Okowa: Nigeria Now Badly Fractured, Too Polarised to Have an Untried President in 2023

‘There are loads of problems and if we do not elect the right person, we’ll find ourselves with somebody who is going to get to the seat and become confused because the problems will overwhelm him; he will not even know how to start’

Kuni Tyessi in Abuja

Delta State Governor and the vice-presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa says Nigeria is currently too fractured and too polarised for an inexperienced person to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023.

Speaking yesterday in Abuja at an event organised by Green Assembly Initiative (GAI) to mark International Youths Day 2022, where about 60 Nigerian youth groups declared support for the actualisation of Atiku Abubakar’s presidency in 2023, Okowa said if an inexperienced person is elected president, “he will become confused on that seat, because the problems will overwhelm him; he will not even know how to start.”

He then declared that only Atiku has what it takes to right all the wrongs done to the nation by the present administration.
According to the Delta State Governor, Nigeria, today, appears very frightening, “but we cannot lose hope. It is possible, working together, trusting in ourselves, to begin the rebuilding process.”

Okowa said the building process would start in 2023 “when Atiku is elected President.”
The PDP vice-presidential candidate said: “I do not believe in all those 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 to the seat and become confused on that seat, because the problems will overwhelm him because he will not even know how to start.

“It’s much easier to govern in nations 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, it requires a lot of deep talk, requires a lot of experience, positive experience that can truly enable you to govern and to be able to bring everybody on the table and be inclusive in governance.

“Not too many people have such experiences. I believe that in Nigeria of today, there are too many fractures 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 prioritise our priorities. We must continue to look at the right things, what we ought to do.”

On the same day in Abuja, 60 Nigerian youth groups declared their support for the actualisation of Atiku Abubakar’s presidency in 2023.
Okowa, while thanking the youth groups, said: “Youths have 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 and other issues that can truly help us.
“There are barriers everywhere in our lives, we cannot continue to frustrate the youths. So, we need to begin a consensus together. That is what Atiku Abubakar and I stand for.

“In 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 were able to take us out of a difficult situation.

“It is not about the PDP or APC, it 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.”

Okowa wondered why the country would not allow the much talked about state police to secure lives and property or embrace the needed National Health Insurance policy for all, promising that Atiku’s government would do it for the benefit of Nigerians.
He said: “When it comes to security, today you hear Amotekun. You 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.”

While declaring the support of the 60 youth groups for Atiku and Okowa, the Chairman of GAI, Comrade Duke Alamboye said: “Anyone in victmised 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.”