Ganduje was also lambasted for “Taking a highly undemocratic stand by making generalized claims about his own personal choice of candidate and pretending it was Northern interest.”
A group under the auspices of Senator Godswill Akpabio for Common Good (SGACG), in a press release signed by Dr. Jibril Tafida, wondered “who gave Ganduje the mandate to speak for all Northerners on a matter of choice in a democratic system.”
Challenging Ganduje to mention a single project Tinubu has ever initiated for the benefit of Northerners since 1999, SGACG said that “comparatively, our candidate – Senator Godswill Akpabio, the current Minister for Niger Delta Affairs, has done a lot for the North and Nigeria.
Come to any state in the North and see what Senator Akpabio did or his supporters. We dare say the best person for Nigeria is Akpabio and we ask that the governor withdraws this statement, because it is not the true situation in the North, democratically speaking. The North in 2023 will surely support who has contributed to its development.”
It also added that, “of all prominent Southerners in government and outside of it, no one has impacted positively on the lives of women and youths in the North the way Akpabio did and still doing; first by sponsoring many Northerners to the Holy land, empowering of thousands of youths with millions of naira worth of start-up capital in the North among a host of other landmark efforts.”
While calling on Northerners and Nigerians to join in convincing the former Senate Minority Leader to accept the call to contest in 2023, Dr Tafida added that “Akpabio has supported many universities and traditional institutions in the North and paid scholarships to many Northerners. And we ask Ganduje: is there anyone who has this kind of record?”
SGACG disclosed further that Governor Ganduje has no mandate to speak for the North and he should allow the North decide her future in 2023.
“We have no problem with Tinubu coming out to contest for any office. It is democratic to do so. He has the constitutional right to do so, but we will not allow anyone to speak for us on a matter of free choice of a candidate.”
The group then said: “We challenge Governor Ganduje to mention a single Northern community development project, whether in health or education that was ever initiated and executed by Asiwaju Tinubu. After that, we also expect Ganduje to tell us who mandated him to preside over the North’s choice of a President for 2023”.
