AHEAD of the 2023 Presidential election, some Nigerians have started calling on their favourite politicians to join the race for the Number One citizen.
Recently, Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, made known his stance following calls to run for President in 2023.
While speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Friday, last week, governor Bello claimed “all Nigerians, including very objective elites are asking me to run for President in 2023”.
He added; “And I believe it is high time that we look into capacity, who can do the job, who is going to unify this country. And I think they are seeing something in me that they are asking me to come and unite and fix this country.
“My answer will be in the affirmative in a few time from now.
“I want to urge each and every one of us that are urging me to come to be patient. It’s a work in progress. And by the grace of God, I am not going to disappoint you when the time comes for me to give a response to that.”
Vanguard learnt after the interview, Channels TV put up a poll on its Twitter to sample opinions of Nigerians on Yahaya Bello’s claim that the former want him to run for President in 2023.
Unfortunately, the Kogi governor, 29 minutes into the poll, had allegedly lost by 91 per cent.
“Would you support a Yahaya Bello 2023 Presidency? The Kogi State Governor hinted on Friday that he might run for the top spot in the next election cycle.” the television station posted.
The poll, which has now been deleted by the TV station, had 6,796 participants but only six per cent voted in favour of the Kogi governor while the remaining three per cent were undecided, according to Premium Times report.
It remains unclear why the TV station deleted the tweet.Screenshot of Channels TV’s poll before it’s deleted
Reacting, a Kogi-born social media savvy, Usman Okai in a recent post on Facebook, faulted Yahaya Bello’s claim describing it as “exaggerated opinion of his own popularity”.
“This is coming on the heels of the collapse of a bridge that Bello commissioned one week earlier. This form a damming verdict on the person of Yahaya Bello and his style of leadership.
“One thing that emerges from this is that Bello, is obviously having an exaggerated opinion of his own popularity. He has a lot of hangers-on who are writing wishy washy write ups encouraging him to contest. They know that as a local emperor, you dare not tell Bello the truth.
“Truth be told, Nigerians are angry that Bello had the nerves to say they were pressuring him. What kind of pressure would that be? A man under whose administration the state of Kogi is experiencing a screaming deficit in infrastructural and human development should know when to stop the joke about wanting to be president.”
Contrary to the above view, the Kogi Commissioner of Information, Kingsley Fanwo in a chit-chat with Vanguard on Monday, described his principal as “the next President of Nigeria” while faulting Channels TV’s poll on the grounds of fraud.
“It is the turn of the Youth Zone. So we are not interested in their North-South Zoning. The problem of our nation is not about the geopolitical zones, but the failure of the old hands to leave the stage and retire to an advisory role. We are unperturbed. We are confident that the next President of Nigeria is Alh. Yahaya Bello,” he said.
He added; “The poll conducted by Channels TV was a fraud. It rose to 72% in favour of Alh. Yahaya Bello before it was hastily deleted. We have been interrogating the rationale behind that. He is the choice of Nigerians. Let Channels come and tell us why they deleted it immediately the Governor gained momentum.”
On the alleged majority against the Yahaya Bello’s presidency, the commissioner said; “I don’t know about that majority. It was a public poll and I saw it when it rose above 50%. So the majority belief is the truth that the Governor got majority of the votes.”
In an attempt to fact-check controversies surrounding the emergence of Yahaya Bello as President come 2023, Vanguard conducted a poll on its Twitter and Facebook handles respectively on Monday, where majority strongly disagreed to the question asked.
Below are the screenshots and tweets extracted by NAIJA LIVE TV;
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