Joe Igbokwe
A member of the All Progressives Congress in Lagos state, Mr. Joe Igbokwe has stated that Bola Tinubu is the most qualified candidate to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023.
Igbokwe is the Special Adviser to the Governor of Lagos State on Drainage and Water Resources and also a Tinubu boy.
According to him, in terms of experience, vision and management of human resources Tinubu would be the best President of Nigeria in 2023.
He also said that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) would never win governorship election in Lagos state.
Speaking on the ARISE News Channel, The Morning Show programme yesterday, Igbokwe said Tinubu remained the man to beat and he is unequivocally in support of his presidential campaign.
“I am Asiwaju person. I cannot look right or left to take decision on my support for him. My vote will go to Tinubu. Asiwaju has prepared himself over the years for this position and his time has come. I will vote for him. It is not where you came from but what you can do,” Igbokwe said.
Asked suppose the presidential candidate is zoned to South-east, Igbokwe said that he is a loyal party member, if that happens he would change and support whoever his party brings out as candidate.
On the controversy trailing Tibubu’s candidacy in terms of his age, his educational qualification and the fact that he brought bullion van to his house on the eve of 2019 presidential election, Igbokwe said age has nothing to do with leadership and cited the immediate past United States (US) President, Donald Trump who was President in his 70s and the current President, Joe Biden who is also US president in his 70s.
He also dismissed the criticism on bullion van and Tinubu’s educational qualification, saying that at the right time the support group of the former Lagos state governor would crush the criticisms.
“Age has nothing to do with it. Tinubu is coming with a lot of capacity and experience. We should pray for him. Is he older than Trump and the current US President? Tinubu is 69 years and he is qualified to be president; even if he is older,” he said.
Igbokwe dismissed the crisis in the ruling party and said that such is expected to happen but when the time comes the party would sort things out and bring out the best candidates to man strategic positions in the party and also bring out the most qualified presidential candidate who would contest on the platform of the party next year.
Igbokwe said Tinubu, being a Muslim would not injure his presidential ambition because in 1993 the late Chief MKO Abiola, who was Muslim contested the presidential election with another Muslim as the vice presidential candidate and won massive votes from different parts of the country, adding that Nigeria has put religious sentiments and bigotry behind them in elections.
He said that if the party zones the president to the South-east and he is asked to choose between Orji Uzo Kalu and Dave Umahi, the governor of Ebonyi state, he would chose Umahi because of the way he transformed Ebonyi state in the area of infrastructure.
Meanwhile, Igbokwe said that PDP would never win the governorship of Lagos state, saying that Lagos is too big to be put in the hand of mediocre persons, adding that Lagos needs experienced persons to rule the state.
He dismissed the influence of Lagos4Lagos movement chieftain, Abdulazeez Adeniran, known as Jandor, saying that Adeniran has very little influence in the state, so he cannot sway the votes to PDP.
