Okotie asks Buhari to stand down and hand over to him so he can run Nigeria as interim president

HOUSEHOLD of God Church founder Reverend Chris Okotie has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to stand down and hand over the running of the country to him for the remainder of his tenure.

Reverend Okotie, the singer-turned-clergyman who shot to fame in the early 1980s with the smash hit I Need Someone, has ran for Nigeria's president three times in 2003, 2007 and 2011. He founded the Fresh Democratic Party which was an acronym for Faith, Responsibility, Equality, Security and Hope.

Speaking yesterday while addressing journalists at his church in the Ikeja area of Lagos when celebrating his 63rd birthday anniversary, Reverend Okotie said President Buhari should hand over to him as interim president he was the right person to right the wrongs in the country. Explaining the rationale behind his request, Reverend Okotie noted that he had proposed to become the interim president because that was the solution for the country’s challenges.

Reverend Okotie said: “I want to appeal to all presidential candidates to withdraw from the race and allow me to come in as the interim president. I want to implore Asiwaju to support my government for the betterment of the country and I also want to tell Obi that the system that introduced him cannot take him anywhere because he cannot operate in the system we have now.

"All the presidential candidates should support me to succeed President Buhari as the interim president. We must also rise above tribe and religion because there is an imbalance in the country and we are not practising federalism instead, what we are practising is a presidential system of government.

"Since 1999, things have been declining because the presidential system of government we are practising has failed us. We must get rid of the national and state assemblies because maintaining each member costs the country billions of naira. Some of the standing committees at both assemblies are not useful to the country, they are only representing themselves, not the populace.

“For the best of the country, both assemblies should be scrapped and the money for maintaining them should be used for something else. What we have in Nigeria today is the government of the party, by the party and for the party.

“Ministers and the commissioners should also be expunged because Nigeria’s democracy has been hijacked by the elite for their interest and they are deceiving the downtrodden who don’t know anything. And the most important of all is our constitution, which should be changed to a people-oriented constitution, not the military one we have now and after the change, we can then restructure the country for the better.”

On his plans for the country after becoming the interim president, Reverend Okotie said his government will be that of national reconciliation and reconstruction. He added that his government shall address aberrations and anomalies in the polity.