Politics

Ex-gov Amosun writes Senate, joins 2023 presidential race

Published

2 months ago

April 27, 2022

Mathew Ojo

Ex gov Amosun writes Senate joins 2023 presidential race

Senator Ibikunle Amosun, representing Ogun Central, has informed the Senate of his decision to run for President in the 2023 election.

In a letter read out by the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, on Wednesday, Mr Amosun told the lawmakers that the official declaration ceremony will take place on May 5 at the Yar’ Adua Centre, Abuja.

This is even as he invited his colleagues to be present and sought their prayers and well wishes.

The lawmaker noted how he has served as a senator between 2003 and 2007, as a two-term governor of Ogun State between 2011 and 2019 and now as a senator for the second time.

He said his varied experience in private and public life has “imbued him with requisite insights, experiences and network of relationships adequate to provide a leadership that will galvanize the country to achieve her manifest destiny as leader in Africa and of the black race.”

It was reported, last week, that Mr Amosun would officially declare his intention to run for president on his return from Umrah.

He will contend for the APC presidential ticket with the party’s chieftain, Bola Tinubu and the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo at the party’s primary election.

Other aspirants in the party are Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi; Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige; Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State and his Kogi and Cross River State counterparts, Yahaya Bello and Ben Ayade.

Former Senate President, Ken Nnamani; former Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha and a businessman, Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, Ibrahim Dauda, Moses Ayom, Tein Jack-Rich, Ihechukwu Chima and Joy Dokubo.

Former Abia State governor, Orji Uzor Kalu, had on Tuesday said he may not contest because of the disrespect for the South-east zone. He argued that the position should have been zoned to the region for the sake of equity and fairness.

Subscribe to Our VIP Newsletter

Up Next

2023: APC gives Amaechi, Nwajiuba, Malami, others 72hrs to resign

Don't Miss

Aduda kicks as PDP Senator dumps party, joins APC

Mathew Ojo

Two Signs APC Still Not Ready to Govern After Buhari By Farooq Kperogi It’s OK to despise PDP and Atiku Abubakar. I do, too. But the truth is that, of Nigeria’s major political parties, only PDP has shown a readiness to govern at the national level from day one. We may not like how they’ll govern, but they’re at least coherent, earnest, transparent, and predictable. The party held its convention on schedule and submitted the name of its vice presidential candidate to INEC on deadline–with little or no internal rancor. APC, on the other hand, needed to extend the date of its convention by one week. Even so, it almost asked for another extension, and its poorly conducted convention spilled over to the following day. It also couldn’t turn in the name of its vice presidential candidate to INEC on deadline and instead submitted a “placeholder,” a vexing political anomaly Nigeria hadn’t witnessed before, which smaller parties have sadly quickly copied. That bespeaks a disorganized, ramshackle, “fire-brigade,” spur-of-the-moment, not-ready-for-prime-time political party. No party can effectively govern a sick, complex country like Nigeria with such indiscipline, insouciance, and planlessness. Should the party be voted into power in 2023, given its aggravating indiscipline and incompetence in organizing a mere convention and appointment a running mate to its presidential candidate, you can bet that it will repeat Buhari’s template of delaying the appointment of ministers and constituting boards of government agencies by several months. Or worse. We all know how that turned out for Buhari–and Nigeria. Governance never took off, directionlessness took over, a recession hit, and the economy tanked. The country hasn’t recovered up to now. It seems indecision, indiscipline, impunity, and ineptitude are inescapably inserted into APC’s DNA. For example, after its delegates convention, the party is now busy removing the names of people who won primary elections and replacing them with the names of party hon honchos who didn’t participate in the primaries. It is said that indecision is the graveyard of good intentions. APC doesn’t even have good intentions to start with. So, it’s burdened with a double whammy of indecision and no intentions.L