South-East Sokesperson Says - Why Buhari deserves automatic ticket

The South-East zonal spokesperson for the All Progressives Congress, Osita Okechukwu, explains why he believes Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) should be given an automatic ticket by the party

Why do you think the All Progressives Congress should give Muhammadu Buhari an automatic ticket?

I am saying this on many grounds. One, we have seen that the connection between him and the middle class and the masses of this country is unparalleled. He has a bond between the masses of this country and the middle class and that kind of bond generated 12 million votes in 2011 in a micro Congress for Progressive Change, a small CPC, now we have a broader political party – the APC, I think all we need to do is to compliment and supplement that 12 million votes instead of running the risk of the rancour, the bitterness of direct or indirect primaries, we have to avoid that rancour because our challengers and incumbent, the PDP, have already nominated President Goodluck Jonathan as its candidate for the 2015 Presidential election and he has already started campaigning. We don’t need to waste time. The few months left before a crucial election requires a challenger that the APC is, to hit the ground running with a candidate that will show the Nigerian people what we have to gazette. Continue..

Are you saying that Buhari is the only qualified person?

We have qualified people in our party, prominent aspirants but none of them has the background of how to tackle the insecurity in the country like General Buhari. If you remember in the 1980s, Buhari during the Shehu Shagari administration, he almost overran Chad when two of our soldiers were killed and today we are going cap in had to Chad to beg them to contain insurgency in Nigeria. He can tackle insecurity in all the facets of security in this country because he has the transparency on his record books, he has accountability on his record books; he had focus and commitment. The bond between General Buhari and the Nigerian masses is celestial, it is an age long bond given his life, his commitment to building an egalitarian society. Don’t forget, that one of the criticisms we have in the APC today, is that a lot of the pundits are saying that we are one and the same with the PDP. If you bring Vice President Atiku Abubakar it will be as if it is the same PDP, if you bring the Governor of Kano State, Rabiu Kwankwaso, it will be as if it is the same thing and this is a PDP that has boasted that it will rule this country uninterruptedly for 60 years can’t we make a difference? Buhari is that difference.

The former Vice President has said those pushing for automatic tickets are doing so because they are afraid of a contest. Do you agree?

We are not afraid of a contest. What we are saying essentially is that the APC is a new political party and we don’t need to expose ourselves to the vagaries of the rancour and bitterness that a direct or indirect primary will generate. The National Executive of our party has chosen indirect primaries let’s see how it goes. They will see rancour and bitterness during the House of Assembly, the House of Representatives, the Senate and the governorship before we come to the Presidential primaries. They will realise and come to the conclusion that we are not shouting wolf. We are not saying that because General Buhari does not have money, we are saying essentially, why generate bitterness? Why generate rancour? Why not as a challenger package yourself and hit the ground running? It’s not a question of being afraid, we know General Buhari is a man of modest means, he does not have the dollars or the naira to share but outside that we are saying if you produce any of this other candidates, what do you tell the Nigerian electorate? Are you saying you have removed their darling? In the manifesto of the APC, our first cardinal programme is war against corruption and national reorientation. Who will tell the Nigerian people about the character of persons, about accountability, about good conduct? The rot in the system requires General Buhari and that is what we are saying. The rot is deep in all facet of Nigerian life, we need a new direction; we need to come out of the woods. We are saying this because he has a peculiar quality that we cannot approximate how it came about but let’s harvest it for the good of the country.