2023 Presidential race: Consult widely before joining the fray, Pres. Buhari tells Gov. Ayade

Governor of Cross River State, Prof. Ben Ayade, has declared  his intention to join the 2023 presidential race under the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Ayade, who noted that he has informed President Muhammadu Buhari of his intention, said the President did not object to the idea but advised him to do more consultations before making a public declaration.

According to the Cross River state governor, security, economy, electricity and employment will be his focus if he becomes the president of Nigeria come 2023.

“I  will replicate what l did in Cross River at the national level,” Ayade, who defected from PDP to APC in 2021, said on Tuesday.

Reacting to unconfirmed reports that the APC might present former President Goodluck Jonathan as its sole candidate for the 2023 presidential election, he said: “I have great respect for President Jonathan and so I have no challenges whatsoever.

“I believe that the party leadership will decide on the appropriate candidate that will take our party to victory.

“And so, if you heard me well, I am just part of the family absolutely loyal to the president, seeking to run for the president. And I am running.

“If at any point in time the political leadership of my party, the APC, feels that President Jonathan is the appropriate candidate that will actually take us to victory, I will turn my support for him.

“I will never question the powers of the leader of a country. I have never played a politics of antagonism or fight.

“If you know how I became governor, I became governor by offering to support whoever the governor wants and by stroke of luck, I became the candidate.”

“By the same token, I am only here to support the president’s candidate and by a stroke of luck, he said, you too go there and join the race and let me see,” Persecondnews quotes Ayade as saying.

About Ayade; Born  on March 2, 1968, Benedict Bengioushuye Ayade, is a Nigerian politician and came to power on 29 May 2015 as governor.

He ran successfully for the office of governor in 2015 on the platform of People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

Before that, he was a member of the 7th Senate of Nigeria and was re-elected as the governor of Cross River State in the 2019 gubernatorial elections.

Persecondnews recalls that Ayade had on May 20, 2021 announced his defection to the All Progressives Congress in Calabar, the state capital at a rally and was received by Yobe Governor and ex-APC caretaker Committee Chair, Mai Mala Buni and other APC governors and chieftains.