A former National President of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) and Senatorial aspirant for Benue South Senatorial district, Daniel Onjeh, has said that former Senate President David Mark, lacks the capacity to be the President of Nigeria.
Onjeh, who spoke with newsmen after obtaining the All Progressives Congress (APC) nomination form, in Abuja, said Mark, having failed woefully as Senate President could not, therefore, be trusted with the mandate to lead the country.
He further noted that after serving in the hallowed chamber of the National Assembly for a long time, Mark disappointed the people of Benue South throughout his stay in the Senate.
“Ideally it would be appropriate to support one from your home town particularly for the position of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“It is and exalted office every ethnic group or tribe would want to have his/her own occupy.
“But unfortunately in my own view, he does not deserve the support because, he has been given the responsibility before and he failed.
“David Mark was a monumental failure to the entire Benue South people. Like they say, charity begins at home.
“He practically made the Senate his permanent abode. He has been there twice as an ordinary senator and twice as a sitting senate president.
“When he was a sitting senator under Goodluck Jonathan, one would be correct to say he was a defacto- President in the Country.
“He had everything at his disposal to effect the change you expect to see in this nation particularly with respect with Benue South people.
“He talked about addressing the poverty issues in the country within two years. He was there as a sitting senator and a de-facto president of Nigeria, and his people were living in abject poverty and deprivation and the length of his stay is not commensurate with the level of development on ground in Benue South because there no molecule of development in Benue South.
“In fact, Benue South has been completely disconnected from the federal government. The dividends of democracy which ought to have come through the same man who wants to run for election today is not there.
“Apart from the deplorable State of Benue South, I want to talk about the security angle which he promised to addressed within the shortest possible time while boasting of his military background, and experience.
“One would have expected that he brought that to bear before the Goodluck Jonathan administration to address series of security issues we had in the Country, ranging from Book Haram to kidnapping, herdmens/farmers clash that we had in Agatu, a very notorious one for that matter at the time they were in Government.
“Agatu people where attacked at will, several lives were lost, lives were lost in Agatu than we have under this administration but that was right under the nose of the same man who is claiming to provide security for the nation who was a sitting senator.
“People died in Agatu and we didn’t hear remark or any major statement in condemnation of the attack of Agatu people or an attempt to proffer solution to the security challenges that we had in Agatu.
“Agatu is one of the local government areas we have in Benue South and of course, we are all aware of what transpired in the killings that took place in Agatu where several homes were destroyed and people were displaced and as I speak with you, we still have remnants of IDPs in that environment.
“This is a man who couldn’t attend to the immediate security challenges of a zone in a State. I am not sure if he has the capacity to handle the challenges in the country.
“He also mentioned the issue of restructuring and I think he just brought into the cliché of restructuring. Of course, it is a good thing, but he was also a sitting senator for eight years.
“He could have as well moved for it. So, I believe that is their usual way to hoodwinked their way to the people and making them believe that they are building bridges for them where there are no rivers.
“For Senator David Mark, perhaps he would live up to his promise if he is given the opportunity of fulfilling the promise of restructuring they same way he fulfill the promise he made to the people of Benue South people that he was going to create an Apa State for them when he was the Senate President and indeed we all know we have an APA State in Nigeria, so we have 37 States in Nigeria,” he said.
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