2023: Okowa, perfect replacement for Buhari -Group

Ahead of the 2023 presidential election, a group operating under the aegis of Northern Professionals Forum, NPF has called on the Delta State governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa to contest for the country’s number one seat, saying he’s a perfect replacement for President Muhammadu Buhari.

NPF, in a statement signed by its National Coordinator, Dr. Saleh Mohammed, the Secretary, Hajia Hannatu Garba, and two other executives, said it has taken cognisance of the governor’s track record of infrastructural and socio-economic development of the state in his barely seven years, which it believed would be brought to bear at the national as President.

The group, which is comprised of professionals from diverse fields noted that governance cannot be left in hands of those who least understand what infrastructural, human capital and socio-economic development were all about in the guise of politics, adding that Okowa should throw his hat into the ring, now that the opportunity beckons.

NPF said it would further serve the interest of Nigerians if the visionary leadership of Okowa was brought to bear on the presidency.

The group described the governor as highly urbane for protecting non-indigenes in Delta State for the past seven years, a situation, it posited has given him deep and genuine contacts across the North and other regions of the country.

“As professionals, we haven’t lost touch with Senator Ifeanyi Okowa’s track record of huge infrastructural development as governor of Delta State in the last seven years.

“We see 2023 general election as opportunity for him to contest presidency notwithstanding those who have indicated interest for the plum job.

“Okowa’s blend of professional and political ideas would be a nexus for unity of the nation and given his humane nature who is capitally detribalised in handling the State affairs, it is incumbent on us as a northern-based group to call on him to contest,” the Forum said.

It further argued that Delta State in the last seven years was not the same thing of today in terms of security of lives and property, infrastructure, human capital development and socio-economic development, which it noted was as a result of his professional background.

The group, therefore, called on like minds across other zones to raise their voices on drafting the governor into the presidential race.

Okowa is a medical doctor and former Senator who won his governorship election in Delta in 2015 on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP.