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The Atiku/Okowa Presidential Campaign Organization has challenged all presidential candidates in the 2023 election to present themselves for mental and physical checks, calling on the Chairman of the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brig. Gen Buba Marwa (retd) to pick their blood samples for drugs test.
Spokesperson of the organisation, Senator Dino Melaye, who made the call in a chat with newsmen in Abuja on Saturday, pointed out that it is a constitutional requirement for anyone in the office of the president of Nigeria to be mentally and physically fit.
According to him, since drug abuse has become a serious malaise in the country, it is also necessary to ensure that whoever aspires to the highest office in the land must be free of the habit knowing that he will be the commander-in-chief of the nation’s armed forces.
He argued that if mental and physical tests are required for less significant things such as admission into the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) and recruitment into the police and other agencies, it is even more needed for the office of the president.
Melaye said: “The Constitution of this, to be the President of the Republic of Nigeria, the Constitution of the Republic of Nigeria (as amended), it says that you must be physically and mentally fit. Tinubu is not physically and mentally fit. I challenge him to a medical examination between him and Atiku. Because this is a constitutional requirement to be president and he should fulfil it.
“We challenge them, both of them should go for a medical examination because the constitution says that you must be physically and mentally fit to be president. And we want to see if the pronouncement of agbado, if the pronouncement of cassava, if the pronouncement that 50 million youths should be employed on the farm if the pronouncement by Tinubu that people are tweeting on WhatsApp…So, if it is just a mere statement, or made out of mental imbalance, we want to know.
“I want to know this mental state of my president. I want to know this is the current state of who will be my president.
“Aso Rock is looking for a healer and not a patient. We don’t want a president that will daily visit London every week again, and cause an economic and social distraction for us as a nation.”
When reminded that Tinubu had argued that he was not contesting to be a wrestler or a sprinter, the campaign spokesman stated: “I have just told you the constitutional requirement for you to be president of this country that you must be physically and mentally fit. He should surrender himself to a medical examination for his mental and physical fitness. You need to be fit to be president of this country.
“Even ordinary NDA, you are going to, you must do a medical exam. If you want to join the police, you must do your medical tests. You want to join the army, you must do medical tests, you want to join the Navy…And this is a man who is going to be commander in chief of all our Armed Forces put together. He must also go through medical fitness.
“So, I challenge the presidential candidates to submit themselves to medical fitness examination, including narcotic examination.
“I call on Buba Marwa to carry Atiku and Tinubu and collect their blood samples for drug tests because anyone who must be our president must be free of drugs, because we are fighting as a nation seriously, to battle drug abuse.”
The Atiku/Okowa Presidential Campaign Organization spokesperson also warned that a vote for the candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, will be a vote for the All Progressives Congress (APC) as he noted that such a vote will merely deplete the tally of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
He said Obi cannot win the election because he does not have the necessary nationwide wherewithal to do so.
Melaye argued: “I will start without colouring it. And Nigerians must know that any vote for Peter Obi is a vote for APC. Because Peter Obi cannot make it. So, anybody that is voting for Labour Party is actually voting for Tinubu.
“Anybody that is campaigning for Peter Obi is actually praying and working for Tinubu to become the President of the Republic of Nigeria. Because if you are voting for Peter, you are depleting the votes of the PDP because Peter cannot make it.
“The truth of the matter is that Labour Party only fielded 30 out of 109 candidates for the Senate. So, who is going to protect the votes of the Labour Party when even fielding candidates for senatorial seats, 109 senatorial seats, they could not? They only fielded in 30 constituencies. Even the House of Reps, couldn’t field in every constituency. For the House of Assembly, they couldn’t field up to 50 per cent of the seats across the country.
“Everybody who’s a politician knows that this criterion, indices a yardstick for measuring your national spread. And there is no regional champion that has ever been president in this country. Peter Obi must know that.
“Awolowo was a fantastic leader intellectually mobile and cerebral, very sagacious. But because he was running original grounds, both as Action Group and UPN, he never became the president of this country. Azikiwe, another fantastic nationalist, but because of this regional, he was a regional champion, his enclave only produced governors within the eastern part of his country.
“Aminu Kano, the friend of the talakawas, very pious man, with all sincerity and integrity. It could only win elections, and PRP could only win elections in Kano and Kaduna. Buhari himself, ran on the regional ground three times and lost woefully because he was the regional champion, both in ANPP, in APP, and in CPC, he couldn’t until he eventually now ran on a national platform.
“When people like Atiku, Tinubu, Saraki, and myself, collapsed to form a National Party was when Buhari could not become president. So historically, Peter ought to know that no regional champion can be president in Nigeria.”
However, allayed fears that with Obi drawing votes away from Atiku with who he shares the same political base, the PDP presidential candidate cannot win the election, MPlayer said that from all the calculations the main opposition party has made, it will win irrespective of Obi’s presence in the race.
According to him, this is because of the perceived failure of the ruling party in office.
He added: “As I speak with you, with Peter or no Peter, Atiku is going to win the next election. Because we have looked at it, we have looked at the spread, we have looked at the acceptability, we have looked at the programs. We know that APC cannot make it.
“Only people who suffer arthritis of the brain will go out and vote for APC with the outrageous calamitous situation we are in in this country. The dollar is running close to N900. Poverty is pervasive. Insecurity is on the daily rise. There is a hopeless situation. Borrow borrowing has become a pattern of this government.
“We have a government that does not give single hope to the masses of his country. Everybody even in the city of Abuja is sleeping with his eyes half closed. And the holy book says should we continue in sin and ask Grace to abound?
“How do we pray that Tinubu should come and continue with insecurity, Tinubu should come and continue with kidnapping, Tinubu should come and continue with banditry, Tinubu should come and continue with a rise in the price of goods and commodities in this country; Tinubu should come and continue with poverty, hunger and starvation; Tinubu should come and continue with bad roads, decaying infrastructure?
“If APC comes back, what we are saying is that we want it to come and reinforce failure. So, nobody will pray for APC, nobody’s even going to vote for APC. And the satanic manifestation of the Muslim-Muslim ticket is there for them to battle.
“So, the only edge APC will be having is for those who don’t understand politics to go and work for Peter. Peter is a creation of Atiku. Nobody knew Peter on the national platform till Atiku made him vice presidential candidate.
“So, Peter will be a creation of Atiku and his movement is a euphoria that is gradually dying. By January, it will go down more, because people will realize that it is going to be a wasted vote, people will realize that he cannot become president, and people will realize that voting for Peter is voting for Tinubu. So, that is why I’m having a clarion call on Peter Obi, a gentleman, progressive-minded, sound, in the interest of this country for his tomorrow, he should give his today and come back home to support his elder brother and mentor.”
Melaye appealed to the presidential candidate of the Labour Party to retrace his step and return to the PDP.
When reminded that the Obi’s moment had gone beyond him as an individual, the campaign spokesman stated: “Because they don’t understand. Peter Obi has no capacity to unite this country. No, you don’t give carpentry jobs to tailors. Peter Obi has no capacity to unite this country.
“And what we need more than anything in our national life now is unity. Because without unity, there can be no peace. Without peace, there can be no development. You first need peace before you can be talking of security, and economy and Peter Obi cannot, he does not have what it takes to unite this country.
“Who will be there will be speaking to in Damaturu? Who is going to listen to Peter Obi in Marafa? Who is Peter Obi going to talk to Aiyetoro Gbede? Who is Peter Obi going to talk to in Biu? But Atiku, every state of this country is home to Atiku.
“Atiku can mention two three friends in every local government in the Federal Republic of Nigeria. That is the type of man we need to bring back our long-lost reputation as a nation, to bring back the unity that we have lost. The Ibo will be comfortable with Atiku’s presidency. The Yorubas will be comfortable in an Atiku presidency. The Hausa Fulani, the Ijaws, the Ibibios, the Tivs, the Kanuris will be happy with an Atiku presidency because they know that Atiku is not a religious bigot, he’s not an ethnic champion. He is a detribalised Nigerian. He has Yoruba children, he has Ibo children, he has Hausa children, he has Fulani children. And everyone knows that he is highly detribalised.
“So, that is the type of president we need. None of them has the national experience of Atiku Abubakar. He understands the problem of this country.”
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