Emmanuel Addeh
Presidential candidate of the Grassroots Development Party of Nigeria (GDPN), Dr Davidson Akhimien, at the weekend commenced his campaign for the 2019 presidential election in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.
Akhimien, a former Nigerian military intelligence officer, in a chat with journalists, urged President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately give his assent to the electoral bill, noting that it was in the interest of the country.
Flagging off his campaign, the politician, cleric and businessman, who has a doctorate in Science and Security Studies, noted that he was kicking off his campaign from the slums of Yenagoa, because the kind of elitist campaign the country had witnessed in the past had in no way benefitted the people.
On why he decided to vie for the presidency, rather than start from the lower cadre of Nigerian politics, Dr Akhimien explained that if the plan was to undo the current political order, the issue of experience should not be a factor.
” I am eminently qualified because I have the capacity, competence and pedigree. What kind of experience are you talking about? Is it not the same kind of experience we want to do away with?
“The old order has not paid off in this country. I am running to entrench the politics of social justice, inclusiveness and righteousness and to sweep away the current debauchery,” he said.
The presidential candidate who also holds two masters degree in International Law and Diplomacy as well as a Masters in Criminology from the University of Lagos, called on Buhari to ignore any of his advisers urging him not to sign the electoral bill which will strengthen the democratic system in the country.
Akhimien, the Presiding Pastor of the King David Ministries International, said if he is elected, he would have a fresh and different approach to securing the nation from the current insurgency in the north and the crimes in other parts of the country.
He expressed the hope that the 2019 election would be violence-free, insisting that Nigerians are now more enlightened and would not succumb to manipulation by selfish politicians.
