Eldest son of the winner of the 1993 presidential election, Chief MKO Abiola , Mr Kola Abdul Lateef Abiola has finally entered the 2023 presidential race.
MKO Abiola, with “Hope 93” took the political scene by storm to win that year’s presidential election which was annulled by the junta headed by General Ibrahim Babangida.
Kola took up the presidential gauntlet about 30 years after his late father’s annulled June 12, 1993 presidential mandate with the campaign catchphrase or slogan: “Hope 2023”.
His action also came thirteen months after he had indicated he had nothing to do with the viral campaign poster that had featured him as APC presidential aspirant .
A report by Team@orientmags.com said that Kola announced his presidential aspiration on Thursday.
But rather than joining the crowded field of APC and PDP presidential aspirants, he has chosen the People’s Redemption Party, PRP which he formalised on a PRP occasion.
He noted that it marked his return to politics after 27 years.
He said only the PRP could give the young people an opportunity to make their numbers count.
Read him: “I particularly picked to come back into politics through the PRP for some good reasons.
“I have gone back to the history of Nigeria to look at the party that truly represents Nigeria. I have gone back and I have found out that the oldest living party is the PRP; it still holds those ideals of what Nigeria and democratic practice should be like.
“It is a party that was started by the people and truly for the people. It is a party that has shown first, as its priority, internal democracy.
“I have come back to PRP to show Nigerians that not too long ago, we did things in the right way and the new entities that have come together nowadays forget that there was Nigeria that did things right.
“I am one that believes in an equal opportunity employer be it employment, be it business, equally in politics and I believe this party represents all of these.
“Everybody should have equal opportunity irrespective of age, religion and ethnicity and that is represented here.”
Kola Abiola however lamented low participation of young people in politics.
“We have a youth population that has been caught out of the system, the political process.
“The first thing I want to do is to disrupt the political process, to disabuse the minds of the young people on godfatherism.
“The way to do this is to give the true owners of Nigeria, that is, the 18 to 36 years age group that make up over 75 per cent of the population an opportunity for their voice to be heard and their numbers to count,” he stated.
Chairman of the PRP, Mr Falalu Bello said he was glad to welcome Abiola to the party.
‘I formally welcome you into our fold. Your antecedents speak volumes’ he said- (with additional report from Team@orientmags.com)
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