From Paul Orude, Bauchi
Presidential campaign posters of Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello flooded Bauchi, the Bauchi State capital, on Tuesday.
The posters tagged “Yahaya Bello for President for Generational Change” are sponsored by a group called Nigeria Youth Awareness Group (YAB) 2023, which our correspondent was unable to ascertain at the time of this report.
The appearance of the Kogi State posters on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has triggered public debate that Bello is nursing the ambition to contest for president on the platform of the ruling APC in 2023.
Our Correspondent who went round the city, however, noticed that some of the posters were defaced, especially the ones posted at Gidan Mayi and Emir palace roundabouts.
The development also brought mixed reactions. While some see it as a welcome development to have a young dynamic person such as Bello as President to replace the old guards, others, however, express pessimism over the choice of Bello for the top job saying he was notorious for owing salaries of workers for months and being intolerant of opposition and criticisms.
Reacting to the emergence of posters of Bello in Bauchi, the state publicity secretary of APC Adamu Jallah in an interview with journalists, said party members who have ambitions were free to paste their posters anywhere.
“Those who pasted the posters might be Bello’s supporters, APC in Bauchi state has not officially endorsed any aspirant for any position and the party has not officially been contacted by any presidential aspirant so far,” he said
Also commenting on the development, an APC stalwart in the state Mukhtar Bello Nadani said that the posters show that the youth love the governor, who they think has what it takes to deliver good governance if he becomes president.
“I have the belief that if a youth becomes the president, he can solve youth’s problems. Solving youth’s problems is solving the country’s problems being the majority of the Nigerian population,” he said
