Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd.)
- Urges Nigerians to ensure their votes count
The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Gen.
Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), has said the party will ensure that Boko Haram
insurgency is a thing of the past if voted into power next month.
Buhari urged the electorate to ensure that they resist all forms of
rigging by insisting that their votes in the February polls count.
Buhari made the appeal to a crowd on Monday in a five-minute speech he
made during his campaign at the Dan Anyiam Stadium in Owerri, Imo State,
stressing that such would enable his presidential ambition be realised
via the votes of Nigerians.
He also warned that the lives of Nigerians could only be guaranteed if they guard their votes and usher in the APC government.
The presidential candidate also promised to end insecurity problem by
stopping the Boko Haram insurgency, provide potable water in all homes
and ensure goods are exported to other countries if elected the
president of the country in the February 14 poll.
Accompanied by his running mate, Prof. Yemi Osibanjo; the National
Chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, the Director-General of
Buhari Campaign Organisation and the Rivers State Governor, Hon.
Chibuike Amaechi; the the Imo State Governor, Chief Rochas Okorocha; the
former governors such as Segun Oni, Niyi Odebabjo, Timiprie Sylva and
Senator Bukola Saraki; a former Minister of Information, Tony Momoh;
Senator Chris Ngige, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, the Organising Secretary of the
party, Senator Osita Izunaso, among others, the former head of state
promised to give unemployed Nigerians jobs, while financial institutions
would be empowered through enabling instruments to give loans to
desiring entrepreneurs who would create ripple effects to turn around
the economy to boom.
He lamented the suffering many Nigerians are currently undergoing in the present dispensation.
“We are going to empower financial houses that will give soft loans. We
will build roads. Make sure you get your Permanent Voters’ Cards
(PVCs), vote en masse. Make sure your votes count. If you don’t, you
risk your life. Organise yourselves, make sure you make Nigeria the best
country to live in,” he said.
His running mate, Osinbanjo, expressed worry that people were not
rejoicing under the present regime of President Jonathan, promising
better days for Nigerians if they usher in the APC government.
Also speaking at the event, Amaechi who started his speech with some
songs and spoke a little in Igbo language regretted that the 16 years of
the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), government had not impacted
positively on the lives of Nigerians and Igbos in particular.
He questioned why President Jonathan who had not completed the roads
his government was constructing and the Second Niger Bridge, would ask
the Igbos to cast their votes for him.
He said: “He abandoned the Owerri-Port Harcourt Road, 42 kilometres
Aba-Owerri Road and he wants your votes. The Second Niger bridge is a
419.”
Onu, in his speech, regretted that the 16 years of the PDP had turned from “bad to worse,” urging the Igbos to embrace change.
Oyegun, who introduced some personalities, disclosed that 16 years of
the PDP had led to poor infrastructure in educational system,
non-functional electricity, insecurity among others.
He also accused the present regime and others of spending $50 billion
on these infrastructure without results. Presenting flag to Okorocha,
the APC national chairman urged him to ensure that the South east
electorate cast their votes for the APC and not only in Imo State.
He used the forum to give blessings to all the APC candidates seeking various elective positions.
In his speech, Okorocha who announced the new Igbo name of Buhari
(Okechukwu), promised to provide factories, industries, employment
opportunities and more democracy dividends in 2015, de-emphasising free
education, roads construction among others.
He noted that he was not interested in billboards, rather what would
benefit the people, urging the people of the state to consider Buhari as
one who dislikes corruption, wickedness and selfishness.
The governor reminded his audience that contrary to the insinuations
from some quarters of Islamising them, Buhari has a Christian cook who
has worked for him for 25 years; a Christian driver who has driven him
for 30 years, while his last daughter got married to a Christian.
“It is a fabricated fallacy,” he noted.
Others who spoke at the occasion and endorsed the candidacy of the
retired army general included Izunaso, Saraki, the Imo State Chairman of
the party, Hilary Eke, the youths and women leaders of the party, among
others.
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