Delta state governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa Tuesday night said the decision by the ruling party to float faith based ticket for the 2023 Presidential election amid current challenges in the country was a betrayal of trust.
Okowa who spoke with Newsmen in Kano explained that a Muslim-Muslim ticket should not be the way out “in a country where you have a shaky foundation, where people are getting sensitive to issues”.
He said, “It is unfortunate what we see in Nigeria politics today because there are so many conversations out there, people are not really looking at the reality that we have in this country, but the question is, in a fractured country where you have voices of dissent, people don’t seem to trust each any more .”
The PDP Presidential running mate stressed “In a country that you have a shaky foundation, where people are getting sensitive to issues because of a high level of failure of trust, if you go for a Muslim Muslim ticket that Trust deficit becomes private, so there are issues”
The soft-spoken Delta-born politician lamented that “Unfortunately, people are just hanging on anything, they want to reach out because they want votes, even at the detriment of their faith. I don’t believe that is the right way to go.”
The Delta governor said, “In a country where every man in the south-east is looking at different directions, the man in the north is looking at different directions, people from the south-west has a voice of its own, when you put these together, we don’t need a soothsayer to tell you that something is really wrong.”
Okowa maintained that “There are so many voices of anger expressed in several ways, and we have begun to have distortions on the foundation and a fraction of the foundation that holds the country together when you see such a thing you should be frightened for Nigeria.”
The PDP stalwart who described his emergence as running mate to Atiku Abubakar as “an act of God” said, “Unfortunately, many politicians pretend to speak the truth because they want to play politics, on my part, I tried not to play much politics, I tried to discuss issues.”
He however cautioned politicians “When you play politics you need to be cautious, but unfortunately, a lot played along on that part.”
Dr Okowa said Atiku’s stay in the Presidency for 8 years has put him ahead of others, adding that the former Vice President processed the right qualities to take the country forward.
He said, “Atiku is somebody who has the capacity, the experience, the level of calmness, the wisdom and the reach out across Nigeria to be able to bring people to the table, gather a team together from day one and begin to proffer solutions to issues, build confidence to restart the country again.”
He posited that “Many of those who are currently jostling for the number one job can’t fit into this because it requires some level of experience.”
