Tag: Muhammadu Buhari

FORMER Head of State Gen. Muhammadu Buhari has defended the military against criticism that troops are unable to battle Boko Haram.

The military, Gen. Buhari said, is ill-equipped despite the huge amount of money being wasted on trivial issues by the government.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential aspirant spoke in Enugu  while addressing party faithful.

He said: “Soldiers have been complaining that they are ill-equipped, in spite of the trillions spent on defence budget in the last three years.

“If you consider the foreign revenue Nigeria has generated since 1999, you will be shocked at how inefficient and corrupt the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been. Soldiers have been saying they are ill equipped, yet trillions have been voted for defence in the last three years,” he said.

The former military leader was accompanied by former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, former Minister of Information Prince Tony Momoh, Mr. Audu Ogbe, among others. He noted  that next year  would be another landmark  year in the history of Nigeria.

He added: “If we don’t vote out PDP, it will vote out Nigerians and we will all be the losers. Cast your votes for us so that we can all fight this inefficiency and corruption.”

Gen. Buhari enjoined  party members to get their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs), urging them to be vigilant, vote and protect their  votes and ensure they count.

Gen. Chris Eze  said if Nigerians elect Buhari, they will be sure of having a competent Commander-in- Chief once again.

Eze recalled that under Buhari as Head of State, the violent  Maitasine sect was driven away from Nigeria into Chad while his regime initiated a war against indiscipline and corruption.

•APC presidential aspirant submits form

Former Head of State and All progressives Congress (APC) presidential aspirant General Muhammadu Buhari spoke yesterday about last week’s scene at the National Assembly.

He said preventing some members of the House of Representatives from entering the chamber was “a rape of the constitution”.

He said it was unfortunate that total insecurity has been allowed to prevail in the country.

The General, who spoke with reporters after submitting his nomination form to APC National Chairman Chief John Odigie Oyegun, said: “It is a distressing situation where those who are supposed to protect the constitution are those who are undermining it. The House of Representatives and the Senate are sacred places.

“The law enforcement agencies shouldn’t go there, fire tear gas and harass them. As far as I am concerned, they are undermining the constitution. If they are undermining the constitution, who is going to correct things when they go bad? My position is that total insecurity in Nigeria is on the march. May God help us.”

He told the party leaders that having collected the form and complied with the party’s demands, he was returning it in the hope that this will lead him to becoming the president in 2015.

He said: “We have collected the form according to the due process we are pursuing. We have dutifully gone through the processes and have filled the form and attached the documents and the receipts of the demand we have to subject ourselves to if we want to be part of the exercise.

“I believe that the forms have been surly filled. I thought that my form should not be submitted on the last day of submission, but to be among the first three. But I was told that it has to be submitted today.”

Speaking after receiving the form, the APC chairman said that the submission was a sign that Gen. Buhari is serious about the race. “If you pick a form and you don’t return it, we are not sure yet whether you mean business,” he said, adding:

“But I am glad that the form is here and you are one of the aspirants that has confirmed his continuation in the presidential race. So, I greet you and wish you the very best.

“I loved what you said when you came in that there were so many people that you could hardly find a place to park your car. That is the sign of a vibrant party, a party that is growing and I want to assure you that half the crowd you saw are PDP members seeking registration to join us and seeking waiver to pick our ticket for the various offices to be contested.

“So, we are busy working and preparing the ground for our eventual takeover.  I thank you for your forthrightness, simplicity and, by God’s grace, one of you in the APC will be the president of this nation in the next few months.”

Odigie-Oyegun expressed sadness about what he described as difficult and challenging times for the nation, but was quick to add that “this is a time when the good Lord is beginning to reveal all the evil that has been going on in this nation and that is still being planned in this nation.

“In the last few days alone, reports in the international and local media have it that a close aide of of President Idris Debby of Chad who has a document with him that allows him access into any facility without any special permission, was arrested with rockets meant to be supplied to Boko Haram.

“This is the same government and nation that we are relying on to broker a deal between us and Boko Haram. This is the same country and the same President that our President visited with fanfare in company of a man internationally and nationwide known as the sponsor of Boko Haram.

“I leave it to the imagination of the Nigerian public to see the kind of vicious circle that we are being plunged into. To see the kind of clique that are creating the kind of blood that is being spilled in the North eastern part of this country.

“The kind of person behind the deaths that we are experiencing everyday. Just two days ago, about 50 persons lost their lives again. The kind of conspiracy that is responsible for the abduction of our mothers, daughters and sisters and the slaughter in a very dastardly way, of students in our secondary schools.

“The point I am trying to make is that God is taking a hand in ensuring that there is peace in this nation by ensuring the gradual revelation and unravailing of all those forces that are responsible for the travails this nation has been going through in the last few months.

“We are glad that you are one of those Nigerians who have offered themselves on the platform of the APC with the vision and passion for change and the time has come when business has to be transacted differently in this country. Genuine concern for the people of this nation should become the number one priority of any government in this nation”.

A former Head of State and presidential aspirant in the All Progressives Congress (APC), Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, has begun an initiative to raise campaign funds from his supporters nationwide.

Under the initiative, Nigerians are expected to contribute a minimum of N100 to the campaign fund in a similar manner American President, Barak Obama, raised campaign funds for his election.

The initiative is expected to raise about N7 billion from about 70 million supporters.

Addressing his supporters under the auspices of the Buhari Support Organisation (BSO) in Abuja, the former Nigerian leader said he decided to buy into the initiative because of the in-built mechanism for ensuring accountability and transparency in its operations.

He said: “What makes it worthy of praise is the fact that the initiative comes with its in-built mechanism for ensuring acceptability that is also transparency-friendly. If we preach accountability, we should be able to practise it. What we are about to do in the next few months is the culmination  of painstaking effort, dedication and unquenchable zeal to make a difference to the future that lies before us.”

Expressing happiness about the support being extended to him by the youth, Buhari said what the groups had done was to rally support for a common purpose, to salvage the nation.

He recalled that a similar initiative was used by President Obama, who rallied the support of the people to provide funds that enabled him to prosecute his campaign.

There appears to be palpable anxiety among the aides and political associates of President Goodluck Jonathan over the presidential ambition of former military Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari.

The Presidency is particularly rattled by the seeming growing popularity of the retired General’s interest in the presidency and is already pulling all strings to scuttle or throw spanners into the works of the Buhari political machinery.

The Presidency is also jittery with the acceptability currently being enjoyed by Buhari among prominent northern groups and caucuses as well as the way Buhari’s men have been romancing with perceived opponents of the President especially within the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

A member of the PDP Board of Trustees from Lagos State told The Nation last Thursday, “Some prominent northern leaders, politicians and public office holders are now exhibiting different postures in their backing of the presidential aspiration of President Goodluck Jonathan in the region.

“Intelligence reports also suggest that some traditional rulers may have developed cold feet over their earlier promise of support for the president concerning his re-election bid. This is just as many critics of the President are finding it easy to relate with General Buhari.

“The presidency is genuinely worried and we are worried as party men and women within PDP. The essence of politics is to control power. It appears we need to do something about the rising acceptability of the APC chieftain especially in the northern regions.”

The BoT member added, “This is not to say Buhari is capable of defeating Jonathan in 2015; far from it. But in politics, you take care of every little detail. That is what we are talking about here.”

The Nation also learnt that following recent statements by some northern groups to the effect that they are favourably disposed towards Buhari’s aspiration, the Presidency has given handlers of Jonathan’s re-election project in the north marching orders to either get such organisations to either refute the statements or factionalise them.

“The organisations that drew the wrath of the presidency over such statement include the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Northern Union (NU), Middle Belt Assembly (MBA) and the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) amongst others.

“As we speak, the leadership of both NU and NBA have been polarised while the ACF is battling to hold itself together. The NEF is also broken into two with a faction known as the Northern Elders Council (NEC) under the leadership of elder-statesman Tanko Yakassai and some notable northern political heavyweights, now drumming support for President Jonathan’s re-election.

But all the organisations are united in their insistence that the presidency must return to the north in 2015.”

Although the PDP leadership is aware that the return of power to the north has been the position of the region since 2011, there is this thinking that the declaration of General Buhari that he would be seeking the presidential ticket of the opposition APC has reinvigorated the clamour.

“Before now, the agitation died down following realisation that it would be difficult for a northerner to beat Jonathan to the PDP ticket and the absence of a formidable opposition. But with the emergence of APC and Buhari looking good to be its candidate, there is worry in PDP,” a Kaduna based human rights activist said.

According to him, this explains why the presidency has been reaching out to prominent stakeholders in the north to woo them back into supporting Jonathan’s ambition.

“Just recently, some leading traditional rulers were invited to Abuja to see the President under the guise of discussing security situation. But on their return, we heard from some of them that the major issue discussed at the parley had to do with how Jonathan will be re-elected in 2015.

“They were promised a lot of things ranging from promotions, cars and new palaces if they rally their people to support the re-election bid of the president. Religious leaders and other opinion leaders were also invited to meet with the President,” our source said.

A number of reasons that include the mood of the people of the region, the dwindling fortunes of the PDP in many states of the region and general dissatisfaction with the handling of the Boko Haram insurgency, among others, have made many prominent northerners to jettison their support for Jonathan’s re-election.

The people feel the Jonathan government has some unfulfilled promises to the masses. Many feel he has not handled the Boko Haram insurgency well. They feel as a retired General, Buhari would perform better in dealing with the insurgents if elected.

“Aside that, the loss of states like Kano, Zamfara, Yobe, Borno and Kwara to the opposition has emboldened the people to throw their support for Buhari and his party. The general performance of the PDP government in delivering dividends of democracy to the people is also an issue,” a source said.

A GROUP, the Grassroots Mobilisation for Muhammadu Buhari (GMMB), has argued that the choice of former Head of State, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, as the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) would unsettle the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in next year’s general elections.

Its National Chairman, Mr. Remi Oyebanji, who made this known in a statement yesterday in Ibadan, said the popularity of Buhari was high given the votes he garnered at the 2011 elections, although the party on which he contested was barely four months old.

“The ruling party has exhausted its arsenal of character assassination, mudslinging, labelling and name calling on Gen Buhari. Instead, all these pronouncements on Buhari have become an albatross and bounced back on the sitting President and the PDP. Nigerians know better today”, the group said.

Oyebanji added that any mistake on the part of APC to present a wrong candidate would allegedly condemn Nigerians to another four years of suffering under PDP.

He advised APC leaders and delegates against the wrong choice of a presidential candidate, which he said would give the PDP an undue advantage and affect the future of Nigerians.