Say Buhari didn’t condemn corrupt Abacha govt
Buhari’s one-term insinuation, creation of PDP —APC
GOVERNORS of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), under the aegis of the PDP Governors’ Forum (PDPGF), has said the presidential candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC), Major-General Muhammadu Buhari, signed a single-term pact with APC leaders before he was elected at the party primaries in Lagos.
This came as they said the claim of the APC to fight corruption was deceptive, adding that sloganeering about corruption had been the order of the day since the first coup in 1966.
The governors, who held an interactive session in Lagos, with the theme: “Sustenance of Democratic Values and National Development,” said successive coup plotters had used corruption as a gimmick to justify their coup de’tats.
Akwa Ibom State governor and chairman of PDPGF, Chief Godswill Akpabio, who delivered the lead paper on behalf of the governors, said the presidential candidate of APC, after taking over in the 1983 coup, also used the fight against corruption to justify his emergence.
He said the promise to fight corruption is today a 50-year trick, adding that Nigerians should be concerned about how to jointly fight corruption.
Akpabio said that while the PDPGF might not question Buhari’s age at 73, the governors question the age of his ideas, which he described as outdated.
“We are aware that some people have complained about the age of Major-General Buhari. But we do not see anything wrong with his age if he thinks he can withstand the rigours of the job.
“But we are extremely concerned about the age of his ideas. We are concerned that a man who could not take charge when he was in his 40s, cannot take charge at 73, when his health would need constant monitoring.
“We are concerned about the age of his ideas, because 50 years after the first coup, which was hinged on corruption, Buhari is still thinking of using the same subterfuge to deceive us today. We dare not allow anyone use a 50-year old trick to destroy our democratic values. We are wiser today,” he said
The governors also denied claims in the media that they were secretely working for the opposition, saying it was part of APC propaganda.
Akpabio stated that the opposition party had gone ahead in the social media to say the PDP governors were in Lagos to either defect to All Progressives Congress (APC) or form a new party.
Niger State governor, Dr Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, who also spoke on the matter, said it was deceptive to say that he wanted to join a party he had rejected all along.
He said leaders of APC told him before the December primaries that they were routing for a different person as presidential candidate but that Buhari signed a single term pact with the party’s leaders, thus making them to pick him.
He also declared that while he was a member of the G7 uprising in the PDP in 2013, there was no agreement that the group would defect to another party.
The Niger governor, however, said some persons in the group with personal ambitions used the uprising to seek defection.
“We were in the G7 to correct some imbalances in the PDP. There was no agenda to defect.
“I was speaking to one of them before the primaries and he told me they had someone else in mind but they brought bullion vans to install Buhari, because he promised to spend one term and that will shortchange the North. Because when he finishes the term, he would not be in a situation to insist that the person to succeed him must come from the North,” Aliyu said.
Jigawa State governor, Alhaji Sule Lamido, who also spoke at the event, said the opposition had falsified history in order to undermine the PDP.
According to him, the APC was full of angry and aggrieved persons, adding that it was questionable to say that Buhari would fight corruption, as, according to him, the General kept quiet in the face of untoward actions perpetrated under the regime of General Sani Abacha.
He said while bombs were raining under the regime of the late Sani Abacha, Buhari kept quiet, even in the face of massive looting under that regime.
He also questioned how Buhari would handle the issue of some leaders of the party who are in court for corruption issues, but currently on bail.
Adamawa State governor, Bala Ngilari, said the military had been up and doing in recent times, adding, however, that the states of Yobe and Borno needed to cooperate with the military to fast track the war against insurgency.
He said if the two states of Borno and Yobe had been supportive, the war would have been won faster.
Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose, said Nigerians should vote for an energetic president, adding that Buhari would only be a cover for some persons to milk the nation dry.
He said throughout his presidential campaign, Buhari only spoke for 57 minutes, adding that the man was too old to lead Nigeria.
Governor of Cross River State, Senator Liyel Imoke, said President Goodluck Jonathan needed to be applauded for appointing someone he did not know at all but was recommended as a man of integrity to lead the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in person of Professor Attahiru Jega.
He, however, lamented that the integrity displayed when Jega was appointed is now in doubt, because of the recent activities of INEC.
“To sustain our democracy, we must imbibe our democracy values of equity, fair play, issue-based campaign and performance,” he said.
Ondo State governor, Segun Mimiko, stated that what could not be taken away from Jonathan is his empirical evidence of performance, adding that no president had come so close to him in terms of performance.
He mentioned ongoing works on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, including the improved local production of rice, which prevented price of rice to skyrocket during festive period.
“I’m sure that in the next few years, Nigerians will take power for granted. Since Jonathan has come on board, he has respected the hierarchy in the judiciary and nobody will deny the fact that Jonathan has allowed the National Assembly to be without any interference, that even when the Speaker, who was elected on PDP platform, defected to APC, nothing happened. President Jonathan allowed separation of powers to be,” he said.
According to him, it was on record that not for once had the president attempted to disallow freedom of press.
Speaking on the national conference, Mimiko said in the South-West, “we believe in true federalism. For a long time, people thought conveying a national conference would be impossible, but Jonathan made it happen.”
He urged Nigerians to forget about propaganda and vote for the man that would move the country forward.
Plateau State governor, Mr Jonah Jang, speaking at the event, lamented that he was yet to get his permanent voter card, adding that the situation was the same with millions of Plateau indigenes.
Buhari’s one-term insinuation, creation of PDP —APC
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has described insinuations doing the rounds that its presidential candiate of the party, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari, will spend only one term in office, if elected, as a figment of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) imagination.
The party, in a statement released by its national publicity secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, on Tuesday, wondered the basis for such assertions, when the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria guaranteed two terms for an elected president.
Mohammed pointed out that the APC would not subvert the constitution to service any selfish interest, as speculated, noting that the interest of the nation was supreme.
“The APC will not abridge the right of Major-General Buhari to spend the constitutionally-guaranteed two terms as president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria if elected in the March 28 poll.”
“No conditionality whatsoever was attached to Buhari’s candidacy. He won the party primaries fair and square in a globally-acclaimed transparent manner and he was neither a compromise nor a consensus candidate, hence there is no need for him to make a deal with anyone,” the statement partly read.
Mohammed, consequently, urged Nigerians to discountenance such positions by the opposition, saying that it was capable of creating disaffection among sections of the country.
“We are, therefore, telling Nigerians to disregard the tales by the moonlight which some PDP elements are yarning, in their desperation to muddle the waters ahead of the forthcoming elections and create disaffection between a section of the country and another,” Mohammed said.
“This myth that Buhari will spend one term, after which power will return to the South-West, is along the same line as the outlandish claim that our vice presidential candidate, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, has sworn to an oath to resign in favour of Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu once elected,” he added.
The APC Campaign Organisation has also warned the Jigawa State governor, Alhaji Sule Lamido, over his alleged kidnap joke.
The director of media and communication of the council, Mallam Garba Shehu, while addressing newsmen in Abuja, maintained that “it is, therefore, important that the PDP and its campaigners refrain from throwing invectives at our candidates.”
Source: Tribune
