2023: Former President Jonathan’s Men Endorses Tinubu

As part of their commitment to having a Nigerian president of Southern descent, prominent supporters and family of former President Goodluck Jonathan have backed Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC), ahead of next year’s presidential election.

Working under the auspices of Citizens Network For Peace and Development in Nigeria (CNPDN), Jonathan’s friends and kinsmen said that because he chose not to run, it is now appropriate to back Tinubu, who they claimed has the infrastructure and ability to win the elections.

CNPDN was one of the first Southern Coalition organizations to call on former President Jonathan to run on the APC platform earlier this year.

In order to convince the former president to run, the Coalition also enlisted the help of well-known Southern figures.

Despite having said that he would consult extensively, Jonathan ultimately decided against running for office and joining the APC, which allowed Tinubu to become the party’s nominee.

Chief Francis Okereke Wainwei, the National Secretary of the Coalition and a native of Bayelsa State like Jonathan, stated during a media conference over the weekend in Abuja that as patriotic citizens, they could not stand by and not take part in the election process of the nation.

Wainwei noted that, “as patriotic citizens under the auspices of the Citizens Network For Peace and Development in Nigeria, we took it up as a burning need for us to be actively involved in the process leading to the election of Nigeria’s next president,who shall be taking over from President Muhammadu Buhari next year.

“We consider it as very important and necessary because Nigeria needs a truly visionary, competent and detribalized leader to enthrone a more united, peaceful and prosperous nation. As patriotic citizens we feel obliged to take some proactive measures to ensure that the right president is elected, come 2023 by providing proper information and guidance that will enable the electorate elect the right candidate as president.

“We therefore, took it upon ourselves to do thorough investigations, opinion sampling and interviewing of major stakeholders from across the country to know the exact mood of the nation ,to enable the electorate make the right choice for the 2023 presidential election.

“We also took into consideration the declarations of both the APC Northern Governors’ forum and that of the Southern Nigeria Governors’ forum ,with respect to which part of the country that should produce the next president in 2023.The both groups declared that power should shift to Southern Nigeria for the purpose of promoting equity, justice and fairness ,which they argued would strengthen the unity of the country.

“After a forensic analysis of the declarations and opinions of various groups and stakeholders across the country, we also came to the conclusion that for the peace, unity and progress of this country, a competent and experienced presidential candidate from Southern Nigeria be elected as president, come 2023. This is to strengthen the fragile unity we are experiencing at the moment, as a nation. It will appease some groups and individuals agitating against the political domination of others by any one part of the country.

“We went further to examine the capacity, competence, political experience and nation-wide acceptability of the presidential candidates from Southern Nigeria ,and we discovered that Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress tops the other candidates.

“We hereby declare our total support for Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the APC Presidential candidate, as our preferred candidate for the office of President, Federal Republic of Nigeria, come 2023.

“We are therefore, using this medium to also call on all patriotic Nigerians to support and vote massively for Bola Ahmed Tinubu as president in the 2023 presidential election ,as that is the best interest for Nigeria at the moment.

“Our choice of Bola Tinubu is strongly premised on his wealth of political experience, intellectual sagacity, a knack for identifying and recruiting competent people and the capacity to mobilize human and material resources for the accelerated and holistic development of the country.

“We believe strongly that the next president of this country should be someone who firmly believes in the philosophy of “building the people ,to build the nation “; he should be a people-oriented president.

“Tinubu fits perfectly for the kind of president Nigeria needs in the next dispensation He has the capacity and the wealth of political experience to re-enact the Lagos State magic in both the economic and political stability of this country. He is a national patriot and a detribalized leader that has the visionary mindset to build a prosperous, strong, peaceful and united Nigeria.”