Comrade Daniel Onjeh, who contested the senatorial seat against Senator David Mark in 2015, has described the former Senate President’s presidential ambition as a tacit way of taking a ‘humble bow’ from a possible defeat he may suffer in any contest against him.
Onjeh, who picked the expression of interest and nomination forms to contest the Benue South Senatorial District seat again in 2019, said the presidential ambition of Senator Mark was a ‘soft-landing’.
The senatorial aspirant said he would not support his former political opponent because of his alleged failure to have positive impact on the lives of the people of the senatorial zone during his reign as Senate President.
When asked to comment on the recent declaration of Senator Mark seeking the presidential ticket the People Democratic Party (PDP), the former Student Union leader said: “Well, ideally it would be appropriate to support one from your home town particularly for the position of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It is an exalted office every ethnic or tribe would want to have his/her own occupy but unfortunately in my own view, he (David Mark) does not deserve the support because he has been given the responsibility before and he failed.
“David Mark was a monumental failure to the entire Benue South people; Like they say charity begins at home, but he practically made the Senate his permanent abode. He has been there twice as an ordinary senator and twice as a sitting Senate President. At the time that he was a sitting senator under GEJ, one would be correct to say he was a defacto President in the country. He had everything at his disposal to effect the change you expect to see in this nation particularly with respect to Benue South people.
“When he declared for President recently, he talked about addressing the poverty issues in the country within 2 years. If you were there as a sitting senator and a defacto-president of Nigeria, and then your people are living in abject poverty and deprivation, the length of his stay does not commensurate with the level of development on ground in Benue South; no molecule of development in Benue South.
“In fact, Benue South has been completely disconnected from the federal government. The dividends of democracy which ought to had come through the same man who wants to run for election today.
“One would have expected that he brought back to bear before GEJ administration to address series of security issues we had in the country, ranging from Boko Haram to kidnapping, herdmens/farmers clash that we had in Agatu, a very notorious one for that matter at the time they were in government. Agatu people where attacked at will, several lives were lost, lives were lost in Agatu than we have under this administration but that was right under the nose of the same man who is claiming to provide security for the nation who was a sitting senator, people died in Agatu and we didn’t hear remark or any major statement in condemnation of the attack of Agatu people or an attempt to proffer solution to the security challenges that we had in Agatu.”
