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From Paul Osuyi, Asaba
Vice Presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Governor of Delta State, Ifeanyi Okowa, has faulted those playing up religious and ethnic sentiments ahead of Saturday’s elections.
He said some political leaders particularly from the South were playing up unnecessary religious sentiments by insisting that a Christian from the South should succeed the outgoing President, Muhammadu Buhari, northern Muslim.
The governor who spoke in Asaba while receiving defectors from All Progressives Congress (APC), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and Allied Peoples Movement (APM), said Christians were not being marginalised in the nation’s leadership as being insinuated.
He said political leaders who promote religion in terms of the country’s leadership were being divisive, adding that those agitating for southern Christian presidency should come to the table with equity and justice.
According to him, Christians have ruled Nigeria more than Muslims since the return of democracy in 1999.
“In the 16 years of PDP, Christians had 14 while Muslim had two. Even if we are to add President Buhari’s eight years, the Muslims would have ruled for 10 years as against 14 years for Christians.
“Every man that talks must come to the table with equity and justice. We must talk and have recourse to what happened yesterday. So, nobody is actually being marginalised, the truth is the truth, the facts are clear,” he said.
Rather focusing on religious and ethnic considerations, the governor advised to focus on the capacity of the contestants to transform the nation for good.
He said the Atiku-Okowa ticket of the PDP remained the best option to restore security; recover the economy and put it on the path of growth; revamp the educational sector; build infrastructure; revive the health sector; devolve powers to the components units; promote inclusiveness and religious and ethnic harmony.
Okowa said his principal and presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, is the only contestant with the requisite experience having being former vice president, to rescue the country.
“We all know the situation we have found ourselves in this country, we know what the challenges are. Atiku is the candidate prepared for the task.
“He has done before when he was vice president to former president Olusegun Obasanjo in 1999. Now, we have a greater challenge as a country. Atiku and I have the experience and we are very prepared to rescue this country,” he said.
The governor, who declared that PDP would win Saturday’s election, however, expressed worries over the volume of votes Delta would produce to make up the winning number.
“Don’t be worried about Saturday, we will win the election but we must work hard to have overwhelming control of the votes in Delta because Atiku is in total control of Adamawa.
“Our performance in Delta will give me strength to work and a voice to speak in the presidency. I want to urge everyone to go back and work to make sure Delta vote massively for PDP,” he said.
Meanwhile, the governor promised $10 billion would be set aside, in the first instance, for the empowerment of youths and women if Atiku is elected on Saturday.
Okowa made the promise at the disbursement of funds to 1,200 Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) beneficiaries of Result Area 3 of the Delta CARES programme, a post-COVID-19 initiative geared towards reviving SMEs.
Executive Secretary of Delta State Micro Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (DEMSMA), Oresi Esievo, had explained that the idea was to provide SMEs with stimulus operational business grants to enhance their capabilities and keep the businesses afloat.
She said Delta was the first state in the country to flag off D-CARES programme with the disbursement of the first phase of operational grants to 1,818 SMEs beneficiaries in 2021.
