Ighomuaye Lucky, Benin
Deputy Speaker, Edo State House of Assembly, Hon. Justin Okonobor, on Monday said Nigerians massively voted for President Muhammadu Buhari for the second time due to “his integrity”.
He made the assertion while fielding questions from newsmen in Benin City.
Okonobor said Nigeria as it stands needs a man of high integrity to fight corruption and redeem the image of the country before the comity of nations.
The deputy speaker said it will be difficult for one with a questionable character to curb the excesses of others when he is as guilty as charged.
“You also know too that his integrity played a very major role. There are lot of people who felt that he is inefficient but they know that his integrity is intact,” Okonkbor said.
“And if you must build a country that is corruption free, you need to build around such a man because it takes being clean for you to say you want to fight corruption or else people will quickly point out to you that there is a log also in your eye.
“Buhari from time has been a clean man, and because of that he is the right man to fight corruption.
“A lot of people too, the elites, voted for him too because of his integrity.
He also attributed the president’s victory at the poll to the high level of political participation of northern Nigerians.
“Well, I am a member of the All Progressives Congress and because of that I have enough of information to let people know that Buhari is going to win the election, because I have been in the party and I know all he has tried to do to salvage the mess he met in office.
“If you check the winning pattern, he won more in the North than in the Southern parts of the federation and this was what I kept telling people.
“The people in the North appeared to have mastered the act of winning elections more than us in the South. They made sure that they go out to register and they also go out to collect their voters cards in preparation for the next election that we are about going into.
“I kept also telling people that if you check the registration pattern from INEC, the registration in Northwest alone cancels East, South and parts of Southwest.
“We have not talked about North Central and Northeast and because they still operate what seems to be a feudal system, if an elder there ‘says let’s go there’, everybody follows, unlike us in the south, where people will always ask questions.
“The main reason we do not register more in the South is, for example, in my village, for people to go and register, I have to pay their transport before they register, but for them to go and collect their cards, they are still expecting me to provide transport; and with all that, people in the South do not even go to collect their cards.
“People do not know that to vote somebody out of office, you need your Permanent Voter Card. It is not all about what you write on Facebook, social media. You must have your Permanent Voter Card to vote somebody out of office.
“That is one of the tricks behind Buhari winning the election,” he said.