All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate Gen. Muhammadu Buhari is confident of victory in Saturday’s election.
Reason: This, said Gen. Buhari, is his brightest chance ever for the job he bidded for in 2003, 2007 and 2011.
He spoke at the Seventh Bola Tinubu Colloquium to mark the former Lagos State governor’s 63rd birthday.
Gen. Buhari attributed his hope at the poll to the “selfless” efforts of Tinubu, who is the main motivator of the merger of major opposition parties into the mega party that the APC became.
Gen Buhari, accompanied by his running mate Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, APC National Chairman Chief John Odigie-Oyegun and other leaders of the party, came into the Eko Hotel venue as Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola was delivering his address.
His entry momentarily stopped the event.
When Gen. Buhari, who was praised by all the speakers, took the podium, he expressed his appreciation to party leaders and members, saying: “I’m confident of victory.”
He said though the process was awash with money, he was going into Saturday’s election with hope, “because if I could win the primaries without spending money, I will certainly win on Saturday”.
Gen. Buhari admitted that this election is his first genuine attempt to aspire to becoming the president, alluding to the possibility that the journey would end at the State House.
He said: “In the previous attempts, I only ended up at the Supreme Court.”
Gen. Buhari said the APC had come to stay and that the party owes its success so far to Tinubu and former Interim Chairman Chief Bisi Akande.
The APC standard bearer poured encomiums on Tinubu at whose instance the APC family and others was gathered yesterday, saying it was his selflessness and commitment to the cause that led to the successful merger and the formation of the APC.
Friends and associates of Tinubu have used the occasion of his birthday in the last seven years to discuss Nigeria’s problems and proffer solutions.
Gen. Buhari said: “I have great respect for Asiwaju Bola Tinubu; he does not consider himself; he is a selfless person who made a lot of sacrifice and commitment to ensure the merger was successful.”
In Tinubu’s view, Saturday’s election will determine Nigeria’s fate in the years to come. He enjoined Nigerians to decide between positive change and continuing with the way the country has been governed in the last 16 years.
He said: “There should be no sitting on the fence; do not try to avoid it. This is the time to believe in the need for change. I am filled with the expectation of a more just and prosperous future.”
Quoting from a speech he made during the last National Convention of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), where the decision to go ahead with the merger was reached, Tinubu said: “I see the need for change. If you have consideration for this nation that gave birth to you, you will equally see the need for change.”
The APC National Leader said the storm ushered in by the formation of the APC had changed Nigeria’s political terrain. He said at the outset, the party’s opponents were skeptical about the possibility of their pulling off the merger successfully. When they saw that the legacy parties were forging ahead, in spite of all the odds, they tried to put up obstacles, such as forming other parties with a similar acronym. “But, they failed,” Tinubu added.
He said before last year’s APC presidential primary, they had derided Buhari, “saying he would never subject himself to a primary. But, he did and won.”
Tinubu said President Goodluck Jonathan had already seen the handwriting on the wall; “that is why he and his party were rejecting the use of card readers”. He said this is evident in the several desperate efforts to hold on to power. In the process, he added, the President is destroying the country’s national institutions.
The APC leader said the time for “common sense revolution” had come. But, in calling for common sense revolution, he said, “I cannot advocate violence”. He said the kind of revolution he is calling for is a revolution to repair and restructure the nation “with our vote” .
He added: “We must move forward to mold a better Nigeria, out of the clay we have in our hands, the PVC, which means, please vote for change.”
The event was attended by leaders of the party from far and near and friends and associates of Tinubu.
Gen. Buhari’s running mate, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, denied that there was any oath between him and Tinubu to step down for the former Lagos State governor six months after becoming the vice president.
He said after the PDP campaign council made the allegation, Tinubu jocularly asked him whether he swore to the oath at Okija Shrine.
Osinbajo described Tinubu as a team player and astute leader who allowed robust debate by his executive council members when he was governor, adding that he never knew the former governor before he chose him as his Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in 1999.
He also denied the allegations in the hate documentary run against Tinubu by the PDP that “he owns the whole of Lagos – including Oriental Hotel in Lekki. “I know surely that he does not own the hotel because I know the owners and if he owns it, everybody will have a room there.”
Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola said providing electricity is no rocket science. He said the PDP-led Federal Government had failed to provide power because of its lack of vision and went on to enumerate his administration’s numerous achievements in the sector.
Rivers State Governor Chibuike Amaechi described Tinubu as “a strategist and a tactician”. According to the governor, it is rare to see a person who combines both attributes.
Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola described Tinubu as “an icon through whom many great leaders had risen”.
He condemned “declining federal allocation” to states saying it had made it difficult for them to meet most of their obligations, including workers’ salary.
“I have found it hard to pay the wage bills owing to the declining federal allocation which has reduced by 40 per cent since 2013, making it difficult for government to meet up its responsibilities.”
Aregbesola said the situation became so bad at a time that he resorted to the state’s reserves and exhausted it on payment of salaries.
The governor added that the government went ahead to accumulate N12 billion debts in its bid to ensure that salaries were paid.
He said that he would not mind to borrow more “just to ensure that workers are paid, but the banks would not grant more loans.”
Aregbesola said: “Osun is next to Lagos in the sheer size of its civil service.
“In fact, the state inherited 50 per cent of all the workers in the old Western State and more than 75 per cent in the old Oyo State.
“I was meeting my wage bill of over N3.6 billion with N4.6 billion federal allocation until July, 2013 when the Federal Government announced a decline of about 40 per cent allocation to states.
“This reduced the state’s allocation from N4.6 billion with which I was meeting my bills to N2.6 billion.
“Since then, Osun has had to augment salaries by sometimes N1 billion, sometimes N1.6 billion.
“Before the last time I paid salaries in November, 2014, I have had to either spend the state’s reserves on salaries or borrow money.
“Today, I have a loan of N12 billion that we spent on salaries and I could not go to the banks anymore.”
The governor said that his administration remained pro-workers, in spite of the tight corner it had found itself, pledging to pay the salary arrears as soon as possible.
Aregbesola reiterated the commitment of his administration to the people’s welfare, adding that he had demonstrated this with the implementation of many programmes.
On the elections: Tinubu said: “We have reached point where we must make a point. History beckons. We must answer it well or not all. To respond wisely is to open ourselves to a better future.
“There can be no more fence-sitting because that fence has been torn down by the vast disparity between our current reality and our desired future.
“We have a decision to make. We must decide whether wisdom is better than cunning, if bravery is sounder than bribe, if compassion speaks more than corruption, if patriotism is a more worthy vocation than pillage and if love of the nation and its people can overcome the love of power and stolen privilege.
“I am filled with the expectation of a more just and rightful future. My conviction has always been this day would come.”
“To save his post, Jonathan and his team would eagerly corrupt every national institution within reach. Everything is for sale and nothing is left sacred.
“Although the nation suffers an economic downswing that will require astute policy to overcome, Jonathan has raided the national coffers as if money were as plentiful as sand. There is no dollar in this nation that his hand has not tried to grab. No naira that his underlings have not tried to pinch.
“They have thrown money at Christian and Muslim clerics, attempting to buy two great faiths as if they were two cheap commodities. As such, they have attempted to turn our houses of worship into open dens of corruption.
“They have dangled money in the face of our traditional fathers believing their conscience is for sale. Many have been brave enough to cohere to the nobility of their office more than worry about the expansion of their bank accounts.
“They have corrupted some civil society groups and organizations to engage in violent protest against the electoral process and the use of the card readers. They oppose the card reading machine because the instruments foil their customary avenues of vote rigging.
“Jonathan‘s team has already read the writing on the wall. They would be handed a defeat so resounding that they would begin to fight among themselves believing that each betrayed the other.”
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