FORMER
vice-president, Atiku Abubakar, has said that he is eligible to
contest for the presidency in 2015. Just as former head of state,
Major-General Muhammadu Buhari at Silverbird Television award ceremony
said he would not quit politics.
Abubakar, in a statement by his media office, said this clarification
had become imperative considering the fact that insinuations were rife
that he cannot stand for election in 2015.
The statement reads: “In this post-zoning era, President [Goodluck]
Jonathan is free to contest, his younger brothers or anyone from Otuoke
village are free to contest, while Atiku Abubakar is also very
eminently qualified to aspire to become the president of Nigeria in
2015. President Jonathan can aspire to contest for the presidency as
many times as he wants with Bamanga Tukur as the PDP chairman. But,
these must not stop Atiku from raising his hands for presidency.
“Those who are engaged in political blackmail should desist and look
up to Allah who is the author and finisher of the many desires of a
man’s heart. He is also the Supreme Being, the only one who can
determine the future with certainty, including what will happen in
2015. It is also instructive, as Chinua Achebe advised, those whose
palm-kernel has been cracked by benevolent spirits should not forget to
be humble.
“Some of these political fortune-tellers have, in a desperate attempt
to keep their man, meaning, President Goodluck Jonathan in power
beyond 2015, foreclosed Atiku’s bid for the presidency.
“They think Atiku’s bid can no longer see the light of the day. They are wrong, dead wrong!
“For Atiku Abubakar, whose political qualities and skills are not
hidden to Nigerians, the 2015 presidential race has not become his
pre-occupation, considering the fact that President Jonathan has not
even completed one year into the tenure and that is why Atiku has not
even made any policy statement on this administration. There is no
doubt that Atiku is the issue in Nigerian politics today! We do not
know of tomorrow.
“If the intentions of these ghost political jobbers are to make way
for President Jonathan to violate his
promise of not contesting for the
presidency in 2015 and therefore remain in office beyond that year,
these agents of political power-mongering do not need Atiku’s name to
achieve all that.
“Atiku stood and fought for zoning in 2011 to ensure equity and
maintain the constitution of the party. He was there at the 1994-1995
Constitutional Conference where the six geopolitical zones were created
and zoning made part of the constitution of Nigeria to give a sense of
belonging to all parts of the country, particularly the minority
ethnic groups which President Jonathan is part of.
“It was unfortunate that General Abdulsalami Abubakar’s military
government removed the zoning clause
from the constitution. From here,
the PDP picked up the battle and made it its own. The party inserted
zoning in its constitution and this accounts for why its fortunes
soared. President Jonathan and his political supporters ensured that
zoning in the PDP constitution was destroyed in 2011.”
Meanwhile, former head of state and presidential candiate of the
Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in the 2011 general election,
Major-General Muhammed Buhari (retd), on Sunday declared that he cannot
quit politics now because he is too young to leave it.
Buhari, in his acceptance speech of the Silverbird Television award
of Man of the Year held at Eko Hotel, said he was too young to quit
politics, adding that what Nigeria lacked was good leadership.
According to him, “leaders must learn to be democratic.”
Source: Tribune
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