Atiku and Tinubu need to submit to medical and drug testing - Dino Malaye

Senator Dino Melaye, a spokesman for the Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Council, has requested that the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency conduct narcotics tests on Atiku Abubakar and Bola Tinubu, the respective presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party and the All Progressives Congress.

According to him, this would be a good way to gauge their qualifications for the country's highest elective office.

On Saturday, Melaye gave an interview to the press in which he urged the major presidential candidates to get checked out for medical fitness (including for drugs). Any candidate for president must be clean of drugs, so I'm asking NDLEA Chairman Buba Marwa to conduct drug tests on Atiku and Tinubu. At a time when our nation is fighting the disease of drug abuse, this is crucial information.

It's obvious that Tinubu is unqualified. Atiku will submit to the same medical examination I have challenged him to. Tinubu's statements about agbado, cassava, 50 million youths being employed in the army, and people tweeting on WhatsApp have us wondering whether or not these are merely statements or the result of mental instability.

"Aso Rock requires a physician, not a patient. The Nigerian people don't want a leader who will waste our money and time by making weekly trips to London.

Melaye also claimed that Mr. Peter Obi, the Labour Party's presidential candidate, lacks the qualities necessary to bring the country together.

He criticized Peter Obi, saying, "Peter Obi has no capacity to unite this country." You wouldn't hire a tailor for a carpentry job, would you? Because Obi cannot win, Nigerians should know that a vote for Peter Obi is a vote for the APC. People who support Obi's campaign are secretly helping Tinubu become president.

Despite his praise for Obi's work ethic, he said the Labour Party did not have the support to win the presidency at this time.

Great men of integrity like late Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Aminu Kano, he said, but they couldn't win presidential elections because they didn't have the national spread.

General Muhammadu Buhari (ret.) ran for president three times and lost each time before finally adopting a national platform. "Peter Obi should know from history that no regional champion can become President of Nigeria," Melaye said.

While Tinubu and his running mate, Kashim Shettima, were portrayed as godly men bent on helping the nation by former aviation minister Femi Fani-Kayode, Melaye, who represented Kogi West Senatorial District in the 8th National Assembly, responded with a statement of his own.

He wrote in a statement titled "Femi Fani-Kayode: the puerile defender of the ungodly" that the former minister's description of Shettima was ironic and that he should have embraced the teachings of Proverbs 17:28.

In addition, he said, "What sardonic humor to award Shettima the undeserved award of a helper of Nigeria? Can we see proof of that service somewhere? Where was Shettima in 2014, when the Chibok schoolgirls were taken and held in Sambisa Forest?

My brotherly advice to Femi Fani-Kayode is to maintain a positive outlook at all times; this will give him the foresight to say the right things at the right times to the right people. Just another disastrous adventure for a carefree parrot.