving and then later turn it into a presidential declaration.
