Follow Us on Google
From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
A group known as PYO Global Partners has set up a grassroots-based crowdfunding portal, known as Pyoglobalpartners.com, ahead of the presidential primary election of the All Progressives Congress (APC), to support Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s bid to become the party’s flag bearer.
According to a statement signed by Temi Okesanjo, the unprecedented move in campaign financing in Nigeria was to ensure the emergence of a president who would not perceive himself as a lord or ruler in office.
The statement said that the PYO Global Partners was organizing “a mass fund-raising exercise for the PYO campaign – one in which every Nigerian will be presented with an opportunity to play a substantive role in determining who becomes the next President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, not simply by voting on election day by which time voters are restricted to limited choices, but by being involved from the very beginning of the process. It’s about an opportunity to realise a true leadership transformation.”
The group added “that government belongs to the people and not to the individuals who have found their ways to elected or appointive positions. Over the years, Nigerians have come to perceive elected and appointed officials in high positions and offices as Lords and Rulers.”
It added: “We are committed to changing the paradigm and the presidential aspiration of a genuine servant-leader like Prof. Osinbajo, SAN creates the opportunity.”
While explaining that the group will also identify other public spirited aspirants and candidates in the future, the statement added that “the declaration of the Vice President has captured the popular imagination of the Nigerian people across ethnic, regional and religious lines, offering the best opportunity since the Second Republic if not in the entire post-independent history of Nigeria for ordinary people to own a significant portion of the political and election process.”
The development comes as Osinbajo’s concluded his interactive sessions with stakeholders and delegates of the ruling APC in all the 36 States and the FCT, Abuja.
Osinbajo, whose last visits were to Benue and Lagos States on Wednesday, had declared his intention to contest the 2023 presidential election under the platform of the APC on Monday, April 11, in a televised and online broadcast which went viral on traditional, digital and social media platforms, with scores of millions at home and abroad welcoming him presidential declaration.
“I believe that the very reason why the Almighty God gave me these experiences, these insights, and these opportunities, is that they must be put to the use of our country and its great people,” Osinbajo had stated in his declaration speech.
A statement issued by his spokesman, Laolu Akande, on Thursday, recalled that the Vice President began the interactive sessions with the delegates in Ibadan, Oyo State, on Friday, April 22.
It noted that at every of those interactions with stakeholders and delegates from the 36 States and the FCT, Prof. Osinbajo had robust question-and-answer sessions while also discussing and exchanging ideas.
The statement pointed out that during the interactive sessions, Osinbajo fielded questions on various national issues, including security, economy, technology, education, health, youth, women empowerment, social investments; and exchanged ideas on issues of national development, governance and politics.
