Nigeria’s former Minister of Education, Dr Obiageli Ezekwesili, has publicly endorsed the Labour Party standard bearer in Saturday’s Presidential election, Mr Peter Gregory Obi, saying that he possesses qualities that stand him out as the best candidate for the exalted office of the President of Federal Republic of Nigeria.
This is even as she poured cold water on the claims by the former Vice President Atiku Abubakar that he was the Head of Federal Government’s Economic Team during the regime of President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Ezekwesili, who was a guest on Channels Television nightly political programme Sunday Politics monitored in Abuja on Sunday, said that she would vote for Obi in this weekend’s presidential election.
According to her: “I am going to vote for three Cs, which are Character, Competence and Capacity. I will also encourage Nigerians to seize this moment to vote for someone who can fight for them and change the present harsh economic situation Nigerians have found themselves in for the past seven and a half years.”
Ezekwesili who was also a former Minister of Solid Mineral Resources in President Obasanjo’s government, insisted that Nigeria citizens wanted someone who would feel their pains as the next President of the country and Labour Party’s candidate (Obi) fitted the bill.
Said she: “In the next few days, Nigerians will go to the polls to elect the next President of Nigeria, and I charge them to choose a candidate who will feel their pains. Above all, they should vote for the candidate who has character, competence, and capacity.
“I have looked around and the only candidate in the 2023 Presidential race who has the above qualities and who has demonstrated without any iota of doubt that he has what it takes to rescue Nigeria from the present misrule of the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration”.
Meanwhile, Ezekwesili who once served as the Vice President of the World Bank’s Africa Region from May 2007 to May 2012, has debunked the claims by the former Vice President Atiku Abubakar that he was Obasanjo/Atiku government’s Economic Team.
According to her: “Atiku Abubakar as the Vice President during the Obasanjo regime was not the Head of the Economic Team as he was said to have claimed. I served in the government, and I can tell you that Atiku was not the Head of the Economic Team”.
On the Naira Redesign Policy which has created scarcity of the Naira notes and economic fiasco in the country, she said that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was not ready for the Cashless Nigeria it wanted to achieve.
She said that the apex bank had in the process of trying to use the Naira Redesign Policy to deal with the economic saboteurs, especially corrupt politicians, emasculated the poor in the society. (PNO)
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