Babatope, Others Advise On 2015, Nationhood

A former Minister of
Transportation, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, has advised the North to wait until 2019 for the presidential seat.
Also, a former governor of the old Anambra State, Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, has said President Jonathan is a tool in the hands of God to implement God’s designs for Nigeria.
They spoke during the Bayelsa State’s 17th anniversary public lecture organised by the Bayelsa State Government in Yenagoa on Monday.
Babatope in his lecture, described Jonathan as a detribalised Nigerian, whose right to contest the 2015 presidential election was non-negotiable.
“If Jonathan declares to contest the 2015 election, I will be among the people that will campaign for him. I submit it is right and proper that the Ijaw man, President Goodluck Jonathan, completes his term in 2019. After that, if I am still alive, I will be one of those that will fight to ensure the North have its turn in 2019,” Babatope said.
Ezeife also said for Nigeria to survive as one united country, there was urgent need to restructure the country for efficiency and effectiveness.
Dickson, in his remarks, said a new Nigeria was born with the election of Jonathan, a man from a minority tribe, as the President of the country.
He sued for peace in the country, stressing that Nigeria was not only a country of contradictions, but had endless potential, which if well harnessed, would drive the nation’s socio-economic and political development.
“May I call on the present generation to learn to see national issues as they are. Because it is when you have a nation, you can have a G7 governors. Disagreement is healthy – whether we agree or not, it is legitimate. All politicians are ambitious and ambition is legitimate but the way you go about it matters,” Dickson said.
Speaking on the theme, ‘Good governance as a panacea for promoting a stable and sustainable democracy,’former Speaker of the House of Representative, Alhaji Ghali Na’Abba said good governance should be the hallmark of democracy.
He said in view of the myriad of problems confronting the nation, there was the need to guarantee good governance and deliver the dividends of democracy to the people.