Islamic scholar, Sheikh Abubakar Gumi, on Monday, stated that the 2023 presidential election is on set to take off.
Gumi stated this in a post on his Facebook account while reacting to the choices of presidential candidates under political parties in the country.
The cleric claimed the agitation of Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) has reduced since the emergence of Peter Obi as the Labour Party’s Presidential Candidate.
He further stated that the call for the Yoruba Nation has reduced since Bola Tinubu emerged as the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress.
Gumi claimed that the agitations across the country are a political gimmick to get power in the 2023 general elections.
The cleric wrote, “The 2022 presidential Run is on set ready for Go!
“The just-concluded Eid celebrations in MADA village Zamfara that witnessed banditry and migrations of locals a few months earlier this year had peaceful Sallah celebrations because the locals have gone into a peace treaty with the bandits. Peace works more than violence! People are learning from that. This is politics. So after all the conflict is political.
“The IPOB rhetoric and loud voice of Biafra agitations have muffled out with the emergence of Peter Obi as the Labor party presidential candidate. To them, Igbos have a platform. It’s clear now that the entire IPOB outcry was a political gimmick to get power.
“The Oduduwa clamours have abated also since Tinubu has clinched the APC ticket never to resurface again until probably if he didn’t win the race.
“Northern Ultra conservatives too have no mouth to speak of marginalization or suppression of representation, the NNPP kwankwaso has satisfied that segment of the society. No more claims of candidate suppression and manipulation.
Those cosmopolitan nationalists and full democrats can finally say that the people’s Democratic Party also represented their aspirations. The late National Security Adviser General Andrew Owoeye Azazi once blamed the PDP’s zoning and power rotation arrangements for the increased spate of violence in the country.
“Therefore President Jonathan went ahead to disrupt it. This was good for the democrats. The straw that broke the camel’s back.
“Those that are religiously inclined like the American Republican party, have in this race the APC, LP, and other parties that presented the same religion president/ Vice President Ticket or their religious preference candidate as the president.
“Every Nigerian political persuasion and aspiration is well represented and the choice is left for Nigerians to elect. This is true democracy. So we are optimistic that 2023 will bring the maturity of our chosen system of governance to the optimum.
“This is the elephant in the Room, political pundits and commentators are shying away to say. I have no party; I once opposed OBJ, GEJ, and PMB all as politicians publicly because of what I see as bad policies or governance. Nothing personal.
“Our only problem now is whether I.N.E.C. will conduct free, fair, and Transparent Elections?
“Time will tell. May Allah bring peace, tranquillity, stability, and progress to our Nation. And also give us working frictionless governance. Amin”