Buhari Asked Me To Join Presidential Race–Ayade

Cross River State Governor, Mr Ben Ayade, has revealed that President Muhammadu Buhari advised him to join the presidential race after consulting him at the Presidential Villa on Tuesday.

Ayade had earlier declared for the Presidential race on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress after a visit to President Buhari on Tuesday.

The governor made the declaration while speaking with state house correspondents after a meeting with Buhari.

He revealed that President Buhari advised him to make further consultations on his ambition.

The governor, who defected from the People’s Democratic Party to the APC less than two years ago, promised to replicate what he has done in Cross River State if he is elected president.

He advised that the presidential ticket be zoned to the south as he possesses the capacity to deliver from where Buhari would have stopped in 2023.

Ayade, who said he had the longest meeting of any presidential aspirant with the President, said he visited Buhari to seek spiritual and political guidance on who will take over from him come 2023 for continuity sake.

He said security, economy, electricity and employment will be his focus should he become the president.

Asked to react to unconfirmed reports that the APC might present former President, Goodluck Jonathan as the sole candidate for the 2023 presidential election, he said “I have great respect for President Jonathan and so I have no challenges whatsoever.

“I believe that the party leadership will decide on the appropriate candidate that will take our party to victory. And so, if you heard me well, I am just part of the family; absolutely loyal to the president, seeking to run for the president.

“And I am running. But at any point in time that the political leadership of my party, the APC feels that president Jonathan is the appropriate candidate that will actually take us to victory, I will turn my support for him.

“I am never, ever going to fight the establishment, the institution, the aristocracy, the spiritual vortex of which God has placed a leader of a country. I will never question the powers of the leader of a country. I have never played politics of antagonism or fight.

“I became governor by offering to support whoever the governor (Imoke) wanted and by stroke of luck, I became the candidate.

“By the same token, I am only here to support the president’s candidate and by a stroke of luck, he said, you too go there and join the race and let me see.”