Buhari har Mahdi (III)

Buhari is humble and this humility has been retained over time. Buhari’s strong character is preferable to that of our flip-flopping President. Buhari’s honesty and sincerity of purpose are astonishing. His fear of God is not tailored for television cameras and is beyond theatrics. His love for the country is demonstrable. He contrasts sharply with […]

Buhari is humble and this humility has been retained over time. Buhari’s strong character is preferable to that of our flip-flopping President. Buhari’s honesty and sincerity of purpose are astonishing. His fear of God is not tailored for television cameras and is beyond theatrics. His love for the country is demonstrable. He contrasts sharply with Jonathan who has become supercilious since his acquisition of countless pairs of shoes. In Jonathan, the PDP is presenting its weakest presidential candidate in 16 years. If the opposition doesn’t defeat the ruling party in the February 2015 election, it never will in our life time.
Buhari is making his fourth attempt at the Nigerian Presidency. He is being challenged for the ticket by former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar; Governor Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso of Kano; Sam Ndah-Isaiah, the publisher of Leadership, and Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State. Like the APC said, any of its presidential candidates will make a better president than Dr Goodluck Jonathan. But how Buhari is treated in the selection of the flag bearer of the APC, and how the peoples General wins or loses that ticket, can make or mar the fortunes of the party in the North.
Atiku has a huge war chest, and is a veteran mobiliser; but he doesn’t excite the base of APC like Buhari. According to Obasanjo, Atiku cannot even travel to the United States of America because he has issues with that country’s authorities. How do we have a president that cannot enter US to conduct our country’s affairs? You can deny Atiku the presidential ticket of APC and nothing will happen.  
Governor Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso is very popular and has done very well for the people of Kano. Every segment of the good people of Kano has felt the impact of Kwankwasiyya. His investment in education and infrastructure in Kano State is spectacular. Kano is one huge construction site and the city is being modernised. As a former legislator, diplomat and Minister of Defence, Kwankwaso is eminently qualified for the presidential ticket of the APC. But the truth is that Buhari is more qualified than him. Again Kwankwaso can’t excite the base of APC like Buhari.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal, who had weighed in and then suspended his own quest, is a good politician. He became the Speaker of the House of Representatives despite the sturdy opposition from within his former party, the PDP. He has managed the House very well, retaining the support and respect of his colleagues across party lines. Tambuwal needs the governorship of Sokoto so as to further burnish his leadership credentials. Undoubtedly, Tambuwal is an APC presidential candidate for the future. You can deny Aminu Tambuwal the ticket and nothing happens.
Sam Nda-Isaiah, the man with “big ideas”, is a good candidate for APC presidential ticket. He’s the only Northern Christian vying for the party’s nomination and this makes his quest unique. This publisher (of Leadership group of newspapers) has been unsparing in his criticism of this government. Although he doesn’t have previous political experience, his love for the country isn’t in doubt and his propensity to make bold suggestions regarding how the country can be improved is notable.
Governor Rochas Okorocha is no less a capable presidential aspirant of the APC. Okorocha has demystified the secretive use of security vote from which he has been spending to provide qualitative education for the youths in Imo State. Okorocha is a successful business man, a detribalised Nigerian, well known for providing free education to the young using his personal resources.
I stand to be corrected, but all across Africa, in Senegal, Zambia, Egypt, etc, ruling parties were only defeated after the opposition united behind a consensus presidential candidate. If PDP which has been in power for 16 years is presenting a consensus presidential candidate, where does the opposition find the luxury for primary election?
We root for Buhari because we are certain that if he were President, 33 members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) wouldn’t have been killed, in cold blood, not at a battlefront but during a peaceful procession, by the Nigerian military in Zaria; under President Buhari, young people wouldn’t be murdered in Bornu and Yobe and the Fulani of Benue, Kaduna and Nasarawa shot from behind. Buhari’s government wouldn’t have condoned the shooting spree at the SSS headquarters where a handcuffed detainee would seize an operative’s gun, shoot dead fellow inmates and spare the service personnel. GMB wouldn’t have forgiven the Ombatse militia after they had slaughtered nearly 100 Police and SSS operatives. Buhari’s government wouldn’t deploy an army battalion to escort Modu Sheriff, a suspected Boko Haram sponsor, to Maiduguri when they’re needed to defend the country. Under Buhari, $20b wouldn’t disappear without trace; GMB’s administration wouldn’t have tolerated the macabre attempt by the Police to humiliate and prevent the Speaker of the House of Representatives and his colleagues from performing their duty or the strange “impeachment” of the Speaker of Ekiti House of Assembly by 7 out of 26 Ekiti lawmakers. President Buhari wouldn’t have stomached his wife taking government appointment, dabbling into governance or lying about her sickness. Buhari wouldn’t have tolerated the invasion and destruction of opposition’s data centre in a democracy. Currently, a “democratically elected government” running amok is leading us to anarchism.
I’m yet to see what personal sacrifice President Jonathan has made to demonstrate his grief over the daily slaughter of Nigerians in the North East. In 2011 when Buhari shed tears, charlatans said it was because he feared he was going to lose the election. The loss of lives and destruction of property in the North East and all across the country has vindicated GMB that the country made a mistake in that election.
Clearly, while our country burns, we need a new commander-in-chief who can inspire his troops to defeat this insurgency, not one who continuously tells his party apparatchiks that no party can defeat them in election.