Elder statesman and leader of the Pan-Niger Delta Forum, Chief Edwin Clark, expressed concerns over the growing number of presidential aspirants from southern Nigeria, describing it as unrealistic. He said most of the aspirants were playing double games, especially people from the same state.
Clark, at an interactive session with journalists in Abuja said, “It is madness. If I’m to be realistic, they are not serious; particularly those from the South-West and the South-South.”
Clark, who will be 95 on May 25, wondered where the APC aspirants got N100m to pay for the forms considering the level of hunger in the country.
He said, “If these governors and ministers used their salaries, I don’t think they would have it because they must eat in their houses, but they are telling Nigerians that their friends contributed money for them.”
He encouraged people from the South-East to declare and contest in the parties’ primaries, adding, “We strongly warn our politicians, former governors, ministers, senators and so on not to accept a running mate position from any northern candidate, because they cannot do without us and we cannot do without them.
“That will show how serious we are and anybody who offers himself as a running mate will be regarded as the most unpatriotic and a man who has sold his own side of the country and is not worthy of being respected and honoured.”
The Punch
