On Wednesday, former Head of State Gen. Muhammadu Buhari joined the presidential race by declaring at the Eagle Square, Abuja. With his entrance, pundits say the battle for the Villa has just begun, writes TONY AKOWE, Abuja
Drumming. Singing. And dancing. It looked like a carnival. Politicians from various parts of the country were present. From several meters away, you could feel the celebration in the air. Motorists had a field day trying to negotiate their way around the Eagle Square, Abuja. The occasion was the official declaration of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari for the presidential race. He is seeking the Presidential ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Nigeria’s main opposition party.
Although it was meant to be a simple event, aspirants contesting various offices in their states turned the event into a campaign ground trying to outdo one another. Many of them came in open roofed cars, doing a parade round the Square with their supporters. Some others came quietly. In particular, governorship aspirants from Katsina State, the home state of Gen. Buhari stole the show.
For over two hours, security agents and organisers of the event had a hectic time trying controlling the surging crowd. The arrival of Gen. Buhari at about 12.27pm was greeted with wide celebration. The crowd rushed towards his convoy, waving frantically at his supporters who had taken over every available seat. Everybody wanted to touch the General and for about five minutes, his aides and organisers tried to get him into the state box. That done, the stage was set for the event proper.
Former Bayelsa State Governor Chief Timipre Silva set the tone for the day when he said the retired General was not in the presidential race for himself, but for the Nigerian people. He paid tribute to him for agreeing to come out of retirement to serve his fatherland. He lamented the state of the economy, which, he said, was in dire need of revamping as well as the current state of security in the country. He stressed that the security of the nation needs resuscitation and decried that for six months and still counting, over 200 school girls had been missing.
He said: “Our economy is in a shamble. The Nigerian problem is well known to us. Today, we are presenting to Nigerians the solution to Nigeria’s problem and that solution is Gen. Buhari. He is not in the race because of himself. He is in the race because of us, the young people of Nigeria. Happily, he has decided to come out of retirement and help us stabilise the country so that we can carry on with the task of developing the nation. He brings experience, integrity and transparency to bear on the campaign. That is why we must join hands and support him. He is a man of the people today and will be President of the people come 2015.”
Senator Olurunibe Mamora, who spoke on behalf of APC elders, told the gathering that the nation cannot afford to go on with the high rate of unemployment, insecurity, youth restiveness and other social vices that have characterised the PDP government since 1999.
Mamora said: “There is a wind of change and it is blowing across the country. The time for change has come and nobody can stop it. In 2015, APC government will be installed.”
Former Benue State Governor and Senate Minority Leader George Akume spoke in the same vein, but said those claiming that Gen. Buhari was too old to aspire for the Presidency should know that age is never a barrier in leadership. He argued that the APC is richly endowed with numerous credible candidates. While saying that the APC has grown into a global brand, be asked politicians, especially aspirants within the party, to play the politics of ideas and not that of insulting people.
Former Chairman of the ruling PDP Chief Audu Ogbe described Gen. Buhari as the nemesis of the corrupt. Ogbe said while supporters of the General believes he is the best man for the job, he stressed that they are opposed to imposition of candidate on the party. He welcomed the aspiration of other aspirants, saying: “We welcome the aspiration of Atiku Abubakar, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, Nda-Isaiah. We also welcome others who may want to join the race because we are a party built on solid democratic principles.”
He argued that Gen. Buhari’s credentials speak for themselves. He dismissed claims that Gen. Buhari is a religious fanatic, saying: “If Buhari is a fanatic, many of us will have nothing to do with him. I am a Christian, so is Rotimi Amaechi, so is Adams Oshiomhole, so is John Oyegun, so is Rochas Okorocha. Those who are calling him fanatic are not more Christian than we are. We don’t want to call the Pharisees, claiming holiness, claiming they are more Catholic than the Pope. Let me also tell you that the people propagating this are doing so because they want political parties to be drawn along religious lines”.
Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi said the 14 governors in the APC were determined to work together to actualise change.
He told the gathering: “Governors have resolved that whoever emerges as the party candidate, all of us will work to deliver APC. You know that our dear GMB is one of the aspirants who want the ticket of the party and you know that he is a material they don’t have in the other party. If they say they have someone like him, they should show us somebody who is anti- corruption like Gen. Buhari. APC provides an alternative for the country. We have been tested and we have never disappointed Nigerians. For us as APC, we will line up behind the party. Go back home and get your voter’s card. We will punish these people with our votes; Rivers State is not in their hands. Lagos State is not in their hands; Kano State is not in their hands. They are banking on using security. We shall teach them the Osun example. We will fight with our body, with our lives because there must be change this time. We have said it again and again that there is no aspirant in APC that is not better than the aspirant in PDP. What we must do is not only to vote for the aspirant we support, we must also get voters card so that when we finish nominating our own candidate here, we will line up behind that candidate to ensure that we vote out Jonathan. That is what we will do. One thing is that this party stands for anti- corruption because if we save the money they are stealing, there will be light. Mr President said to us on live television that he is the most abused president. He said by 2013, there will be so much light in Nigeria that Nigerians will be dancing on the street. Are we dancing?”
Addressing the gathering, Gen. Buhari said his mission in the race was to rescue the nation from the clutches of underdevelopment and misgovernment. According to him, Nigeria has continued to be on the decline in terms of development since 1999 when the PDP took over the rein of government.
He said: “Nigeria, in my experience, has never been so divided, so polarised by an unthinking government hell bent on ruling and stealing forever whatever befalls the country.
“APC will stop them in their tracks and rescue Nigeria from the stranglehold of the PDP. Since the last 16 years, PDP government has witnessed decline in all critical sectors of life in Nigeria. I humbly wish to present myself before you, before all of Nigeria and before God seeking to be elected as APC’s presidential candidate. Having appreciated that the only way to relieve Nigerians of the PDP, the main opposition parties decided to pool their strengths into one party. We have worked very hard in the last 18 months to put up structures from the polling units to wards, local governments, states and the centre”.
He said the leadership of the party has “tried to ensure all processes in our party formation to be transparent and credible. These structures will lead to free and fair polls. There is no point in holding elections if they are not free and fair. Interference in the form of rigging, which the PDP government has practised since 2003, is the worst form of injustice – denying people their right to express their opinions. Whether they like it or not, injustice cannot endure.”
While lamenting the insecurity in the land occasioned by Boko Haram, he decried the fact that “there is prevalence of armed robbery, kidnappings and killings, cattle rustling, market and farmland arson, which has taken a new and a frightening dimension, disrupting economic and social life across whole communities”.
He also expressed concern about the economy, which, he said, has continued to deteriorate while the government continues to announce fantastic growth figures.
He said when PDP came to power in 1999; Nigeria was generating about 4,000 M/W of electricity.
“After 15 years and $20 billion spent, we are generating between 3,000 – 4,000 M/W. No failure is more glaring than this. We in APC are resolved to bring change to Nigeria. We plan to do things differently.”
A Buhari-led government, he said, plans to put priority on protection of lives and properties; pursuing economic policies for shared prosperity and immediate attention on youth employment; quality education for development, modernity and social mobility; agricultural productivity for taking millions out of poverty and ensuring food security; reviving industry to generate employment and “make things” not just to remain hawkers of other peoples’ goods; developing solid minerals exploitation, which will substantially attract employment and revenue for government; restoring honour and integrity to public service by keeping the best and attracting the best; tackling corruption, which has become blatant and widespread.
He said the rest of the world looks at Nigeria as the home of corruption. Nigeria, he said, is a country where stealing is not corruption.
Human rights activist and a Senatorial aspirant from Kaduna State Mallam Shehu Sani told The Nation that even though all the aspirants on the platform of the party are credible, Gen. Buhari stands out among all of them. He described him as a man with grassroots support and acceptability. He argued that the advantage Gen. Buhari has over other aspirants is the fact that while others came from the PDP to join the APC, Buhari has never been a member of the ruling party.
Before his formal declaration, the General warned his supporters against casting aspersions on other aspirants of the party.
He said: “My supporters must not engage in any kind of behaviour or conduct that will tarnish the image of any leader or promote division and rancour within the ranks of the party. Whoever does that should know that he or she is working for the enemy. At the same time, I would like to appeal to you to be good ambassadors of the opposition. As a body, the opposition is committed to the rule of law and as members of the parties in the opposition, you must learn to do the same at all times. In particular, you must learn to be vigilant, especially just before, during and immediately after elections, whether these are rigged or not so that sponsored hoodlums are not made to commit illegalities that are, in the end blamed on you. With your support, I intend to offer myself for the position of the President of the republic on the platform of our great party. I intend to make a formal announcement soon and I hope I can count on up your continuing support and sacrifice. However, I would like to point out that to be more meaningful, your support must extend beyond my person and always be available to the party and all those the party puts forward because it is the party that is the platform. You must at all times remember that the APC is a party with several qualified people for each and all the positions that will be contested, including that of the President. It is the primaries that will determine who eventually represents the party and in which capacity. If I get the party nomination, I expect you to redouble your effort and commitment until we clinch the presidency. But in the event that it happens to be one of the other aspirants who wins, I will expect you, as a good party man to extend to him your support. We are a united party and united we shall remain because our strength lies in our unity. For this and for other reasons, I must warn all my supporters, volunteers and other well wishers within the party and even out of it not to insult or be rude to any other aspirant or party leader on my behalf.”
The race has, indeed, begun and interesting times lie ahead.
