Says Constitution permits aspirants to resign only 30 days to poll
See me as your new symbol of unity,growth, and regeneration,he tells APC
Begs ASUU to return to classrooms
By Joseph Erunke
ABUJA –MINISTER of State for Education,Hon. Emeka Nwajiuba,has declared his intention to contest for office of the president in the 2023 general election.
But the minister ruled out the possibility of resigning his position ahead of his party,the All Progressives Congress,APC presidential primary,billed for May 29 to May 30,2022.
Nwajiuba declared for the position, Wednesday evening,in Abuja,when he received the APC Nomination and Expression of Interest Forms,from a group under the aegis of Project Nigeria Group.
The N100 million nomination forms were purchased for him by a support group, Project Nigeria.
Nwajiuba said he accepted to run and bear the Party’s Flag into the elections and become our next President to builds on the solid foundations that have been laid thus far by the current administration.
Responding to question on his fate as a minister following his open declaration to vie for elective office,the minister said he would only resign 30 days to presidential election as stipulated by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The resignation of a minister or anybody who is in office is guided by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“We are required to contest election if we want. We are required to resign 30 days before any election we choose to contest. That is the position of the law. Every other person can have an opinion
My position is that the law of the country rests on the grund norm called Constitution. If you do not like the Constitution, your work is to amend it There is no subrogation of power that is required for you to include into a law what is not in that law.”
Earlier, Nwajiuba after receiving the forms,thanked the group for donating their hard earned money for him to vie for the presidential election, saying he has accepted the call to run for the office to replace President Muhammadu Buhari.
“I now solemnly accept to run for us all, and bear our Party’s Flag into the elections and become our next President.
” I do this recognizing that in the last 7 years, President Muhammadu Buhari has performed extraordinary feats in ensuring that our progressive ideas have been established; physical infrastructure of every type and inclusive policies reaching out to our poor and less privileged. As we strive to uplift Nigeria and Nigerians into a developed state,”he said.
He thanked President Muhammadu Buhari, who he said “in the course of the 20 years that I have been in his political household, has afforded me the opportunity to learn and proffered my little effort in the service of our fatherland, Nigeria.”
He spoke further:”We all thank our party, its chairman, the NWC and the NEC that he leads as they build on the work many previous party officers started in coming together to present Nigerians with a Progressive Platform that is a congress for all shades.
“I thank with profound respect my fellow Nigerians both those present here and those in all our nooks and cranny, whose desire for a re generation by a forward generation and breed of political workers, has led them to identify me as their Chief Recruit for the job of moulding Nigeria along the path of its collective dreams.
” They have gathered resources from every part of the country and purchased the form for which the APC will nominated a candidate to fly its flag in the Presidential Elections in February 2023, they have now presented this to me.
“A lot still is outstanding and needs to be done. Many of our citizens are still outside, hungry, unemployed. Many more are threatened by unwarranted and unnecessary internal security and economic challenges.
“Our calling today invites me to; take up a work path that builds on the solid foundations that have been laid thus far. Provide different paradigns for new challenges and provide the platform for a vista that accommodates subject experts to pull together forces to meet our Nations challenges.
“This is the path I propose to thread, having been properly schooled, experienced and tested in the last 30 years of active politics.
I therefore invite our dear party and its great men and women, to forge that trust in me, as their new symbol of unity, growth, and regeneration as we step into the future with renewed zeal and optimism.”
The minister used the occasion to call on the Academic Staff Union Of Universities,ASUU, to call off its ongoing strike, saying they did not need to embark on strike to be attended to by authorities.
He urged the union to return to classrooms so that students can go back to the classroom as the federal government looks into their demands.
He said it is the duty of the government to give life to the 2009 agreement signed with the union to make sure that the universities that the federal government owns were properly funded even as he said “government’s funding is very limited.”