The Chairman Emeritus of DAAR Communications Plc, High Chief Raymond Dokpesi, said he was supporting a northern presidency in the 2023 elections because they had been marginalised with the death of former President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua in 2010.
According to him, it will not be fair and just should power return to the South in 2023, even though the regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), would have done eight years.
Dokpesi, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party, stated these in an interview with journalists in Abuja on Saturday as part of activities marking his 70th birthday.
He said his support for northern presidency was in line with PDP agreement during the party’s convention in 2006.
But ironically, Dokpesi said he was also canvassing for the national leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu for President in 2023 because they had been childhood friends.
He said, “Let me tell you that Bola Ahmed Tinubu, before he became governor, when he was still in Mobil, you know the Headquarters of Mobil is just directly in front of my house in Lagos. As young men, we ate and drank together; we were close friends before he became governor.
“He is a philanthropist; he is kind-hearted. He is supportive of the ordinary person available, and he has brought about bringing hope to people. For 2023, I wish him the very best in whatever he puts his hands on. So, it has nothing to do with politics; it is a matter of the good relationship we have always had and I cherish it and I want to keep it.”
While insisting that ex-President Goodluck Jonathan won the 2015 election, Dokpesi said he did not believe that he (Jonathan) would join the APC as being rumoured and had not told anybody.