As Presidential Campaign Begins: Era Of Stealing Must End – Buhari osundefender.org/?p=204201 As the presidential election campaign got under way yesterday, the two main presidential candidates, President Olusegun Obasanjo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and that of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have taken a jab at each other. While Jonathan asked Buhari and other opposition leaders to prove their worth by showing Nigerians their achievements while they were in office before accusing his administration of not performing, Buhari replied that the era of massive looting must stop. The president, who threw this challenge to his opponent in next year’s presidential poll when he inaugurated the PDP presidential campaign organisation established to carry out his 2015 campaigns at Legacy House, Maiatama, Abuja yesterday, warned those threatening to form a parallel government if the 2015 elections are rigged that if they foment trouble, they would go to jail. Jonathan said, “We will ask some Nigerians questions when we start these campaigns. They are now telling women to work for them. They will tell Nigerians how many women served in their government. “We have expanded access to education by providing schools and facilities at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels. Today, there is a federal university in every state of the federation, and every Nigerian child has been given the opportunity to go to school. “Some people will tell us how many nursery schools they built when they were in office. We will confront them with what we have done within this period. They will tell us what they did during their time.” Warning those threatening to form parallel government if the 2015 elections are rigged, the president said these are the same people who keep deceiving Nigerian children with crumbs just to keep them down and trample on them. “Some people are say saying if they fail election they will form parallel government; thugs, violence and malpractice or rigging must have no place in our campaigns and electoral activities. “Do not join those who threaten to start fires and turn them into infernos in our country. I assure you and all Nigerians that whoever foments trouble before, during and after the elections will be promptly and decisively dealt with according to the law,” he declared, adding that despite the security challenges the country has had to contend with in the past four years under his administration, Nigeria had made significant strides in every aspect. Nigeria’s economy, he added, had become the largest and the strongest on the African continent, and a preferred destination for foreign direct investment. “Our creditable performance in the past four years should be our strongest selling point as we go to the campaign fields,” he avowed. To the members of the campaign organization, led by former PDP national, Senator Amadu Ali their chairman, Jonathan urged them to flaunt the PDP’s achievements in all parts of the country and tell the story of what the federal government has achieved. He, however, asked them to be “civil, decorous and law-abiding” in doing this because he had already promised the global community that his administration will conduct free and fair elections in the country. “I have repeatedly promised Nigerians and the international community that as much as it lies within our powers, the coming general elections will be free, fair, credible and violence-free. I made that pledge with all seriousness and I fully intend to fulfill it. “As agents of the ruling party, all eyes will be on you during the campaign and elections. I, therefore, expect nothing but the highest standards of exemplary conduct from you as your worthy contribution to the fulfilment of our pledge of peaceful and successful elections. “Some other politicians and campaigners are threatening fire and brimstone. Do not join them. Some other parties are pulling down other people’s posters. That is primitive. Please, do not join them. Every Nigerian must be free to campaign anywhere,” the president told this campaign team. PDP national chairman, Adamu Muazu, warned the opposition parties to limit their campaign to issues, saying Nigerians were tired of sentiments based on religion and ethnicity. While projecting the preeminence of his party, he said that from comparative analysis, it was clear that other states could not be compared to PDP-controlled states, adding that zone by zone, all PDP states in north east had airports or state universities unlike APC states, except Borno which has only the airport built by the federal government long ago. He appealed to the president to consider what he called a very serious challenge, which entails that all PDP candidates, right from Jonathan at the top of the pyramid to the grassroots, should be carried along; not used and dumped, a problem that is still afflicting the party. The director-general of the campaign organisation, Senator Amadu Ali chided APC for fielding old men with no credentials like General Muhammadu Buhari as its candidate when the world had since turned to young men for leadership. “When the world is going with young people, APC is fielding an octogenarian with fossilised ideas of how to run a government, who has no certificate to tender. APC is trying to deceive our young people to be sweepers of the streets,” he said. Ali further insisted that the party was proud of the product it was marketing and assured that the conduct of the campaign organisation would be exemplary, even as he pledged that members of the team will not behave like a desperate opposition. “Our language will remain civil and presidential. Let those who have mastered blackmail and deceit continue, but it will lead to their defeat at the poll,” he added. Chairman of PDP Governors’ Forum and Akwa Ibom State Governor Godswill Akpabio, that the opposition had nothing to offer, said the PDP cannot afford to concede power to a party made of people who had threatened to make the country ungovernable for Jonathan if he won the 2011 presidential poll. “I want to ask members of the campaign that when they go out there, they should remind the people of Nigeria that the same people who are saying that they will stop Boko Haram are the same people who declared in 2011 that they will make the country ungovernable if Jonathan wins,” Akpabio said. Buhari flags off presidential campaign in Rivers, says era of stealing must end Former head of state and the APC presidential candidate, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) yesterday flagged off his campaign for the February 14 presidential election in Rivers State with a promise to revive the ailing economy of the country. Buhari, who identified the ailing economy and insecurity as the two major challenges facing the country, stated that his team had already made adequate arrangements to lift the ailing economy as soon as he is elected president and sworn into office on May 29, 2015. The campaign rally, which took place at the Adokiye Amesiemeka Sports Complex, Igwurita-Ali, in Ikwerre local government area of the state, had in attendance the speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, as well as state governors Babatunde Fashola (Lagos), Ibikunle Amosun (Ogun), Rochas Okorocha (Imo) and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso (Kano) He said, “The major problems we are facing in Nigeria today is the problem of the economy and insecurity. We have arranged competent hands to manage the economy once we come on board on May 29, 2015.” The APC presidential candidate appealed to all Nigerians who are 18 years and above to ensure that they collect their permanent voter cards (PVCs) in order to effect the change they had been yearning for at the general elections. Also speaking, Hon Tambuwal said the turnout of APC supporters at the campaign rally was a clear indication that the people of Rivers State and Nigerians in general would come out en masse to vote for the party in the general election. He commended Governor Amaechi and leaders of the APC in Rivers State for the choice of Hon Dakuku Peterside, and Hon Honourable Asita, who are both serving members of the House of Representatives, as the party’s governorship and deputy governorship candidates in the state. In his speech, the APC national chairman, Chief John Odigie Oyegun, said Buhari’s administration would eradicate corruption, flush out the dreaded Boko Haram sect and restore the dignity of the country. Meanwhile, there were reported attacks by unknown gunmen on APC members who were coming for the campaign rally from Khana, Akuku-Toru and Degema local government areas of the state. LEADERSHIP gathered that one person was feared dead while several others, including two women, were severally injured in the attack, which occurred along the Bori-Sakpenwa Road, in Khana local government area, as well as at Okpo community in Asari-Toru local government area of the state. The director-general of the Buhari-Osibanjo Campaign Organization, Governor Amaechi, condemned the attack on members of the party and blamed the PDP elements for the wicked incident. Amaechi said, “I heard, today, that APC members from Asari-Toru and Khana local government areas were attacked on their way to this place. The PDP believes in guns, we believe in God and man. We shall stand and face their bullets; we shall stand and face their guns.” The highpoint of the campaign rally was the presentation of the APC flag to the party’s governorship candidate in the state, Hon. Dakuku Peterside, by the national chairman of the party, Odigie Oyegun. Reject PDP at the Poll….. Buhari Tells Electorate in A/Ibom The APC presidential flag bearer General Buhari (rtd) has called on the electorate to reject the PDP in the forthcoming elections to save the country from impending disaster. General Buhari, who stated this yesterday at the Uyo Township Stadium during the presentation of the APC flag to the state governorship candidate, Obong Umana Umana, by the APC national chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, explained that Nigerians should now hold their destiny in their hands and vote persons that would engender good governance. “The era of impunity and wanton looting of the national treasury is over as soon as APC takes over government. We will not allow those who stole our money and kept it in their foreign bank accounts; in fact many of them would end up at Kirkiri prison,” he stated. An APC government, he declared, is out to effect the needed change that the country deserves and urged the people to use their votes wisely. “I wish to also remind you that the change we expect will be a consequence of your action; that action will be to vote massively for the APC in the next elections to herald a new dawn and bid farewell to the failed leadership of the PDP,’’ Buhari stated. On his part, Chief Odigie-Oyegun said that the time had now come for the people to differentiate between their right and left as exemplified in the misrule of the current regime of President Jonathan. He explained that no country can continue with the level of corruption going on in the country presently without becoming a failed state. “Already, we on the verge of being a failed state as you all could see in what is happening to our economy. All hands must, therefore, be on deck to ensure that the APC clinches power in the forthcoming elections. “The drop in state and local government revenue is as a result of corruption in government, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and oil theft supervised by government. We ask all Nigerians to exercise fortitude because the change we seek is almost here.” Rivers State Governor Chief Rotimi Amechi , however, warned that wresting power from the PDP would not be easy, but he gave the assurance that with the people’s support and prayers, the APC will triumph. The Akwa Ibom State governorship standard bearer Umana Umana called on Akwa Ibom people to resist any attempt by the PDP to rig the general election, and urged them to vote massively for the APC. Elections must hold in North East, Governors insist Call for more troops Governors of the north east states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe have urged President Goodluck Jonathan to send more soldiers to the region to contain the Boko Haram insurgents, saying the troops on ground are not enough to combat the terror group. They also insisted that elections will be conducted in the geopolitical zone next month despite the security challenges posed by the Boko Haram sect. Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima made these assertions while speaking to State House correspondents after a security meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan at the presidential Villa, Abuja, yesterday. Describing the meeting with the president as fruitful, the governors said they requested the federal government “to deploy more troops in addition to what we have on ground to arrest the situation in our various states. “We need more troops, the troops on ground we have in our various states are not enough to contain the situation, so we are appealing to the federal government to deploy additional troops with full equipment to tame the situation.” On the possibility of the 2015 polls holding in the region, they said: “Elections will hold; that is the position of the electoral commission and, definitely, in all those areas where the insurgency exists, elections will hold.” Governor Shettima added that if elections could hold in troubled countries like Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, then the north east should not be an exception. He said, “Elections, as I told you, were conducted in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and several other war-torn places that are even more devastated than the north east. Elections can be held in the IDP camps. It is human beings that conduct elections, not spirits. “My take on this is, are we giving in to Boko Haram? Are we giving in to their antics by not holding elections? We have to tell them to their face: ‘you can kill but, as Malala Yusuff said, you cannot kill our spirit.’” Asked about his feelings when you heard Boko Haran leader Abubakar Shekau saying the government was still asking for the freedom of girls that had been married off, Shettima described as a mad man that should not be taken seriously. “He is a deranged element; he is not somebody nobody should give any molecule of respect. His actions are beneath the act of even an animal, believe me. But as I said, we are not resting on our oars. We will continue to support the military by providing them with quality information when it becomes available. We believe, in spite of people’s pessimism, that in the fullness of time – and not in a far off distance, we are going to get back the girls. We hope to,” the Borno governor said. But when asked about the whereabouts of the Chibok girls, the governor said the best person to answer such a question was probably the National Orientation Agency (NOA) boss, Mr. Mike Omiri, Reminded that they were his girls and not NOA’s girls, Shettima said, “They are my girls certainly; they are Nigerians; they are your girls as well; they are our daughters, so nobody has monopoly over those girls. Our hearts go to their parents.” On his part, the chief of defence staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh, who refuted reports that Chadian and Nigerien forces had pulled out of the multinational force, foreclosed the possibility of the closure of borders between Nigeria and Chad and Nigeria and Niger as suggested. He said, “No. They have not pulled out of multinational force because we have held several meetings. They are still part of the multinational force. What has been happening is that they have not contributed troops to the point of Baga. “Chad has people of their own side but I believe they have withdrawn. Niger had people with us; they, too, withdrew and left Nigeria only at the multinational force headquarters.” On the suggestion that the borders between Nigeria and Chad, Nigeria and Niger should be closed, he said, “I wish it could be closed but how do you close such a very large border? And it is not for military to close border anyway, or is it?” Those at the meeting were Vice President Namadi Sambo; Adamawa State governor, Bala Nggilari; former Yobe State governor, Senator Bukar Abba Ibrahim; Borno State SSG, Abba Ahmed Gida, and the Kaduna State governor, Ramalan Yero. Others are the national security adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki; chief of army staff, Lt. Gen. Kenneth Minimah; chief of naval staff, Vice Admiral Usman Jibrin; chief of air staff, Air Marshal Adesola Amosu; director-general of the State Security Service, Ekpenyong Ita; inspector-general of police, Suleiman Abba, and the director-general of the National Intelligence Agency, Ayo Oke.
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 07:07:39 +0000
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