Kwankwaso: I’m Not Desperate to Be President

•Says APC has proven to be worse than PDP 

•Insists all is not well in Northeast, where government claims it has defeated insurgency

Gideon Arinze in Enugu

Presidential candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), Rabiu Kwankwaso, has said he was not running to be Nigeria’s president out of desperation but because he wanted to offer quality leadership to Nigerians.

He, however, said Nigerians must elect the next president of the country on the basis of the competence and capacity of the individual and not on the basis of his religion or ethnicity.

The NNPP candidate, who made this known in Enugu, yesterday, said the party was setting up its offices in the state ahead of the 2023 general election.

He said that he was hopeful of emerging as the next president of Nigeria, having worked in the political space for over 30 years, adding that the party had already established a stronghold across the 19 states in the North.

“All that is left now is making inroads to the South and that is what we have come to do, starting with Enugu in the Southeast,” he said, adding that those who thought they would get up to 25% in Kano State would not even get up to 5% when the time comes.

He said Nigerians now have alternatives to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC), which failed to deliver in the area of economy, security and education.

“The APC has even proven to be worse than the PDP. All is not well in the Northeast, where the government claims it has defeated insurgency. The people cannot move about freely, even in the Southeast. Nowhere is safe again,” he said.

He noted that the NNPP was bringing renewed hopes for Nigerians, adding that those who were aggrieved with the situation could change the narrative in 2023 by voting him as president.

His words: “I am willing to step aside if the NNPP gets a better candidate but for now, I am the best there is and that is why I am working tirelessly to ensure that we win the elections and give Nigerians a better representation.”

He said to ensure the security of lives and property, his administration would increase the number of soldiers from less than 250,000 to one million and the number of police, also from less than 230,000 to one million.

According to him, under his watch, there would be no cases of oil theft, which have negatively impacted the growth of the nation’s economy.

“I was the minister of defence under former president Obasanjo and within that period, we made sure that there were no cases of oil theft,” he explained, adding: “We were even looking for those, who wanted to engage in such activities.”