{"id":3868,"date":"2019-02-04T16:58:16","date_gmt":"2019-02-04T16:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.com\/nigeria\/?p=3868"},"modified":"2019-02-04T16:58:16","modified_gmt":"2019-02-04T16:58:16","slug":"ezekwesili-begs-for-forgiveness-for-withdrawing-from-presidential-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/ezekwesili-begs-for-forgiveness-for-withdrawing-from-presidential-race","title":{"rendered":"Ezekwesili Begs For Forgiveness For Withdrawing From Presidential Race"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"first\">Obiageli Ezekwesili, former presidential candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), has appealed for forgiveness for withdrawing from the contest for Nigeria\u2019s number one seat.<\/p>\n<p>Her appeal formed part of her remarks at a press conference she addressed on Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n<p>According to the former Education Minister, the decision to step down was a \u201ctough but necessary\u201d one.<\/p>\n<p>On January 24, 2019, she announced her withdrawal from the race just hours before ACPN addressed a press conference endorsing the candidature of President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC).<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-2310\" src=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.com\/nigeria\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/01\/Dr-Oby-Ezekwesili-284x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"284\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/upload\/sites\/3\/2019\/01\/Dr-Oby-Ezekwesili-284x300.jpg 284w, https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/upload\/sites\/3\/2019\/01\/Dr-Oby-Ezekwesili.jpg 605w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 284px) 100vw, 284px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Her words: \u201cIt has been an interesting one week since I made the tough but necessary decision to suspend my campaign for the presidency. I have been truly overwhelmed by the reactions to my announcement from Nigerians. Even in airports outside the country as I travelled last week, Nigerians walked up to me with questions, concerns, encouragement, and motivation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI also saw disappointment by some who had poured their hearts and hopes into actualising our mission to #Fight4Naija, bring back hope to our land and lift 80 million fellow citizens out of extreme poverty.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI ask for the forgiveness and understanding of all who are hurt by my withdrawal from the race even as I take comfort in the fact that they would agree with my choosing to stand with my values rather than compromise.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThank you to the young people who accepted and owned our campaign, to the women &#8211; my sisters and comrades \u2013 who worked and walked with me, to every believer and supporter from different tribes, states, religions and walks of life.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"clearfix after-story-ad-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"views-row col-small-6 col-large-4\">\n<div class=\"block-module block-module-ad block-module-ad-300x250\">\n<div class=\"adunit-parent block-module-image-wrapper\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Obiageli Ezekwesili, former presidential candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), has appealed for forgiveness for withdrawing from the contest for Nigeria\u2019s number one seat. Her appeal formed part of her remarks at a press conference she addressed on Monday afternoon. According to the former Education Minister, the decision to step down was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":2893,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,29,28,16],"tags":[127,215,173,235],"class_list":["post-3868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-homepage-english","category-parties","tag-candidates","tag-ezekwesili","tag-parties","tag-president"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ezekwesili Begs For Forgiveness For Withdrawing From Presidential Race - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/ezekwesili-begs-for-forgiveness-for-withdrawing-from-presidential-race\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ezekwesili Begs For Forgiveness For Withdrawing From Presidential Race\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Obiageli Ezekwesili, former presidential candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), has appealed for forgiveness for withdrawing from the contest for Nigeria\u2019s number one seat. 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