Lift your knees off necks of Nigerians, Yahaya Bello tells elite

Gov. Yahaya Bello, Presidential candidate on the platform of the All progressives Congress (APC) says it is high time Nigerians deemphasized issue of zoning and focused on electing competent leaders.

Bello, who said this at a media appearance on Sunday in Abuja, advised the elite to “lift their knees off the necks of citizens and let Nigerians breath”.

According to him, he is in the race to change the narratives of regional politics in Nigeria.

“It is high time we deemphasised this issue of zoning. In the country today, all what Nigerians want, for instance, is who will secure them.

“Out of the 26 million Nigerians who want to support me, they know I am from the north but by my performance by my desire to serve this country, they are all out there to support me not minding where I come from.

“So if Nigeria’s younger generations can try to deemphasise that dichotomy and we still have some leaders (I refer to them as regional leaders) who are still emphasizing this, then Nigerians and the delegates should shine their eyes.

“If you go to America today, you do not care where Biden comes from. If you go to the United Kingdom, you do not know where the Prime Minister comes from.

“In the United Arab Emirates, most people do not know where the ruler comes from. So why are we always emphasising this?

“It is high time our elite lifted their knees off the citizens of this country and let Nigerians breath. By the special grace of God, I will lift their knees off the necks of Nigerians to make them breath,” Bello said.

Responding to the decision of the Northern governors to support a southern candidate as presidential flag bearer, Bello noted that not all northern governors were signatory to the document going round the media.

Bello said that such a move would only cause more division in the country among ethno-religious lines.

“If you look at the last convention, when all of us came up with a consensus, you will see how each and every governor endorsed that document.

“If you put that side by side with this, that is flying around in the social media you will see a statement first then signatures. It was just concocted to heat up the polity.

“I sound a note to all Nigerians, it is just a recipe to dividing the country further along ethnic and regional lines and this has been the bane of development causing a lot of disharmony,” Bello said.