Presidential aspirant, General Muhammadu Buhari (Rtd) came down heavily on the ruling Party (PDP), saying Nigeria would be washed away as a country if the ruling party is given four more years in office in the 2015 general election.
In the same vein, the Chairman of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Ibrahim Coomassie, in a goodwill message delivered on his behalf by Barrister Solomon Dalung, urged northerners not to allow themselves to be divided by the artificial differences created by politicians.
ACF urged politicians from the northern extraction to put the interest of the north first and above their personal interest, saying ACF’s desire is for a united north that could give credible leadership in the country.
Speaking yesterday, in Kaduna, on behalf of other presidential aspirants of APC, at the party’s Northern stakeholders’ interactive meeting, General Buhari noted that Nigerians had become tired of incompetent leadership and urged the electorate to ensure that free, fair and credible elections that will usher in credible leaders at all levels of governance in the country are held.
APC presidential aspirants present at the meeting included former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, Kano State Governor, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, and Sam Nda Isaiah. Other members were Zamfara State Governor, Abdulazeez Yari, APC Deputy National Chairman (North), Senator Lawal Shuaibu, among others.
The former Head of State described 2015 as another year of extreme concern to Nigerians, urging participants at the meeting not to allow their members to be disenfranchised before or during the elections.
Apparently, making caricature of huge presence of security operatives in Ekiti State during the gubernatorial election in the state, Buhari noted that the number of soldiers, police and SSS deployed to the state during the election, were enough to rescue the abducted Chibok girls if the same number was deployed to the troubled north east. He recalled with pains that he contested presidential election three times in the country and ended up in the Supreme Court to challenge his failure, saying that judges that ruled on the cases were his own brothers from the North, while those behind him were Southern Christians.
Buhari said: “If PDP is given another four years to rule this country, Nigeria will go down the drain in 2015. This is because Nigerians are tired of incompetent leadership, so we must be ready to make sacrifices that will salvage the country, let us not allow our people to be disenfranchised during the elections, we must be united to ensure free, fair and credible elections in 2015.
“I contested the Presidential election three times in this country and failed and ended up in the Supreme Courts and lost the case. The first time the judges agreed that there were no elections and they were all Christians, but the second time, the judges that declared that the PDP had won despite the irregularities, were Fulanis from Adamawa and Taraba, and a Nupe man, that was when I understood that it was not about religion and ethnicity, but Naira and Dollar. So, there is the need for the party to be united and make a difference in the general elections in 2015.”
Meanwhile, in his opening speech, the APC Deputy National Chairman (North), Senator Lawal Shuaibu said one of the reasons for the stakeholders meeting was to sensitize the leaders of the party about their roles as guardians and conscience of the party.
Shuaibu said, “We expect that at the end of this meeting, we will be able to develop and adopt strategies for enhancing party unity and discipline. We equally hope that aside from what the constitution specifies, we will be able to come up with home-spurned internal conflict resolution mechanisms that will solidify the party and build it into a strong institution.”
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