BY LINUS CHIBUIKE
A group has given Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State 14 days ultimatum to accept to run for Presidency in 2023.
The Youth Group, with the tag GYB2PYB (Governor Yahaya Bello to President Yahaya Bello), vowed to mobilise Nigerians to occupy the streets if the Kogi Governor did not heed to its call within 14 days.
The youths, in their numbers, presented their letter of request to the Governor at the Kogi State Liaison Office in Abuja, on Friday.
This is one of the cases of groups and party stakeholders coming out to call on some leaders of the All Progressives Congress to contest for the 2023 presidency.
Though many analysts see this as a veiled declaration of intention by the focal leaders, in each case, others link it to early positioning by the groups involved for certain gains.
National Coordinator of the GYB2PYB, Oladele John Nihi, said the need to call on Yahaya Bello to run was necessitated by what he described as the exemplary leadership of the Governor in Kogi State.
He claimed that over 15 million of the youths had put in their signatures for Bello to contest for the Number One seat in Nigeria in 2023.
According to him, the group has acquired a national office for its operations.
The youths promised to sensitise their colleagues across the 36 states and 774 local government areas for Bello and also make sure that they vote massively for him come February, 2023.
The coordinator said, ”Our intention initially was to shut down this liaison office and to occupy it for the next 14 days until the government accepts our request for him to run.
“The Nigerian youths have put their resources and manpower together and with over 15 million of them signing signatures to ask Governor Yayaya Bello of Kogi State to contest the presidency come 2023.
“We believe that as youth leaders, we owe our nation this duty, to make sure that in 2023, we do not just have a president but the president that is youth minded. We want to have the president that is youth and women sensitive.”
Listing some achievements of Bello in Kogi State, the coordinator said, “We are aware that Kogi State today has over 90 per cent of its appointees from the youth group, both men and women. We are aware that in Kogi State today, all the 21 Vice chairmen are women.
“We are also aware that in Kogi State today, all the 21 council leaders are women. We are also aware that all the secretaries to the council chairmen in Kogi State today are youth council coordinators.
“We have discovered that if Yahaya Bello, the Executive Governor of Kogi State, is doing all these wonderful things in Kogi State, Nigeria deserves to have a feel of what kogites are currently enjoying.
“It is on this note that the Nigerian youths, through the GYB2PYB Youths Support Group, is submitting a letter of call to run for presidency come 2023, to His Excellency, Alhaji Yahaya Bello.”
Special Adviser to the Governor on Intergovernmental Affairs, Medina Anako, received the letter on behalf of the Governor, saying it was one of the hundreds of calls for him to run for presidency in 2023.
