The General Director of the Hope ’23 Campaign Council Yahaya Bello, Hafsat Abiola-Costellosays no candidate is better positioned for the 2023 Presidency than Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello.
Ms. Abiola-Costello, who is also the daughter of the acclaimed winner of the 1993 presidential election, the late Chief MKO Abiola, made this known in an interview with reporters in Abuja on Tuesday.
He laid out the reasons why Bello remained Nigeria’s best bet in the upcoming 2023 presidential election.
He explained that 30 years after June 12, Bello was in the presidential race to restore dashed hope to Nigerians, especially the youth, women and the vulnerable.
“The truth is that the truly marginalized people in Nigeria are women and youth. And, if there is any moral obligation, it is to them that it is owed.
“Who led the fight against June 12, against nullity? Wasn’t it the students, the young people? Where were they in 1999 after all the fighting, where were they placed, can we say nowhere?
“When I look at all these events, the kidnappings and everything now, it is clear to me that this is a revolt of young people from Nigeria, who have had enough.
“A lot of them are disgusting in ways we don’t support because they’re sick of being marginalized in their own country.
“If the country doesn’t use them for good, they will be used for bad,” he said.
According to Ms. Abiola-Costello, there is no candidate better positioned to harness the potential of young people in Nigeria than Mr. Bello.
She said that Mr. Bello had signaled to the youth that “Nigeria is for them, that they are the ones who should be in charge and that the youth and women in Nigeria are ready to lead.”
She said no room excuses anymore.
The CEO, while explaining further why Bello was the best choice for the Nigerian presidency, said that he had shown transparency, credibility and accountability as Governor of Kogi, an action that had been recognized time and again by the Bank. World.
She pointed out that Kogi, by receiving such a classification from the World Bank, ruled out all other misinformation about finances being sold by political opponents.
“First, the governor is an accountant, and he is actually one of the few state governors in Nigeria that has been certified by the World Bank as being financially transparent.
“I don’t know of any other state that the World Bank has given its ranking to.
“So we can safely say that if this type of international agency has evaluated it, the state’s work in managing resources and did not find it deficient.
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“It means there’s really no credibility to the idea that he’s mismanaging the state,” he said.
Ms. Abiola-Costello added that Mr. Bello was someone who did not like to take loans as he had been carefully managing the state’s resources by the IGR of the state he built.
“When he came on board it was N350 million, he has built it to N2billion. And his very intention is to develop the capacity of the state to increase wealth,” she added.
On boosting the economy, Ms. Abiola-Castello said that Mr. Bello also made Kogi investment-friendly, attracting good investors to the state.
He explained that the governor, in an attempt to achieve his goal, created a business council made up of some of the most successful businessmen in Nigeria, not just in Kogi.
She said the council had been guiding the government on policies and practices that would encourage business investment.
“Significantly, His Excellency has brought business to the state, you are aware of Confluence Rice, and other significant investments he has been making in the Rice Value Chain.
“He understands that one of the great assets of the state is agriculture. But he doesn’t want us to limit ourselves to just farming, but also see the added value in farming. So significant resources have been invested in the state in that regard,” he said.
Ms. Abiola-Costello said that the state investment agency was also there to help potential investors go through the entire process to make things easy for them.
She said those people had been guiding the government on policies and practices that would encourage business investment and that it has been working.
She said that it was with that that the IGR of the state grew to almost N2 billion before the pandemic,
Bello will compete for the APC ticket with more than 10 other challengers in the party’s primary elections scheduled for later this month.
They include Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Former Lagos Governor Bola Tinubu, Former Ogun Governor and Acting Senator Ibikunle Amosun, Former Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha, Transport Minister Rotimi Amaechi, State Minister for Education , Emeka Nwajiuba, and the Minister of Labor and Employment, Chris Ngige.
Others are Governors Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State and Ben Ayade of Cross River State.
There are signs that Senate President Ahmad Lawan and former APC National Chairman Adams Oshiomhole will join the race.
(YAYA)