By 
Abiodun OBA
Representatives of Nigeria’s Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo’s support groups and Pastor Tunde Bakare have picked Expression of Interest and Nomination forms to contest the 2023 presidential election on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Osinbajo’s his spokesman Laolu Akande, confirmed on Thursday in a series of tweets.
“A passionate team of support groups and individual Nigerians from across the country have raised funds to support the purchase of APC nomination forms for the Vice President’s 2023 presidential bid.”
“Today(Thursday), the forms have been collected by representatives of the team just as the VP continues his interactions with APC stakeholders across the states.
“Today(Thursday), he is in Cross River and Bayelsa states. It’s all about the desire and resolve of the VP to serve the people of Nigeria with all his heart, experience and insights,” Akande tweeted.
The APC expression of interest and nomination forms cost N100 million.
In the APC, at least 15 Southerners are already in the race.
They are Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State, Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River, former Governor Rochas Okorocha, ex-Governor Adams Oshiomhole, APC stalwart, Bola Tinubu, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, Governor Kayode Fayemi, the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, the Minister of State for Education, Emeka Nwajuiba and a former Senate President, Ken Nnamani.
Others from the South contesting on the platform of the APC include the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, former Governor Ibikunle Amosun, Minister of Transportation and Rotimi Amaechi.
Pastor Tunde Bakare, Serving Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church has also purchased his N100 million Expression of Interest and Nomination forms to contest the 2023 presidential election in Abuja.
Speaking after picking the forms, the fiery preacher who noted that God gives power to whoever he wills, said he would support any of his fellow aspirants who clinches the APC presidential ticket.
He said; “I trust God helping us with men of good will, East, West, North, and South from the country across party lines, male and female who will rise up and rebuild our nation in such a way that the devastation we are experiencing we would see it again no more.
“Our programme is very simple: peace, prosperity and progress and possibilities. Upon those four pillars, Nigeria will be rebuilt and the hope of many citizens will be rekindled.
“We are all going to join hands to make it happen. No other nation will fix our nation, it will take Nigerians from all works of life, within and without and those in the diaspora to join hands together to build our nation.
“God rules in the affairs of men and he gives it to whoever he wills. A southerner is a Nigerian, a northerner is a Nigerian. We trust God that the best, the fittest, and the most competent will emerge and the one who truly loves our people, especially the poor will rise to fix our nation. Many people run in a race but only one person will wear the crown. There is only one seat, whoever wins, the rest of us must rise to support him to rebuild Nigeria. East, West, North or South, Nigeria is our country”, he declared.
Bakare was reportedly arrested in March 2002 after preaching sermons critical of then-president Olusegun Obasanjo.
He was running mate of President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2011 presidential elections under the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC).
Bakare was formerly a pastor at the Deeper Life Bible Church before he left to join the Redeemed Christian Church of God which he soon left to form his own.
He can be adjudged as one of the most politically influential pastors in Nigeria.
In September 2019, the clergyman said God told him he will succeed President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023.
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