Duoye Diri, Bayelsa State governor, has urged the presidential candidate of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), Rabiu Kwankwaso to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
The governor said himself and other PDP members are praying for him to return.
He spoke when the NNPP presidential candidate led top officials of his campaign council to visit him at the Government House, Yenagoa, on Tuesday.
The governor, who spoke through his deputy, Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, said his administration was on same page with Kwankwaso on several national problems affecting the country.
Describing the NNPP standard bearer as “an astute politician” who is passionate about working for a better Nigeria, he however, pointed out that current realities show that the country could be better fixed by the PDP.
Diri also described Bayelsa as one of the most environmentally terrorised places in the world with an unacceptable level of poverty that requires urgent attention.
He stressed that the state had been facing severe environmental degradation occasioned by gas flaring, crude oil spills and other environmentally unwholesome practices by multinational oil firms over the years.
According to him, what the state and its people need is a Nigerian president that would ensure environmental justice as well as true federalism in resource allocation and redistribution.
Diri agreed with his visitor that the country was witnessing, what he called, decayed infrastructure, collapsed healthcare and education systems, in addition to pervasive poverty and insecurity.
He said, “We agree with you in terms of the need to rescue Nigeria. But you know that there is no time your fowl and another will be wrestling that you will be seen clapping hands for the other fowl.
“Earlier, you put the poser across to us that you are expecting us to join you. But I want to let you know that we are also praying hard for you to come back to the PDP, where you rightly belong.”
The NNPP presidential candidate, Kwankwaso, had explained that he and his team were in the state to sell his aspiration and ideas on how best to fix the country.
He said he would mobilise all democratic forces to save Nigeria from insecurity, poverty, failed healthcare, agriculture, education and infrastructure, if elected as president in the elections scheduled for next month.
He noted that the party was not the issue, but electing the right person as president, warning that Nigerians would have themselves to blame if they did not vote “a healthy person as their next president.”