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Tag: BUHARI

  • Dear General Muhammadu Buhari

    Dear General Muhammadu Buhari

    I count it an honour to be included among the “very influential and patriotic Nigerians” to whom Your Excellency addressed your letter Ref GMB/PE-2007/1, of May 29, 2006, regarding your intention to seek the ticket of the ANPP for the 2007 presidential election.

    You have since secured the ticket, and your presidential campaign is approaching full throttle.

    Congratulations

    From my current abode in the United States, I have been following the electioneering campaign and related developments as reported in the Nigerian newspapers and other information sources on the Internet. I have nothing but high praise for the single-mindedness, the energy, and the passion with which you are pursuing the quest.

    I owe you an explanation and an apology for employing this public medium to respond to your letter. Although it was addressed to me directly and could therefore be considered private communication, it was entirely about public issues. It was also addressed to me, I believe, because I am a public affairs commentator. Besides, since so many issues would be contending for your attention, I was not sure that if sent a private reply, your campaign staffers would bring it to your notice.

    As your candidacy and the support it has been garnering became a subject of heated controversy, I decided that this was the best time to respond, and to do so from this public platform. If this is a breach of protocol, I offer Your Excellency my remorseful apologies.

    In the letter under reference, you identified with remarkable perspicacity the challenges that lie ahead for whoever aspires to be Nigeria’s next president – establishing and nurturing democracy, fashioning appropriate institutions to ensure good governance, and building a just society.

    I am heartened that if elected, you will not abandon the disconnected majority of our compatriots to the not-so-tender mercies of the market, but will seek and maintain a proper balance between the caprice of the market and the judicious application of public policy. They in turn will also find very re-assuring your determination to bring about improvements in literacy, public health, nutrition, employment, and physical security.

    A good many of our compatriots will, I am sure, contest Your Excellency’s assertion that it has been resolved for all time that Nigeria should remain “a single, indivisible, political entity.”

    I can almost hear them ask: “When was the question resolved, where, and by whom?

    The presumption that this question has been resolved, Your Excellency, lies at the heart of some of Nigeria’s most intractable problems. It has bred in some ascendant groups an overweening sense of entitlement, leading them to treat other groups with condescension, to expropriate them and generally relate to them as if they were colonial subjects.

    This attitude has in turn moved disadvantaged groups to demand, with increasing militancy, a negotiated re-structuring of Nigeria, based on equity and justice.

    There is no room for complacency on this important issue, Your Excellency. The unity and indivisibility of Nigeria should never be taken for granted. Unity has to be cultivated and nurtured in the crucible of justice. Without justice, there can be no unity. When the system is seen to be working for justice, not thwarting it, Nigerians will unite behind common purpose, including preserving Nigeria as a single indivisible political unit. Without justice, that goal will remain an aspiration at best.

    I was somewhat encouraged on this score, Your Excellency, by the accent you are placing on social justice in your campaign. The hope must be that, under a Buhari presidency, this accent will at all times animate the process as well as the outcomes of public policy.

    But there is one section of your letter that I find troubling. I crave your indulgence, Your Excellency, to quote the relevant paragraph. It reads: “The first challenge, Nigeria to be or  not to be, has been settled once and for all in favour of Nigeria, despite the occasional picture of impending doom by harbingers of war, unguarded utterances and sensational reporting.”

    This may be nothing more than the speculation of an overwrought imagination, but I hear in the phrase “unguarded utterances” and “sensational reporting” faint echoes of Decree Four, the most repressive press law ever enacted in Nigeria. At the very least, the phrase suggests that Your Excellency still regards contrarian speech and “sensational reporting,” howsoever defined, as irritants that stand in the way of good governance.

    If this is a misreading of your thinking, I hope Your Excellency will quickly disavow it. For that perception runs deep among those who are implacably opposed to your candidacy and those who are merely ambivalent about it. They acknowledge that your Administration meant well for the most part. But they remember all too well how Decree Four, Decree 2, and indeed the posture of your Administration, created a climate of fear and rendered thought socially hazardous.

    Two incidents captured this climate of fear most poignantly. The first was the jailing by a military tribunal of two journalists, Tunde Thompson and Nduka Irabor, for publishing a news story that failed the exorbitant test of not being “accurate in every material particular” – a standard unattainable even in particle physics. The story at issue had no bearing on national security, and the factual error that sealed the doom of the two reporters did not call into serious question the integrity of the reporting.

    The second was the firing-squad execution of three young men convicted of drug peddling by another special tribunal invoking a law passed after the offence was committed. Retrospective punitive laws are always reprehensible. It would be hard to find anything more odious than laws that prescribe death by retroaction.

    This record cannot be prettified, Your Excellency. It is no answer that these incidents occurred under a military regime. Nigeria was not a military barracks, nor was it an occupied territory.

    Unlike some of the people who claim to speak for you or to advance your cause, you have not tried to dodge the facts. You have not sought by vile tactics to assail the honour of those who insist that you confront the record. It remains for you to acknowledge, even if only in the antiseptic language of officials whose policies have gone frightfully awry, that “mistakes were made,” and to enter a solemn pledge that you will never embark on nor permit such measures again.

    Those measures may well have been discussed and approved by the Armed Forces Ruling Council over which Your Excellency presided. They were undoubtedly backed by law. Still, their application did not adhere to the rule of law. Rather, they belonged in the discredited practice of “rule with law.”

    Every barbarous measure the white supremacist regime in South Africa embarked upon was scrupulously backed by law; hence, they claimed, the rule of law operated in the enclave. But the world community was not fooled. It declared apartheid a crime against humanity.

    Your iron self-discipline, your Spartan lifestyle, and your capacity for following up and following through, your large appetite for work, your concern for the disconnected, and your reputation for integrity, will stand you in good stead in the testy days ahead, and if you win the race, in the years ahead.

    But you need to reach out, Your Excellency, to the human rights community, to those who have expressed strong opposition to your candidature, and those who were gravely injured by some of your policies.

    Play Mandela. Play Yakubu Gowon. Start with Nobelist Wole Soyinka, if only because he is the most outspoken and the most influential among your critics. Seek him out during your impending campaign tour of the Southwest, not to appease but to engage him. And be sure reach out to Umaru Dikko, whom you should have no difficulty locating.

    My apologies once again, Your Excellency, for addressing you through this public medium.

    I thank you for your time and attention, and wish you all the best in the race to Aso Rock.

     

    • First published in The NATION on February 6, 2007, this article is reproduced today for its contemporary resonance.

     

     

  • As Buhari, Ambode and Ugwuanyi emerge

    The political environment is on a tailspin, with the cries of the politically robbed and the jubiliation by the successful gladiators. Of course there are those who suffer political hallucinations and delusions about their political worth, and as such, try to pass off mere political mirage as arrested political tsunamis. Among the political wayfarers and the wailing, it is difficult to distinguish the genuinely robbed, from the robbers who were beaten in their game.

    So, I propose to the weather beaten victims and failed aspirants, particularly those who abandoned their constituencies while the party lasted, a new law to establish a chartered institute of political arbitrators and mediators, to help arbitrate and mediate the rambunctious fractures arising from their rejection at the primaries. While the law makers work out the details of such an act, or law, to show their frustration, let us look at some of the celebrants, who are already gearing up, for the February show down.

     

    Alhaji Muhammadu Buhari

    Retired General Muhammadu Buhari, austere politician and veteran presidential contestant, and the candidate of the alternative national behemoth, the All Progressive Congress (APC), will square with President Goodluck Jonathan, as the main contenders for the 2015 presidential election. Fortunately for him, his co-contestants at the APC primary have accepted defeat with equanimity, and so will hopefully support him during the campaign and general election. But still he has the challenge of time and resources to prosecute the money guzzling presidential campaign.

    He will also have to contend with selling his vice presidential candidate, as the best, from among the very influential contenders, within his party. Hopefully the choice he has made will bring value towards a successful campaign. There is also the combustible issue of religion and tribe. Even more serious will be how to handle his several enemies, from among the top corrupt national elite, who know that a Buhari presidency could ruin their contrived life of opulence, luxury and corrupt enrichment, at the expense of the hoi polloi. But despite the challenges, Buhari will give President Jonathan a good fight.

     

    Mr. Akin Ambode

    The emergence of Mr. Ambode, an urbane retired civil servant, is substantially similar to that of Governor Babatunde Fashola in 2007, and Lagosians are hopeful that if he wins in 2015, he would perform excellently well, just like the incumbent. Ambode’s emergence as the gubernatorial candidate of the APC started off as a rumour, before the royal endorsement of the Oba of Lagos. Now, against the permutations of his co-contestants, he resoundingly won the contentious party primary.

    His major challenge now should be how to assuage the ill-fillings of the other contestants, who had high opinion about their political clout, but had languorously lost out at the keenly contested primary. As has been argued by other concerned commentators who have genuine sympathy for the success of the party at the general polls, there is the need to heal the fractious ruling party, before the elections in 2015. There is also the need to assure non-indigines that Lagos remains the center of excellence for all its inhabitants, regardless of religion or tribe.

     

    Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi

    As expected, Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Gburugburu) the preferred candidate of the incumbent Governor of Enugu state, Barrister Sullivan Chime, emerged as the gubernatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), though with some serious hiccups. Against the tradition of Ebeano political family, the deputy senate president, Ike Ekweremadu, successfully extracted a favourable compromise from the Governor. That is a good development, in the interest of enduring democratic culture. As I have stringently argued on this column, the closure of the political space against any form of opposition does not do anybody any good, not even the immediate beneficiaries of the existing status quo.

    Considering that Enugu state is substantailly a PDP state, it may be safe to conclude that Gburugburu will be coronated at the general elections, next year. Well that is if the state Ebeano family are able to put their fractious house in order. Towards that, I urge Hon. Ugwuanyi to reach out to his senior brother and colleague, Senator Ayogu Eze, in the overall interest of their senatorial zone, primed to produce the next governor of the state. Gburugburu must give it to Ayogu, he distiguished himself creditably well as a Senator, and with executive and legislative experience, would have made a fantastic Governor, if he was the choosen candidate.

    There is also the issue raised in a discussion I had with a friend and colleague, who argued in favour of our state producing a female senator, for the first time. Pushing his argument, he said that Enugu state is a laggard, when it comes to empowering women with high political office, and urged for suport for what many call, the tumultous emergence of Mrs Ifeoma Nwobodo (Ifeoma di niru), as the candidate of a faction of the PDP, to represent Enugu East senatorial zone. But that will wait for the final resolution of the party or the court, over the authentic candidate from among the three contenders laying claim to the same position. Furthering that argument, the alternative would be for Gburugburu to nominate a female, as his deputy.

    As we await the final showdown next February, it is my wish that Buhari will gain enough support, to pose a serious challenge to President Goodluck Jonathan, at the polls. To achieve that, he must come up with a dream team. As we count down to that election, which may make or mar our fractious nation, it is my earnest prayer that the campaign will be issue driven, with the candidates telling our troubled nation, how he can solve our numerous nation-state threatening challenges.

     

     

     

  • APC: choice of Buhari’s deputy ’ll be democratic

    APC: choice of Buhari’s deputy ’ll be democratic

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday assured Nigerians that the choice of its presidential running mate will be made within the context of the best democratic ideals.

    The APC last week picked its presidential candidate in a generally acknowledge primary.

    In a statement yesterday  by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party urged Nigerians to ignore the widespread and misleading reports in the traditional and social media about the choice of the APC presidential running mate, saying the party had yet to even meet let alone pick a running mate.

    It described the reports that a running mate had been picked to run with the APC presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, as unnecessarily sensational, downright speculative and totally misleading.

    ‘’We are using this opportunity to tell Nigerians to pray for us as we seek to pick a running mate for our presidential candidate. This is because this choice is not just for us but for all of Nigeria,’’ the APC said.

    The party said everyone of the candidates who have been speculated as a running mate to Gen. Buhari is unquestionably competent to be a vice president or even president, adding, however, that no choice had been made.

    ‘’We are glad with the feedback we have received from Nigerians on the transparent and rancour-free manner in which our presidential primaries was organized. We are assuring Nigerians that the choice of our presidential running mate will also be guided by best democratic ideals.

    ‘’We appreciate the nationwide interest that the choice of our presidential candidate and his running mate has generated. It is a mark of the confidence that Nigerians repose in us. We assure that we will not disappoint our compatriots who have seen our party as the agent of the change they so much crave,’’ it said.

  • Buhari visits Atiku

    Buhari visits Atiku

    The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Gen. Muhammadu Buhari yesterday visited former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar.

    The meeting at Atiku’s Abuja residence is believed to be part of moves by Gen. Buhari to rally all leaders behind him.

    It might also have discussed on the choice of running mate for Gen Buhari.

    According to PREMIUM TIMES, another APC leader Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, and Alhaji Lawal Shuaibu, Deputy National Chairman (North), visited Atiku.

    Atiku had in his concession speech, after losing the primary,  pledged to hand over his policy document to Gen. Buhari for possible review and implementation.

  • ‘Buhari is Nigerians’ choice’

    ‘Buhari is Nigerians’ choice’

    Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola has said that the emergence of former Head of State  Gen Muhammadu Buhari as the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is the best democratic pill to galvanise Nigerians towards  change.

    He said Buhari is candidate of  Nigerians, who have been yearning for a change.

    Aregbesola said the decision by all party men and women to elect the former head of state demonstrates the commitment to presenting a candidate who would not only win the presidential election but go ahead to rescue Nigeria from the present quagmire anti-democratic and anti-development elements had brought her in more than a decade and a half.

    Aregbesola, in a statement by the Director, Bureau of Communication and Strategy in the Office of the Governor, Mr. Semiu Okanlawon, was quoted as speaking shortly after the declaration of Gen Muhammadu Buhari as the presidential candidate of the APC after a keenly contested primary held in Lagos.

    “We must congratulate Nigerians for the emergence of Gen Muhammadu Buhari as the presidential candidate of our party. The excitements, commendations and jubilations that have greeted the election and consequently the announcement of Gen Muhammadu Buhari are clear demonstrations of the fact that Nigerians have been anxious and now poised for an immediate change in Nigeria.

    “It is clear now that Nigerians are determined to jettison their religious, tribal, partisan and other mundane interests to rally support for our candidate. Gen Muhammadu Buhari, I can confidently say, is not just the candidate of the All Progressives Congress but the popular choice of entire Nigerians,” Aregbesola was quoted as saying.

    Reminding Nigerians of the urgent need to fix the country, Aregbesola said the outcome of the primary election itself confirmed that the APC has taken transparency, the fight against corruption and graft to a new height.

    “People have chosen the best man for the job regardless of all other less edifying considerations. Buhari represents the face of the required battle against corruption. He represents openness and commitment to good governance. For those who consider the awful impact of corruption on our country, the choice of Gen Buhari would easily translate to the readiness of Nigerians to battle against the most debilitating scourge against the country’s growth,” Aregbesola said.

    Listing the challenges that lay before an APC government at the centre, Aregbesola reminded Nigerians that the 16 years of the Peoples Democratic Party at the centre has spelt economic doom, political complications and social morass.

    “We have witnessed the most horrendous crimes against the soul of this country. There has been a mindless rape of the country by a gang of looters who have made Nigeria a laughing stock in the comity of other nations.

    “There is needless hunger in a country with many untapped opportunities. All the critical sectors have been bled to states of coma and what we have left as a country is fractured entity gasping for breath.

    “With the election of General Muhammadu Buhari, Nigerians are assured that a new Nigeria is possible,” he added.

  • Buhari versus Jonathan: time to end mindless campaign

    Buhari versus Jonathan: time to end mindless campaign

    Merely deploying words that frame candidates negatively shows lack of political skills required of the political elite class.

    Yesterday marked the end of the search for the two political protagonists that will drive the campaign and shape the voting in next year’s presidential election. The ruling party at the centre, PDP, presented yesterday its consensus candidate, the incumbent, President Goodluck Jonathan. On the other hand, the opposition party, the APC, elected before camera former Head of State, General MuhammedBuhari, as the party’s flag bearer. With the choice of the two candidates by the two leading political parties, it should now be the turn of citizens to hear more from the candidates about why each of them deserves to be voted in as president in 2015 than from distractive noises from chosen or self-appointed spokespersons. It should be assumed that public relations staff of each political party has done very well the preliminary work needed to put the two leading contenders before the electorate.

    On the eve of the conventions of both parties, President Jonathan played the role of a statesman when he cautioned politicians not to act like touts during the process leading to the presidential elections. In other words, President Jonathan must have chosen to caution party men and women not to turn the campaign process into the type of mindless antagonism that characterises relations between co-wives or touts fighting with all means for the same gain in the kitchen or motor parks respectively. The president must have been trying to warn party fanatics not to act in a way that can erode public confidence in the electoral process. Given the spate of name calling of opposition parties and personalities such parties in the past few months by party functionaries in the ruling party, the president must have seen the futility and danger in failing to warn party loyalists in all parties to take the matter of presidential elections with the seriousness it should deserve.

    One thing that may not be obvious but that is equally present in the president’s caution to politicians is the imperative in a serious democracy for political elite to demonstrate political skills expected of individuals in positions of leadership and evidence of a sense of the public interest by showing at all times during the electioneering campaign that political office seekers and their professional supporters have regard for the public, the citizens whose votes they seek and whose support they need to get elected in a truly democratic ethos. Unfortunately, the PDP spokesman failed to heed President Jonathan’s advice when he couched his first response to the announcement of Buhari’s candidacy in a language that detracts attention from policy matters, while focusing on personality of the person that is to run as alternative to the incumbent.

    The publicity chief’s statement: “Buhari has nothing new to offer, except ‘tired ideas’ and provocative utterances” is not an elegant way to start a free and fair issues-based campaign. Given anecdotal reports of citizens glued to television sets and radios in the last forty-eight hours during which the two leading parties formally chose their candidates, there is no doubt that citizens are interested in hearing what the candidates hope to do to address the problems that have confronted the country since 1999. Merely deploying words that frame candidates negatively shows lack of political skills required of the political elite class. Utterances and actions of party officials during electioneering do not only contribute to shaping citizens’ decisions and final choices at the polls; they also reflect the political maturity of the elite class while having the capacity to degrade or upgrade political attitudes of citizens.

    Another statement by the PDP spokesman: “We are convinced that the PDP remains the only truly national political party in Nigeria, a platform on which all Nigerians can pursue their legitimate aspirations” is hyperbolic and has no basis in reality. Such a statement undermines the INEC that found all the parties in the contest from PDP to APC, UPP to SDP national enough to deserve being registered for national elections. Such facile denigration of rival parties is capable of eroding citizens’ trust in the political process and even of alienating floating voters from the party of the incumbent.

    Certainly, there is a sense in which the job of public relations man or woman can be perceived as doing or saying everything that is capable of enhancing the chances of the client and to damage the chances of the rival or competitor. But statecraft and a sense of deliberative democracy require that party public relations officers act and talk in a manner to sustain trust in the system, rather than paint the system as pre-cast and frozen to serve just the interest of a competitor, regardless of fairness and respect for the rights of the other competitor[s] to present other cases   to the electorate. All the political parties need to move away from the traditional notion of election as just an opportunity to smash your rival in words of assault. Elections are regular rituals that sustain democracy and socialise citizens to imbibe the tenets of democratic practice, not a war of words that cast the rival as a demon.

    Truly, electoral competition presupposes that there will be conflict between or among candidates from different political parties asking for the same thing: the mandate to govern. But if we are not to be petty about this important matter, all persons functioning as party leaders need to imbibe and display commitment to the principle of choice by the electorate. Citizens’ ability to choose correctly can be frustrated or destroyed by demonisation of candidates in a campaign that focuses more on personalities than programmes or on images than issues. Our democracy is too young (only sixteen years after the exit of military dictatorship) for the political elite to organise electoral struggle only in the plot and imagery of conflict for conflict’s sake.

    Inter-party conflicts during elections in particular and at other times in a democratic ethos are for the purpose of clarifying nationally important issues for the electorate, with a view to leading them to make informed choices about the future preferred by voters for themselves and their children. Let us not degrade the process with provocative utterances such as are inherent in the latest description of the nation’s opposing party as Bola Tinubu’s APC. Such statement could have been designed to attack Tinubu as a politician who has reshaped the political party system in the country in the last sixteen years, but it also has the capacity to insult citizens and cast them as sheepish followers of an individual, rather than as believers in a multiparty system believed to be the surest way to sustain political democracy.

    Nigerians have heard a lot of slogans in the last fifteen years: “Do or die struggle for power,” “the political party that has been ordained to rule Nigeria for 65 years,” “Nigeria’s only national party that can keep the country united,” etc. Yet, our multiparty system has not disappeared, and the struggle by various political parties for the mandate to govern the country has not become redundant. In fact, the only thing that adds legitimacy to any political party’s bid for power is the existence of more than one political party. There is no better time for the political elite to act in the manner of elite, rather than as touts, to borrow President Jonathan’s phrase.

    Citizens are more likely to want to hear from all the candidates how each of them plans to address the real issues: corruption, security, an economy that appears to have been degraded by the diminishing value of petroleum, an education and health system in shambles, and a polity being broken into two by the diversionary tactics of Christian and Islamic fanatics besotted to political power at all cost. Let us all welcome the emergence of the two principal candidates for the office of the president with discipline and admiration for the democratic process by opening and sustaining the political space for unfettered presentation of policy statements to address the country’s problems. In addition, let us candidates urge for full and prompt funding of the electoral commission, to prevent watering down of the electoral process on account of under-funding while also calling on the media to restrain from reducing the political debate of the next two months to personalities, images, and packaging. Citizens need to hear (without over mediation) from each candidate about the way to peace, progress, and prosperity in the country.

  • Buhari is North’s candidate—Coomassie, Ango Abdullahi

    Buhari is North’s candidate—Coomassie, Ango Abdullahi

    Following the ratification of President Goodluck Jonathan by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as its presidential candidate, prominent northern leaders have resolved to adopt the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), as its consensus candidate for 2015.

    Both the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and the Northern Elders’ Forum (NEF) yesterday said before the presidential primaries that produced Jonathan and Buhari, the North had resolved to support a northern candidate, and since APC has fielded a northern candidate, they have no they have no choice but to support him.

    Indeed, they opined that President Jonathan ought not to be in the race if the principle of zoning created by his party and the constitution was respected.

    In an interview with our correspondent, the Chairman of ACF, IGP Ibrahim Coommasie (rtd), said: “First of all, the APC presidential primary and PDP convention have clearly shown those who are ready to practice democracy. APC’s primary was held smoothly without any rancour, and all of them have come out to accept the result.

    “That is a good omen for our democracy, and I hope that INEC will emulate that.

    “So, we are congratulating Gen. Muhammadu Buhari who has been winning primaries all through. Only when it comes to the general elections is he rigged out. We have also seen what happened in the other party.

    “I am the Chairman of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and we have said it before, but we are still reiterating it, that we are going to support the Northern candidate. APC has voted a Northern candidate, so we are going to support him 100 per cent. So, Buhari is our candidate for the 2015 election.”

    He was however quick to add that if Governor Rochas Okorocha had won the APC primary, they would still have supported him because he was born and bred in the North and has shown interest in the development of Nigeria and the region in particular.

    Coommasie said: “In 1998, the politicians decided that power should go to the South, and because of June 12, the South-West was favoured and it fell on (Chief Olusegun) Obasanjo. And they said that power should return to the North after eight years. Unfortunately, Obasanjo even wanted to do three terms but he couldn’t.

    “Eventually, Obasanjo reluctantly brought Yar’adua who, unfortunately, did half of his first term and died. And by constitution, the number two man took over. So, many people argued that, since it was the tenure of a Northern candidate, after completing the first tenure, Jonathan should have stepped aside and allow another Northern candidate to take over and complete the tenure. But it wasn’t so.

    “He said he wanted to contest. He contested and won and now, he wants to continue.”

    In the same vein, the spokesman of Northern Elders’ Forum (NEF), Prof. Ango Abdullahi, told our correspondent that “the implications of the PDP and APC primaries have spoken for themselves. One, as it was said, was a coronation; not an internal democracy.

    “The other one was true democracy on display, where aspirants refused to step down for each other and they decided to go and slug it out at the primaries. That was what happened in the case of APC.

    “But in the case of the other party, there is no internal democracy. In fact, those who showed interest were intimidated and coerced to submission to withdraw their candidature.

    “So, what the PDP did the day before yesterday was already described by some commentators as a coronation rather than a process where people are given their democratic right to choose their candidate. The implication is that, if the ruling party would insist on not respecting the democratic process within itself, the fear is that in an inter-party competition where they are in charge of affairs, the machinery of government, security forces and others, there is the risk that, they may go back to a situation whereby they will not like competition for their candidate.

    “There is already a lot of warning from respected Nigerians that the best thing that must happen to this country is free and fair election in 2015, otherwise, the country will be at risk.

    “Jonathan shouldn’t be in the contest in the first place if the principle of zoning that was created by his people and the constitution is respected. He shouldn’t be a candidate by now.

    “Secondly, there is the problem of incompetence. Everybody from Wole Soyinka to Obasanjo has observed that this is the most incompetent administration the country has ever witnessed.

    “Thirdly, there is the legal aspect of his eligibility. By my simple reading of the constitution of Nigeria, Jonathan cannot contest the election because he would be a president that would be in office in excess of eight years.”

    Prof. Abdullahi however commended other aspirants who contested against Gen. Buhari in APC primaries for accepting the outcome of the primaries.

    “Each one of them has spoken that they respected the outcome of the primaries and they will honour the pledge that they are going to work together to ensure that the party records victory in the forthcoming 2015 election.”

  • 2015: Buhari’s running mate emerges Monday

    2015: Buhari’s running mate emerges Monday

    General Muhammadu Buhari’s running mate in next year’s presidential election will likely emerge on Monday or Tuesday, it was gathered yesterday.

    General Buhari was picked to fly the flag of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the party’s national convention in Lagos on Thursday following which leaders launched into strategic meetings to decide on his running mate.

    The meetings continued last night.

    There are indications that the party may concede the VP slot to the South-West, contrary to speculations that South-East or South-South would clinch it.

    Shedding light on why the South-West may be favoured for the slot, a reliable source, who spoke in confidence, said: “Hopefully, Buhari’s running mate will emerge on Monday or Tuesday. We will make our position known by then.

    “We are building consensus on the South-West as the zone to produce the vice-presidential candidate.

    “You may be hearing of some names being dropped, we have not finalised discussion on who should be chosen. Our leaders are weighing the options on who to pick and they are extremely careful.”

    Responding to a question, the highly-placed source added: “The slot is for the South-West, based on strategic political calculations.

    “And if you look at the power sharing ratio in the country today, the South-West is short-changed. Even the Senate presidency zoned to the South-West was denied it at the last minute in June 2011.”

    Another source in the camp of Buhari, said: “I think by all implications, the mate of the presidential candidate may be from the South-West.

    “We have left the South-West chapter of the party to decide on who the cap fits.”

    Meanwhile, a jittery Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Presidency have been forced by the emergence of Buhari as the APC presidential flag bearer to return to the drawing board with a view to reviewing their strategy on how to stop the APC.

    It was gathered that the fears over Buhari border on likely block votes for him from the North, especially North-West and North-East.

    The ruling party was also disturbed that it might lose some states in North-Central including Kwara, Benue, and Niger.

    It was learnt that the party might initiate reconciliatory moves in some states in the North where primaries have created division.

    A source said: “The PDP was working on the permutations that ex-VP Atiku Abubakar would emerge as APC candidate because of his war-chest. The party had also envisaged that Atiku’s choice might create an implosion in APC with PDP as the utmost beneficiary.

    “The election of Buhari as APC presidential candidate has forced the Presidency and the PDP to return to the drawing board on how to win all the zones in the North.

    “Buhari has really unsettled everyone in spite of all moves by the party to underrate his emergence as APC candidate. The PDP has realised that the scenario is different from that of 2011.

    “Our leaders have been meeting on how to checkmate Buhari. Apart from issuing a statement that Buhari has not offered anything new in his acceptance speech, the PDP might engage in some propaganda as soon as APC choice of running mate is announced.”

    Already the South-East APC has asked the Igbo to join the Buhari bandwagon instead of putting all their faith in the PDP.

    The South-East APC made the plea in a statement through its spokesman, Mr. Osita Okechukwu.

    He said the result of “the free, fair and transparent APC’s presidential primary, clearly reflects a nationwide broad based acceptance of GMB. The result has shown that GMB is a man of the people.”

    He also described “the celestial bond between him and the Nigerian masses and the middle class, in particular. Hence the vintage Buhari-Bandwagon for salvation.

    “We join GMB in declaring Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Governors Rabiu Kwankwaso and Rochas Okorocha and Sam Nda-Isaiah as co-winners of the presidential primary for their robust campaign, understanding and sportsmanship displayed.

    “ In fact their candour and solidarity with the winner is uncommon and highly commendable.

    “We salute Chief John Odigie-Oyegun-led national executive committee and Dr. John Kayode Fayemi led national convention committee for conducting a free, fair and transparent presidential primary.

    “It is historic and most likely will remain a benchmark of measuring future presidential primaries for a long time to come.

    “South-East APC makes bold to state that the success of the presidential primary has demonstrated that APC chances of wining the 2015 general election is very high.

    “It is a prelude to regime change which Nigerians earnestly yearn for and a measure of internal democracy in action.

  • Buhari is our candidate – North

    Buhari is our candidate – North

    Following the ratification of President Goodluck Jonathan‘s candidature by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the North has resolved to adopt the presidential candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) as its consensus candidate for 2015.

    Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and the Northern Elders’ Forum (NEF) on Friday said the North had resolved to support a northern candidate and since APC has fielded a candidate from the region, they have no alternative than to support him.

    They said, “President Jonathan shouldn’t be in the contest in the first place if the principle of zoning that was created by his party and the constitution is respected. He shouldn’t be a candidate by now.”

    The Chairman of ACF, Ibrahim Coomasie, a former Inspector General of Police, said, “First of all, the APC presidential primary and the PDP convention have clearly shown those who are ready to practice democracy. The APC’s primary was held smoothly without any rancour and all of them have come out to accept the result. That is a good omen for our democracy. I hope INEC will emulate that.

    “So, we are congratulating Gen. Muhammadu Buhari who has been winning primaries all through. Only when it comes to the general elections, he is always rigged out. We have also seen what happened in the other party.

    “I am the Chairman of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and we have said it before and we are reiterating it that, we are going to support a northern candidate. And since APC has voted a northern candidate, we are going to support him 100 per cent. So, Buhari is our candidate for the 2015 election.”

    He, however, said if Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, had won the APC primary, they would still have supported him because he was born and brought up in the North and has shown interest in the development of Nigeria and the region in particular.

     

  • Buhari: my plan for Nigeria

    Buhari: my plan for Nigeria

    With yesterday’s emergence of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari as the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the stage seems set for a major battle on February 14, next year.

    President Goodluck Jonathan was returned by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Abuja early yesterday. He was the only aspirant.

    Dr. Jonathan immediately named Vice President Namadi Sambo as his running mate.

    The APC is yet to name Gen. Buhari’s runing mate.

    Gen. Buhari’s victory elicited celebration at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere, Lagos Mainland venue of the colourful convention.

    The former Head of State scored 3,430 of the total 5,992 votes cast.

    Kano State Govenor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso got 974 votes, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar got 954 votes, Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha had 624.

    There was a huge ovation when the 10 votes scored by publisher San Nda-Isaiah was announced. He brought the rear in the contest.

    Atiku congratulated Gen. Buhari even before the completion of vote counting. In a tweet, Atiku said: “Congratulation Gen. Buhari. The delegates have spoken, you fully deserve the victory.” He signed the tweet with his initial AA.

    His acceptance of the result was reinforced with a statement from his media office tittled “My word is my bond”, also released before the end of counting. Atiku pledged to support the standard bearer.

    The primary was monitored by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officials.

    Following Gen. Buhari’s emergence as the APC flag bearer, sources said that the Presidency and the PDP national leadership were jittery. Many PDP chieftains close to the President made phone calls to reporters to know the likely winner. A Lagos PDP chieftain said: “We in the PDP have been keeping vigil too. The President and all our leaders are interested in knowing the results. We know there will be a great contest now in 2015.”

    APC national leaders, who came from the six geo-political zones, were in one accord at the event presided over by the National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun. They included the Speaker of the House of Representatives and Sokoto State governorship candidate, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, the National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Chief Ogbonnaya Onu, Chief Bisi Akande, Prince Tony Momoh, Senator Abba Bukar Ibrahim, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, Senator Adamu Aliero, Mr. Audu Ogbeh and Senator Atiku Baguda.

    APC governors stormed the stadium in grand style, waving the brooms as they moved round the venue to welcome delegates. They included Babatunde Fashola (SAN) (Lagos State), Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo), Ibikunle Amosun (Ogun), Rauf Aregebsola (Osun), Adams Oshiomhole (Edo), Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers), Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto), Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara), Abdulazeez Yari (Zamfara), Tanko al-Makura (Nasarawa), Ibrahim Gaidam (Yobe), and Kashim Shettima (Borno).

    Other chieftains included Oyo State Deputy Governor Moses Adeyemo, his Lagos State counterpart, Mrs. Joke Orelope-Adefulire, Osun State Deputy Governor Mrs. Titi Laoye-Tomori,  former Osun State Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola,  Hon. Dakuku Peterside, Dr. Tahiru Maman, Borno State House of Assembly Speaker Hon. Abdulkareem Lawal, his Lagos State counterpart, Hon. Yemi Ikuforiji, Kano State House of Assembly Speaker Isiaku Ali, House of Representatives Minority Leader Hon. Femi  Gbajabiamila, Senators Bukola Saraki, Ajayi Boroffice, Oluremi Tinubu, Ganiyu Solomon, Mudashiru Hussein, Sola Adeyeye, Babafemi Ojudu, Mr. Wale Edun, Hon. Wale Osun, Prince Abiodun Ogunleye, Princess Sarah Sosan, Hon. Danladi Bako, Alhaji Kawu Baraje, Mr. Tokunbo Ajasin, Hon. James Faleke, and Dr. Hassan Lawal.

    There were also Senator Sani Yerima, Kwara State Deputy Governor Peter Kisira, former Kwara State Governor Shaba Lafiagi, Senator Gbenga Ashafa, Dr. Chris Ngige, Chief Oyewole Fasawe,  Mrs. Aisa Al-Hassan, Alhaji Kawu Baraje, Senator Julius Ocha, Enugu State governorship aspirant Okey Ezea, Senator Isiaka Adeleke, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN), Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora, Senator Kabiru Gaya, Otunba Niyi Adebayo, Senator Tony Adefuye, Senator Barnabas Gemade, Erelu Bisi Fayemi, Senator Obange Domingo, Magnus Abe, Ibrahim Musa, Alkali Jajere, Babajide Omoworare, Jubrilla Bindow, and Senator George Akume. Senator John Udoedehe, Mrs. Rachel Akpabio and Musa Gwadabe.

    At 11 pm on Wednesday, the event kicked off, following the opening prayers by Senator Olabiyi Durojaye, a party elder from Ogun State, and National Secretary Bala Mala. The Master of Ceremony was House of Representatives member Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa.  The all-night event continued till last night. The highlights included the adoption of the party constitution amendment, the unveiling of the APC General Elections Manifestos by Odigie-Oyegun,  a 10-minute speech by each of the five aspirants and the explanation of the voting procedure by the Planning Committee Chairman and former Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi.