South-South leader, Chief Edwin Clark on Sunday explained why stakeholders in the region have thrown their weight behind the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar. The founder of Pan Pan Niger Delta Elders Forum (PANDEF) stated this in Abuja shortly after a campaign group for Atiku under the aegis of Atikulated Leadership Movement, led by its National Coordinator, Mr. Mike Kelechi, made him a patron of the group.
He said restructuring was the way forward for the country. He lambasted state governors for saying that they lack the capacity to pay the proposed minimum wage.
“I think we need someone who will restructure this country and someone who believes in restructuring. We, as Southern and Middle Belt leaders, believe that this country should be restructured. During the presidential primaries, we interfaced with about 16 presidential aspirants and we came to the conclusion that whoever believes in the restructuring of Nigeria should be our candidate. That is why we are talking about Atiku today.
“He has been talking about restructuring even before now. It is not what he picked overnight. We believe that whoever talks about restructuring wants a better life for this country and that is the person we are going to vote for. It must be remembered that when we interacted with the 16 presidential aspirants, almost all of them believed in the restructuring of this country.
“Anybody stopping it or arguing against it does not want the betterment of Nigeria. As I said earlier, if we do not restructure Nigeria, we do not want the survival of Nigeria as a country. Even the APC which is the ruling government set up a committee which recommended that they should restructure this country. The recommendations are identical.’’
