Pastor Tunde Bakare, at the presidential primary election of the All Progressives Congress (APC), said he did not join the race to step down for any aspirant.
Bakare stated this after seven out of the 23 presidential aspirants in the ongoing primary election, announced that they were stepping down for Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a two-time former governor of Lagos State.
Before his speech, the cleric had called for a one-minute silence for victims of the terrorist attack at the St Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State on Sunday.
“I am not here to step down for anyone. I am here to step up as the 16th President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” he said.
Bakare also said he would develop Nigeria like a genius if elected.
The delegates of the APC gathered to vote on Tuesday in a primary election to choose the party’s candidate for next year’s election to replace the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.).
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More than 2,300 APC delegates will select the candidate to face 75-year-old Atiku Abubakar of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party among others in the February 25 presidential ballot.
Buhari, who is stepping down after the two terms he is allowed in the constitution, arrived at the Eagle Square convention centre early in the evening before voting was to start.
The Nigerian leader has spent days leading up to the convention in negotiations with the APC’s leaders seeking unity over a party candidate.
“The fate of the party depends on what we do here,” APC party chairman Abdullahi Adamu said, echoing Buhari’s call for unity in the ranks.