Ahead of the 2023 general elections, the presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Rabiu Kwankwaso, has said that Nigerians will not vote for any individual who campaigns on sentiments for the office of president away from the capacity to deliver on the job when elected.
The former Kano State governor stated this on Wednesday Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital after he was received by Governor David Umahi, represented by his deputy, Kelechi Igwe at the Government House.
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.
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“Anybody who goes out and feels that I am an actor now with the face of religion, ethnicity, that person has lost the election even before the date of the election,” he said.
“It doesn’t work that way. I was at the constitutional conference of 1994/1995. We deliberately put that clause in the constitution, and it has always been there since 1979 that nobody can be declared a winner in this country unless he has the highest vote and two-thirds of the 36 states which is 24 states.
“We don’t have 24 states in the north, the entire south does not have 24 states, meaning you have to reach out.”
The presidential hopeful, who thanked the government of Ebonyi State for the warm reception granted him and his team, went further to state that nobody should personalise becoming president in 2023.
Noting that the NNPP was bringing renewed hopes for Nigerians, Kwankwaso said that those who were aggrieved with the situation could change the narrative in 2023 by voting him as president.
If elected, he pledged to tackle cases of oil theft which have negatively impacted the growth of the nation’s economy.
