A former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Bode George, 74, will run for President in 2023, his Special Adviser, Uthman Shodipe-Dosunmu announced in a statement on Friday.
The Pathfinder Consortium, a group led by Uthman Shodipe-Dosunmu, issued the statement but said it is still unclear under which party the former PDP chieftain will be contesting.
According to Shodipe-Dosunm, the group will soon unveil George whom he described as a pathfinder and “big masquerade” who will bring a new beginning to the country.
He said, “We will engage, inform without derogatory withdrawal. We will challenge, debate, instruct without angry, expletive crudity. We will sustain and affirm in deliberate Churchillian supremacy,” Shodipe-Dosunmu said.
“Pretenders and the perennial time-servers shall disappear from the fray. Only the robust and the lucid patriotic band shall endure.
“And the dark, disruptive uncertainties shall cease, giving way to a renewal and a rebirth of democratic contention.
“It is settled!!! Our vision is stripped of ethnic or sectarian articulations. It is about rebuilding the broken walls, rectifying the festering wrongs, healing the persisting wounds.”
A Lagos State High Court had in October 2019 convicted Bode George and five others charged over alleged contracts splitting and inflation during his time as Chairman of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).
He was sentenced two-year jail term without option of fine.
Bode George did his time behind bars but in 2013, the Supreme Court quashed his conviction.
The apex court discharged and acquitted Mr. George, holding that prosecutors at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had no evidence of Mr. George’s intention to commit fraud at the Nigeria Port Authority (NPA) where as chairman of the NPA board he was caught presiding over a contract bazaar the bled the nation of Nigeria.
A panel of judges, headed by a controversial judge, John Afolabi Fabiyi JSC, further held that the charges of “contract splitting” upon which Mr. George was convicted is unknown to law.
It is left to be seen what impact this would have on Bode George’s presidential ambition.
However, his intention to run for presidency may be an indication that members of the “old brigade” in Nigerian politics are not yet ready to make room for the emergence of a new generation of leaders in the country.
Mr. Bode George would be 78 in 2023.
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