2023 Presidential Race: Groups Buy APC Forms for Ayade

By Stanley  Ekpenyong, Calabar

Cross River state Governor, Professor Ben Ayade’s presidential ambition has received a huge boost as his supporters across the country under different aegis including Niger-Delta Youth, Eko Boys, Arewa Youth and Friends of Ayade for President are set to pick the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential nomination and expression of intention forms for the governor.

The forms will be presented to the governor on Monday at the Cross River state Liaison office, Abuja at 3pm.

A statement released on Saturday said the governor fits the description of a president Nigeria needs in 2023.

“At this critical stage in Nigeria’s history, we need a president who is a unifer, a pan Nigerian, urbane and cerebral . Nigeria needs a president who will bring an exhilarating freshness to the polity and His Excellency, Senator (Professor) Ben Ayade undisputably fits this description.

“This explains our tireless effort to see that he emerges Nigeria’s next President and we will not rest till the Ayade presidency berths on the shores of reality “, the statement read in parts.

Continuing, it read: “Ayade is Nigeria and Nigerians’ only chance to forge enduring nationhood and unity. Here is a man who sees no tribe and sees no religion in anyone; all he sees is humanity. Indeed Ayade’s constituency is Nigeria and humanity. He is the only Governor in Nigeria that has Nigerians from all ethnic and religious groups-Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa, Fulani, Ijaw, Edo, Akwa Ibom etc- in his cabinet with many holding vital and sensitive positions.

“Nigeria cannot afford to miss this man. Not only is he a detribalised Nigerian and a bridge between the young and old, he is also a performer, having dotted Cross Rivers’ landscape with industries in just seven years in an industrialisation drive never before witnessed in any state in this country.”

On why various support groups pooled resources together to purchase the presidential nomination and intent  forms for the governor, it said: “No amount of money is too big to sacrifice for a noble cause which the Ayade presidency project represents. We met and resolved that N100 Million should not be a barrier between us and the best man for the job because Ayade is simply the best of the pack.”

Elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in 2015 and re-elected in 2019, Ayade, a Professor of Environmental Microbiology, defected to the APC on May 20, 2021, thus redrawing Cross River’s political map.

The state had been under the firm grip of the PDP since 1999 but the governor’s defection has  significantly altered political equation with the PDP now reduced to a struggling opposition party in the state.

Professor Ayade is credited with massive industrialisation of Cross River through his aggressive Agro- Industrialisation policy which has seen the establishment of Agro- based industries in virtually all the 18 local government areas of the state.

Drivers of his presidential project believe that Ayade as President will replicate the same policy across the country.