A chieftain of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Bayelsa State, Hon. Sunday Frank-Oputu has backed Mamman Daura, President Muhammadu Buhari’s nephew, on power shift ahead of 2023 general elections.
Mamman Daura, known as an influential powerbroker and nephew of President Muhammadu Buhari had in an interview with BBC Hausa Service, recently said the most qualified Nigerian should succeed Buhari in 2023, irrespective of the zone such candidate comes from.
Hon. Sunday Frank Oputu, a chieftain of the APC from the Southern Ijaw Area of Bayelsa State, agreed with Mamman Daura insisting that competence, pedigree and capacity should determine the choice of who becomes the president rather than rotation which always imposes poor leadership on the people.
Frank-Oputu said he agreed with him partially on the ground that nobody should use his population, as a basis against the criteria, or standard that will be set across so there should be an opinion poll on who is a better person, that’s the result that should reflect also even as the results of the elections.
He said: “Nigerians have to really make a proper assessment of the kind of person that should go for that kind of an executive position because the powers are too absolute.
“They can do and undo, there should be some kind of character assessment on the individual that should hold claims to such position as to say yes I am the president, I am the governor the powers are too absolute.
“These assessments must be the first criteria not just from south or north . So, there should be a way that when a man has a better pedigree no matter where he comes from he should be the source, so that there should be some transformation if not, developmentally we are stagnant.”
“So I think the issue of zoning, should not be the thing to discuss, particularly when it has to do with executive powers which has absolute control. We should look at the human factor, this man what are his antecedents and then give him, even if he has to go for ten tenures as far as what society needs, is provided because our own we are not going further rather we are a little lower at every point when it is scaled among developing countries in the world.”