The Chairman Emeritus of DAAR Communications Plc, High Chief Raymond Dokpesi, has thrown his support behind former vice President Atiku Abubakar as the right man to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023.
Dokpesi who was also eyeing the presidency stated this when he led other Nigerians supporting Atiku’s 2023 presidential aspiration on a courtesy visit to Forum’s secretariat, in Abuja on Tuesday.
According to Dokpesi, Atiku has the pedigree, capacity, experience and perfect formula to successfully manage Nigeria’s multiple crisis, particularly the issue of agitations and quest for succession.
“The challenges we are facing today as a country are complicated. The hope of the younger generation is totally dashed. Our hospitals are rather described as graveyards right now. Our schools are closed and we have over 14 million children out-of-school.
“Today, you hear agitations for the dismemberment of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Those agitations are coming from all sections of the country. The economy, I dare also say, is in shambles right now.
“All these put together are created by the type of leadership we have in the country. They are a result of how we have organized and managed ourselves. They were not made by God.
“So, if we want to resolve the matter, I am going to call on this Forum to, in the interest of this country and the generations yet unborn to make the necessary sacrifice and view the situation dispassionately and not based on sentiments.
“We have set out the criteria, and have identified the issues, and said that the kind of leadership we need in this country must be a courageous, fair, tested and proven leadership with cognate experience in the management of the affairs of the conclusion, rightly or wrongly, that the person that has the quality to unite Nigeria at this point in time is Waziri Atiku Abubakar.
“We must put a square peg in a square hole. We must not allow some people who want to disintegrate this country to succeed,” he said.
The PDP chieftain further disclosed that despite the fact that the incumbent will stay for eight years, given the zoning formula in the PDP convention of 2006, that since Obasanjo who is from the Southwest governed for eight years, while Musa Yar’adua did not complete the rotational tenure of the north.
Also speaking during the event, the National Chairman of the North-Central People’s Forum, Arc. Gabriel Yakubu Aduku, said that stakeholders of the organisation would meet and take a common position on the matter, adding that though the Forum had a non-partisan mandate, it was concerned about the welfare of the people.