By Simon Ebegbulem

BENIN—Edo State Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr. Louis Odion, yesterday, said the state governor, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, was earnestly in the race for the 2015 presidential election to rescue Nigeria from its current bondage.

He declared that the governor was better equipped to lead the nation with his pan-Nigeria perspective, asserting that he had better credentials than other All Progressives Congress, APC, presidential aspirants.

He said: “It is not a rumour, it is a fact. Oshiomhole is in the race. But if you expect the kind of jamboree that is currently taking place, where people embark on road shows, promising heaven on earth, Oshiomhole is not going to do that. I can tell you he is in the race, and it is in response to the yearnings of well meaning Nigerians, that our country needs somebody of his pedigree at this point of our history to move Nigeria forward. You will even recall early this year when Governor Babatunde Fashola said the nation needs somebody like Oshiomhole as President to change Nigeria. Fashola, as we all know, is a performing governor. But he said being some body that has stayed in Benin City before as a student of University of Benin, UNIBEN, he knows what Benin was then and what it is today. That is why he said Oshiomhole is a good material.

“As a journalist, I take time to read reports and I have looked at the parade of some of the APC leaders who have so far declared interest in the presidential ticket. Of course, you have people like General Muhammadu Buhari, Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano State and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, has also been mentioned as a possible candidate, and my brother and friend Sam Ndah, has also been mentioned. But when I look at the parade, I am not inspired with some of the sentiments they advance for joining the race. People will say Buhari is a regional champion, that he is the only one who can galvanize votes from the North. In terms of qualification, Atiku is regarded as someone who has a deep pocket. As for Rabiu Kwankwaso, he is somebody who is very effective in Kano state. For Tambuwal, some will say whereas he seems to offer freshness, his own disability is that he has not had the experience.

“For Sam Ndah, I read where he was described as a man of novel ideas. I think among all of them, Oshiomhole stands taller in the sense that he is the only one who offers a pan- Nigeria perspective. Oshiomhole is going to come in not as a candidate of the South-South, but as a man whose face is known in every nook and cranny of Nigeria. That is what he is bringing in.”