Test Tinubu, Atiku, others’ mental, physical fitness, Melaye asks NDLEA

The Atiku/Okowa Presidential Campaign Organization has challenged all presidential candidates in the 2023 election, especially the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, to present themselves for mental and physical checks.

He also called on the Chairman of the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency, Brig. Gen Buba Marwa (retd.) to pick their blood samples for drugs test.

Spokesperson for the organisation, Senator Dino Melaye, made the call in Abuja on Saturday, pointing out that it is a constitutional requirement for anyone in the office of the president of Nigeria to be mentally and physically fit.

According to him, since drug abuse has become a serious malaise in the country, it is also necessary to ensure that whoever aspires to the highest office in the land must be free of the habit knowing that he will be the commander-in-chief of the nation’s armed forces.

He argued that if mental and physical tests are required for less significant things such as admission into the Nigerian Defence Academy and recruitment into the police and other agencies, it is even more needed for the office of the president.

Melaye said: “To be the President of the Republic of Nigeria, the Constitution of the Republic of Nigeria (as amended) says that you must be physically and mentally fit. Tinubu is not physically and mentally fit. I challenge him to a medical examination between him and Atiku. Because this is a constitutional requirement to be president and he should fulfil it.

“We challenge them, both of them should go for a medical examination because the constitution says that you must be physically and mentally fit to be president. And we want to see if the pronouncement of agbado, if the pronouncement of cassava, if the pronouncement that 50 million youths should be employed on the farm if the pronouncement by Tinubu that people are tweeting on WhatsApp…So, if it is just a mere statement, or made out of mental imbalance, we want to know.

“I want to know this mental state of my president. I want to know this is the current state of who will be my president.

“Aso Rock is looking for a healer and not a patient. We don’t want a president that will daily visit London every week again, and cause an economic and social distraction for us as a nation.”

When reminded that Tinubu had argued that he was not contesting to be a wrestler or a sprinter, the campaign spokesman said, “He should surrender himself to a medical examination for his mental and physical fitness. You need to be fit to be president of this country.

“Even ordinary NDA, you are going to, you must do a medical exam. If you want to join the police, you must do your medical tests. You want to join the army, you must do medical tests, you want to join the Navy…And this is a man who is going to be commander in chief of all our Armed Forces put together. He must also go through medical fitness.

“So, I challenge the presidential candidates to submit themselves to medical fitness examination, including narcotic examination.

“I call on Buba Marwa to carry Atiku and Tinubu and collect their blood samples for drug tests because anyone who must be our president must be free of drugs, because we are fighting as a nation seriously, to battle drug abuse.”

The Atiku/Okowa Presidential Campaign Organization spokesperson also warned that a vote for the candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, will be a vote for the All Progressives Congress as he noted that such a vote will merely deplete the tally of the Peoples Democratic Party.

He said Obi could not win the election because he does not have the necessary nationwide wherewithal to do so.

Melaye said, “Anybody that is campaigning for Peter Obi is actually praying and working for Tinubu to become the President of the Republic of Nigeria. Because if you are voting for Peter, you are depleting the votes of the PDP because Peter cannot make it.

“The truth of the matter is that Labour Party only fielded 30 out of 109 candidates for the Senate. So, who is going to protect the votes of the Labour Party when even fielding candidates for senatorial seats, 109 senatorial seats, they could not? They only fielded in 30 constituencies. Even the House of Reps, couldn’t field in every constituency. For the House of Assembly, they couldn’t field up to 50 per cent of the seats across the country.”