By Chinwendu Obienyi
The Patriots Roundtable, a pan-Nigerian platform, has pitched its tent with the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu.
Speaking at a press conference in Lagos, yesterday, the National Coordinator, Uthman Shodipe-Dosunmu, said the group is a unique platform created for the purpose of intellectually driving an agenda focused mainly on the indivisibility of the country and the essence of proven character.
He said at every critical juncture of a nation-state, all patriots must stake their purpose in the continuity of their country while adding that Nigerians must proclaim their position amid the conflicting national fray and must stand out, boldly identifying with some defining values and verities.
Explaining the group’s involvement in the current situation of politics, Shodipe-Dosunmu said the Nigerian union was at a crossroads and weighed down by multifarious historical challenges and a bitter and pestiferous burden of the present.
He said: “There are hurdles everywhere. Voices are colliding in sometimes crude, fissiparous passion. But we must move from the brink. We must withdraw from the destructive edge. We must steer towards compromise and the peace of the Roundtable.
“Our position is borne upon necessary amity and accommodating fairness. Our guiding vision is about truth and conscionable shepherding as the defining core of nation building. Amid the hollering and conflicting ideals about the Nigerian journey as our nation pivots towards the 2023 general election, we have joined the fray to enlighten and guide, to contribute and support to strengthen and enhance the national democratic space.
“After thorough examination, sifting and sorting through the muddling melange of the presidential candidates and their ideals and promptings, we have decided to pitch camp with the Tinubu-Shettima ticket based on our vision and their vision about the indivisibility of the Nigerian union, predicated on equity and fairness, resolved on a unifying accommodation of all members of our diverse union, without favouritism to any tribe or sectarian recourse.”
He, thereafter, said the Patriots Roundtable will advocate with vigorous assertion as an Independent Support Group for Tinubu- Shettima dream ticket, “ultimately believing that this dynamic duo is borne upon an inherent undying idealism that will heal the broken places that will rectify the ancient wrongs, will mend the wounds of old, and God’s willing, pull our nation out of the present variegated challenges.”