APC has at least 10 presidential hopefuls, with five from the South East so far. They are: Umahi, Ngige, Orji Kalu, Okorocha and Ken Nnamani.
By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
In the All Progressives Congress (APC), the contest for its presidential ticket is getting keen, with a former President of the Senate, Ken Nnamani joining the race.
The APC has at least 10 presidential hopefuls, with five from the South East so far. They are: Governor of Ebonyi State, Dave Umahi, Minister of Labour, Chris Ngige, Senators Orji Kalu and Rochas Okorocha and now Ken Nnamani.
Nnamani was the Senate President at the time the National Assembly halted ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo from bulldozing his way into a third term.
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Obasanjo’s allies had smuggled a third term clause in a constitutional amendment proposal which the National Assembly voted against in both chambers. The action of the National Assembly excited many Nigerians.
Ken Nnamani, now a chieftain of the APC, said he would offer Nigerians that kind of quality leadership.
In a speech to declare his interest in the top job, Ken Nnamani also made the case for the ticket of the APC to be zoned to the South East.
Here’s the speech.
It is an honor to make this statement today. As you know, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has released the timetable for the various activities leading to the 2023 general election. Pursuant to this, the parties have issued notices for the sale of forms for aspirants to different offices for the 2023 elections. My party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), has announced the date for the sale of forms for the various offices. Also, many persons have declared their intention to contest for the offices, especially the Office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Let me inform you that I intend to contest for the APC 2023 Presidential Primary scheduled for May 30, 2022. As soon as the APC begins sale of form on Friday, April 24, 2022, I will purchase the form and formally declare to contest the APC 2023 Presidential Primary. The declaration will mark the beginning of formal consultations and campaign to become the choice of the delegates of my party for the office of the President after the end of the tenure of President Buhari.
I believe that I am very suited for the job of the President of the republic at this period in the history of Nigeria. President Buhari met enormous challenges and tackled them to the best of his abilities. With rigour and commitment, he has dealt with the crises of stability and development since 2015, when he became President in a historic mandate that inaugurated the first democratic transition from one party to another.
I believe that every period in the history of a country requires a particular kind of leader. In 2015, we needed a Buhari to take Nigeria away from the misdirection of the Peoples Democratic Party. In 2023, we will need a Ken Nnamani to help unite Nigeria, deepen democracy, and rebuild the social and economic infrastructure of sustainable development based on production and fair distribution. My pedigree and previous accomplishments in high office in Nigeria lends credence to the fact that I am a good fit to the challenges of this moment in Nigerian history.
If I become President in 2023, I will be coming to that job in a depressive and somber moment like in 2005 when I was elected as President of the Senate. Many of you will remember vividly how Nigerians lost faith in the credibility and the mission of the National Assembly. Many of you will remember that the National Assembly was swept into the maelstrom of corruption and inefficiency before I became the President of the Senate. But soon after, we reinvent the National Assembly and reinvested it with character, competence, and commitment to excellence. I believe that the role of the leader is to solve problems, not to offer excuses. I believe that the President in 2023 should be someone who will take the job seriously to the point of inspiring Nigerians and lifting them to a higher level of performance. I did exactly that as President of the Senate. The profile you need to be President is not just your CV. It is mostly your performance in the last high office.
I declare my intention to contest for the 2023 APC Presidential Primary not from a sense of political career or as a form of national drama. This is a serious business. It is about justifying the trust of Nigerians of diverse ethnic and religious orientations who have called on me to avail the nation once again, the competences, discipline, and character I displayed in the past.
I am delighted that there is a growing national consensus that the next president of Nigeria should come from the Southeast. I believe that the people of southeast owe Nigerians the reciprocal respect of bringing forth the best to lead. Many southeasterners and other Nigerians, especially my colleagues in the National Assembly, have asked me to avail the Nigerian nation the characteristic honest, competent, and disciplined leadership I offered the Senate.
This is not a declaration speech. This is a notification of my intention to contest for the APC Presidential Primary. I will count on the support of the media to help articulate the vision of a new leadership that will deepen democracy, defeat insecurity, and entrench a new culture and structure of productivity that will grow our economy, arrest social anomie and reinvent nationalism and democratic citizenship, even in the midst of global economic and social crises. We, Nigerians of all ethnic and religious identities from the south and the north who have trooped to the Ken Nnamani camp, are determined to meet the challenges of today with the leadership that is tested and trusted, a leadership that is not hypothetical, but practical and verifiable. I am here to offer that leadership again in 2023.
Thank you and God bless Nigeria.
Senator Ken Nnamani, GCON
April 19, 2022
