TheCable

Ndudi Elumelu, minority leader in the house of representatives, has asked Ifeanyi Okowa, governor of Delta, to contest during the 2023 presidential election.

In a statement on Sunday, Tony Ayaegbunam, senior legislative aide to Elumelu, said the minority leader spoke on Saturday in Asaba, the Delta capital, during the inauguration of the Rotary Club president for the year 2021/2022.

The lawmaker said the Delta governor is “endowed with the capacity and proficiencies” to serve as president.

“I must commend governor Okowa for his selfless service and sacrifices that have led to unprecedented massive infrastructural development in our dear state, as well as a better living standard for our people,” Elumelu was quoted to have said.

“Governor Okowa is a rare gift, not only to Delta state, but also to our nation Nigeria at large. I firmly hold that he is endowed with the capacity and proficiencies to serve our nation at the topmost level, so that he can replicate the successes recorded in our state at the national level.

“I sincerely call on him to make himself available to serve the nation again. He deserves to be the president of this country, come 2023.”

Elumelu, who lamented what he described as “the incompetent, divisive, directionless and blatantly corrupt APC administration”, expressed concern over the “escalated mass killings, mindless bloodletting, terrorism, banditry, infrastructural decay, acute poverty, excruciating economic hardship and utter hopelessness” in the country.

“It has never been this bad in our national history. I, therefore, beckon on all Nigerians to join hands in the collective democratic efforts to rescue our nation from the stranglehold of the APC. This is more so because there is no way our country can survive if APC is allowed to stay in office a day beyond May 29, 2023,” he said.