From Oyelola Femi, Kaduna
A group, the Arewa Defense League(ADL) has said that by all intent and purposes, General Muhammadu Buhari and Atiku Abubakar remain the strongest political assets of the North of today and any attempt to stop the duo from contesting in 2015 through undemocratic means would amount to robbing the electorate of their rights to vote for the best.
The President of ADL, Alhaji Murtala Abubakar, said in a statement issued in Kaduna over the weekend, that remarks credited to the Kaduna State Interim Management committee Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) ,Dr.Hakeem Baba Ahmed that General Muhammadu Buhari and Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar should not to contest in 2015 Presidential elections was unhelpful and a negation of the collective efforts of well meaning Nigerians to halt the blind ambitions of President Goodluck Jonathan to remain in power beyond 2015.
According to the ADL, “many Nigerians are deeply concerned about how the present administration is running the affairs of this country and the threat our democracy faced in the hands of President Jonathan and his conspirators at Wadata Plaza where they successfully silenced anybody with presidential ambition to indicate interest particularly from the Northern Nigeria.
“Democracy as a system of government is an arena of contest where the best is elected, therefore giving what is currently happening in the People Democratic Party (PDP),where people are forced to bury their presidential ambitions prematurely, Dr. Hakeem interventions would be urgently required there to remind people like Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, Da Jonah Jang and Alhaji Sule Lamido of their political rights to contest with President Jonathan in the primary of the PDP. To us that is the immediate means to stop Jonathan from pushing his ambitions beyond 2015,”they said.
ADL therefore, appealed to political office holders in Nigeria to be good champions of democracy by promoting peaceful contests among individuals instead of engaging in acts that could cause political apathy in the polity.
