By Rita Enemuru, Reporting
Former Minister of State for Education, Oloorogun Kenneth Gbagi, has charged Nigerian electorate, particularly from Southern Nigeria, to support power shift from North to South with their votes if they do not want their grandchildren to die as slaves.
He gave the warning late Saturday while fielding questions from journalists on the 2023 southern presidency position of the Southern and Middle Belt Forum (SMBLF) at his Oginibo country-home in Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State.
“What I’m saying to you is that I am a Southerner. I support and I ask all Southerners and everybody that has any understanding of life to support Southerners.
“If you do not support the shift from the North to the South, your children’s children’s will die as slaves.
“We all own this country; we believe in this country. I don’t hate any Northerner. We agreed, once North, once South.
“Any of you who do anything to thwart that effort to bring governance to the South, I don’t care who in the South, but we must bring governance to the South for eight years and take it back to North for another eight years.
“That is the most equitable thing I will want done as a lawyer. Anything contrary is dead on arrival; nobody will support that,” he averred.
Gbagi said to actualise that presidency shifts to the south come 2023, which, he lamented, has been unfortunately undermined by Governor Ifeanyi Okowa’s acceptance to be running mate to Atiku Abubakar of the PDP, one of the three presidential candidates from the southern part of Nigeria must be voted in.
According to him, that’s the only condition that’ll make Nigeria to move forward.
Gbagi, who’s the Delta State governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) for the 2023 elections, listed the three candidates as SDP’s Prince Adewole Adebayo, Peter Obi of Labour Party (LP) and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
The industrialist, who defected as an aspirant from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) few days to its governorship primary, however, enjoined Nigerians to go for the 50-year-old Adebayo whom he described as his choice and the best.
“I will support a presidential candidate from the South because I’m from the South.
“So, let us not waste time because I don’t know how to pretend.
“There are three presidential candidates from Southern Nigeria as we speak today.
“There’s Adebayo from Ondo State who is the presidential candidate for SDP. He is a young lawyer, a 50-yr-old-man and very vibrant.
“In fact, in all the interviews, he is the best man Nigeria can ever produce as a presidential candidate.
“You have my friend, Peter Obi who is not unsound; I can tell you that…, and you have the old man who ought not to be contesting election. APC’s Jagaban.
“Atiku can no longer stand very well to press computer. So, if you people want this country to go forward, you have the three of them to play with, but my choice and if you are my friend, is to vote for SDP,” he averred.
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