Kingsley Nwezeh in Abuja
Presidential candidate of the National Rescue Movement (NRM), Ambassador Felix Osakwe, yesterday, said presidential candidates should have divine leading from the Almighty God.
He also called on Nigerians to reject the old brigade, whom he described as the forces behind the nation’s retrogression.
This is as the presidential candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), Rabiu Kwankwaso, his Action Alliance counterpart, Hamza Al-Mustapha, and candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YPP), Ado-Ibrahim Abdulmalik, outlined their plans on how to overhaul the security architecture of the nation in view of the prevalent insecurity in the country.
Speaking at the official flag-off of the “New Nigeria Dream Project” and presidential town hall meeting in Abuja, Osakwe, who was responding to a general question to all the presidential candidates on “How do we build a new Nigeria of our dream”, said a presidential candidate must have divine leading from God to able to steer the ship of state to fruition.
He called on the citizenry to reject the old order, insisting that those who were corrupt would remain corrupt and hardly change.
“A presidential candidate must have divine leading from the Almighty God. Old leaders should serve as advisers to new leaders and not struggle with them. The old ones should step aside,” he said.
Querying the rationale behind leaders, who held several leadership positions in the past, wanting to return, he asked: “Why? Is it because they want more power, more money? I challenge Nigerians to interrogate the character of presidential candidates.
“A man that is corrupt yesterday is still corrupt today. He cannot change his colour. If we are bringing back such people, it will be a shame and we should weep for Nigeria”, he said.
In his submission, Kwankwaso lamented the rampant killings going on in all parts of the country, saying he would increase the size of the armed forces in order to tame crime and criminalities. Security is key,” he said.
Al-Mustapha, while speaking, said if elected president, would give the military a new direction.
“We will introduce a new doctrine, new direction and do same for the police,” he said.
Abdulmalik said fixing the challenge of power was at the core of the development of any nation.
“If you fix power, you have solved challenges of healthcare, education and others. We must demand from the next president a solution to our power problems,” he said.
Earlier, Coordinator of the New Nigeria Dream Project, Dr John Breakforth, thanked the presidential candidates for their presence and urged them to respond to the concerns of Nigerian as they vie for the nation’s most coveted leadership position.
He said the responses from the candidates would be communicated to the 774 local councils in the country.
