Kogi State governor and presidential aspirant Yahaya Bello has declared that he is not worried by any big co-contestant for the ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Yahaya Bello, who spoke at the second day of the second annual Governor Yahaya Bello seminar for Nigeria’s political and crime correspondents in Abuja yesterday, said he had the capacity, competence and mass followership to his credit.
Responding to a question on whether he was scared of the presence of the likes of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinibu in the race for the APC presidential ticket, Yahaya Bello said: “I am not scared of any big name. I have the capacity, energy and followers to pick the party’s ticket and I win the primaries.”
The governor said while he respects the founding fathers of APC including Tinubu and others, he would build on the foundation they had laid.
The aspirant said he fits practically into what that the APC’s founding fathers were looking for in the next president of Nigeria.
Bello said: “If you want to be a champion, you must be ready to beat champions. I am fully ready to beat all the champions in APC and win the party primaries.”
The governor, who rolled out statistics to buttress his position, said he belongs to the class of builders in APC.
He said; “I represent the majority in the APC. We are the party builders. I have successfully mobilised 41 million Nigerians into the APC. Already there are 21 million Nigerians with Personal Voter Cards (PVCs) ready to vote GYB into office as president. We are in this game to win. The APC’s founding fathers and other Nigerians are looking up to us.”
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On why he places emphasis on the youth and women in his programmes and campaigns, Governor Bello said every wise and responsible father wants his children to do better than him.
He said he was passionate about the youth because most of the achievements and legacies of today were achieved by the country’s leaders in their youthful days, adding that the ‘young people do it practically while the older ones tell the story.’
Asked whether he would name and shame the sponsors of terrorism and banditry in the country, the governor promised to replicate the Kogi experience as he declared; “We will not only name and shame them, we will deal decisively with them.”
Speaking on Nigeria’s huge debt profile and how to generate funds to run the economy, the presidential aspirant said he would stop wastage in the governance process.
He said once the issue of wastage was addressed, there would be enough resources to run the country.
Under his administration, the N125 billion debt he inherited from the previous governments has been reduced to N76 billion. The governor denied that he was owing workers’ salaries and challenged anyone with proof to do so publicly and he would address the situation.
The chairman of the GYB Presidential Campaign Council, Senator Jonathan Zwingina, said whether by direct, indirect and consensus arrangement, Bello would win the APC primary because any of the options adopted would work in his favour.
