PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubkar, says come February 14th
2019 when the presidential election will hold, and Nigerians will have
to choose between him “a job provider” and Buhari whom he described as a “lifeless candidate.”.
In a statement released by his media office yesterday, Atiku said he
is not suprised by the claims by the Buhari campaign organization that
he is a corrupt politician that has a plethora of corruption charges he
is yet to clear.
“The choice before Nigerians in 2019 is a simple one. Nigerians have a
choice of electing a lively candidate with a record of providing 50,000
jobs to Nigerians in his private capacity versus the lifelessness
(apologies to President Donald Trump) of a candidate under whom Nigeria
lost 11 million jobs and became the world headquarters for extreme
poverty. Nigerians have a choice of a man who will provide an efficient
and business-friendly solution to the herdsmen crisis and a man whose
government said ‘giving land for cattle ranching is better than death.
It is very obvious that faced with such a choice, Nigerians would
definitely vote for the man who will Get Nigeria Working Again, hence we
are not surprised by this desperate statement from the Buhari
administration that is so shameless that they made a man implicated in
framing a man of God on spurious charges as their spokesman. If he can
lie against a man of God, should Nigerians believe anything he says
about the PDP and its candidate?.We are not surprised that there is confusion in the President’s camp.
We expected that they would be thrown into a catatonic state knowing
that Atiku Abubabakr’s emergence automatically means the coming to an
end of their ignominious reign. That much was admitted by the
President’s former running mate, Pastor Tunde Bakare, when he praised
the emergence of Atiku as an ‘eagle’ and ‘a cosmopolitan wazobia’
politician.“Obviously, Pastor Tunde Bakare has foreseen that the era of 97 per
cent versus five per cent has come to an end with the emergence of the
pan-Nigerian Atiku Abubakar.”
In the statement, the former Vice President whose boss Obasanjo, has
vowed to work against his presidential aspiration, said President
Buhari’s wife, Aisha Buhari’s statement condeming the APC primaries held
last week, proves that the ruling party is a corrupt party.
“We ask, how can the Buhari Campaign Organisation disparage the PDP
primary that produced Atiku, when even the President’s own wife, Aisha
Buhari, has condemned the APC’s primary? Not only did Mrs Buhari condemn
the APC’s primaries, she described them as ‘unfair’ and lacking in
integrity. Who can know President Buhari better than his wife?” he said
Atiku denied claims of corruption. He said if it was indeed true he
was a corrupt official, the Buhari-led administration would have come
after him.
“Nigerians know that Atiku Abubakar is the most investigated
politician in Nigeria and any smear by the Buhari administration remains
just that. “Withthe vindictiveness of President Buhari, he would have
arrested Atiku if he had been found wanting. However, to set the record
straight, we want to remind Nigerians that the PDP’s primaries were
genuine, free and fair. Atiku Abubakar got 1,532 votes in a contest
televised live to millions of Nigerians. The APC’s primary, on the other
hand, was a study in dictatorship and corruption. The sole candidate,
Muhammadu Buhari, scored almost 15 million votes. How could that occur
without rigging or manufacturing of faceless voters?“No wonder Transparency International rated Nigeria as more corrupt
today under Buhari, than just three years ago when the PDP was in
power. The scandals are too numerous, including the $25bn NNPC contracts
awarded without due process, the several padded budgets, the $41m Ikoyi
Apartment scandal, the recall, reinstatement and double promotion of an
alleged pension thief and Buhari financier, Abdulrasheed Maina, the
N200m grass cutting scandal, and many others too numerous to mention”.