By Omeiza Ajayi
ABUJA: Governorship candidates of the Democratic Leadership Alliance DLA have endorsed President Bola Tinubu for re-election in 2027, saying their party has no presidential candidate.
This was as they however ruled out defecting to the ruling All Progressives Congress APC.
The Independent National Electoral Commission INEC had just days ago published Mr Adebisi Moses Olusoji as the presidential candidate of the party, but the governorship candidates on Friday declared that the DLA has no standard bearer.
The candidates, who spoke under the Forum of Governorship Candidates of DLA, said they would use their grassroots structures to secure the President’s victory.
The forum, led by its Chairman and the party’s Taraba State governorship candidate, Hon. Aboki Bayonga, announced the decision at a press conference in Abuja on Friday.
He said the candidates would work with Arewa for Asiwaju (A4A) to mobilise support for the President.
“As the Forum of Governorship candidates of DLA, we are here today declaring our support for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as our Presidential candidate in 2027,” Bayonga said.
“Not that we have dropped our aspirations under our own platform. But as for the presidential, we are for Asiwaju 100%. We will work for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to come back. We will do everything possible to make sure that Asiwaju is back 2027.”
The candidates said their support for Tinubu was strictly for the presidential election and would not affect their ambitions to contest governorship, senatorial, House of Representatives and state House of Assembly seats on the DLA platform.
Bayonga said the endorsement followed consultations among party members, who agreed to back Tinubu because the DLA had no presidential candidate of its own for the 2027 election. He stressed that the decision was not an abandonment of the party.
Other governorship candidates present included the Secretary of the Forum, Alhaji Adamu Idrisu Chado (Kaduna); Hon. Bekky Folorunso James (Osun); Prof Valdya Tame (Adamawa); Hon. Ibrahim Musa (FCT); Hon. Sam Umar (Plateau); Alhaji Sani Mohammed (Gombe); Hon. Nnamdi Ugwu (Enugu); and Hon. Brent Micheal (Bauchi).
Explaining the decision, Bayonga said: “There are so many reasons for our decision, but time will not permit us to sit down and mention them, but if I can mention a few, like the NELFUND [Nigerian Education Loan Fund] that place our children, whether you pay them school fees, you don’t pay their school fees, they depend on themselves.
“In terms of agriculture, recently trailers of fertilizers were moving around the country, and they would give you a fertilizer and add you 50,000. It helped the farmer, especially those at the rural area.
“Again, in terms of road construction, you can see what the president is doing concerning road network. He is making a solid road that in years to come, those roads will still be permanent.”
He said the forum also compared the presidential candidates before reaching its decision.
“And for us, because we don’t have a presidential candidate, but apart from that, we look at all the presidential candidates, we say, look, you cannot leave opposition and go and join opposition. You will not succeed. Therefore, looking at all of them, we compare them, we find out that, the present government have a lot of things that if given another four years, he will achieve them, and Nigeria will be better.”
Bayonga said a single term might not be enough to complete programmes that require long-term planning and funding.
“We want continuity. Four years is not enough to complete every programme, especially projects that require long-term planning and funding,” he said.
Asked whether the endorsement had the approval of the DLA national chairman and other governorship candidates of the party, Bayonga said: “Yeah. I am the chairman of the forum of governorship candidates of DLA. And you can see all of us are here. And we agree, and we had a meeting, general meeting yesterday. We agreed upon what we are doing here.”
He said the candidates assessed the political situation and the options available before concluding that Tinubu deserved another four years to consolidate his administration’s programmes.
Bayonga expressed confidence that their political networks and relationships with voters in their states would help mobilise support for the President, arguing that grassroots influence was not determined solely by party affiliation.
According to him, many of the candidates were politically active before joining the DLA and had built relationships with their communities, which they intended to deploy for Tinubu’s re-election bid.
On concerns that a second term could lead to a life presidency, Bayonga dismissed the possibility, insisting that the office remained subject to constitutional provisions and the will of Nigerians.
“The presidency belongs to the Nigerian people. Nobody owns it, and nobody can remain there beyond what the Constitution allows,” he said.
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