Former Governor of Kogi state, Asiwaju Clarence Olafemi has called on stakeholders in the state to ensure that 2023 governorship election in the state is fair to his people in the western senatorial district.
Speaking with newsmen in Lokoja on Friday, the former Speaker, Kogi State House of Assembly urged Governor Yahaya Bello to ensure fairness in 2023, warning that himself and others who want to retire will come back as combatants and change the narrative.
Olafemi said he did not regret the role he played during the last governorship election stressing that his primary responsibility is to protect his people.
He stated that if the people of Okun land see him as their political leader he cannot run away from it.
“The interest of my people is that they are minority. They are smaller than the the central and east in terms of population but we are well blessed. However, there is no way we can be governor unless we partner with other senatorial districts in the state.
“I governed this state accidentally. We must rule this state as a people and if they don’t I will move my people to join either Ekiti or Kwara. If our current struggle does not work I have the capacity to move my people out of Kogi State.
“When I met the governor Alhaji Yahaya Bello he expressed his concern that; my people are not with the ruling party they did not win any House of Assembly, they did not win Senate, they did not win general election, they did not win for the president, they did not win the senatorial election. On what ground do we want to now aspired to be governor and we are from the same old Kwara? And I told him that I will talk to my people and turn them around.
“To God be the glory, I achieved that. If I did not leave PDP I will not have achieved that. I proved to the governor that my people have moved. It is now left for him to be fair, it is now left for him to think and justified my commitment and sacrifice.
“I did not collect single Kobo from APC during the election but I can tell you 2023 is do or die. He must make sure that come 2023 there is fairness otherwise some of us who want to retire will come back as a combatant and we would change the narrative,” he warned.
The ex-governor described the pronouncement by President Muhammadu Buhari that he will retire from politics in 2023 as a new year gift for the people of Nigeria.
According to him, the recent pronouncement by the President has put rumour of a third term bid to rest, stressing that he has always respect President Buhari because he is very convinced that the President has the interest of Nigeria at heart.
“He has been able to hold Nigeria together in the last four years. He inherited a lot of problems over Nigeria. He met Boko Haram, he met Niger Delta militancy, he met the Benue crisis, he never invented them and none came during his tenure.
“I want to say that I congratulate him because is a president that came during turbulence. He is a president that I personally respect. For me the chapter is closed, there is no third term for Buhari. He came at a difficult time when the economy was in shambles. If only Nigerians realise their potential and refuse to be sentimental there is no divide among the people.
Chief Olafemi said the President will consolidate on making sure that Nigeria is together in 2020 adding that the President will make sure there is no war in the country.
“We have so many fragmented and structured in Nigeria and any attempt to spark war there will never be anything like Nigeria. His focus should be how to hand over a united Nigeria by the time he is going in 2023,” he said.
