2015 Presidency: Buhari defers declaration to October 15

By Aminu Imam with agency report

The Buhari Presidential Campaign Organization announced that the formal declaration ceremony by General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd.) of his intention to contest the 2015 Presidential Election on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has been postponed by one week.

This moves the date for the announcement from tomorrow, October 8, to October 15, at the Eagle Square, Abuja.

This was revealed in a press statement, issued yesterday by the Buhari Presidential Campaign Organization, in Abuja.

Although, no reason was given for the last-minute shift in date, in the statement, signed by Dr. Audu Ogbeh, former People’s Democratic Party (PDP) chairman but now coordinator for the Buhari Presidential Campaign Organization, impeccable sources disclosed to Peoples daily that the postponement  was because majority of the APC stalwarts are billed to attend a rally today, in support of Senator Mohammed Bindow Jibrilla, representing Adamawa North Senatorial District, who is the APC candidate Saturday’s governorship election.                             The contest largely between him and the current Adamawa state Acting Governor, Hon. Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) for the Dougirei Government House, Yola.

According to the source, today’s declaration was shifted in order not to co-incide with the rally in Yola. Furthermore, many other APC big-wigs expected to grace the occasion are not in the country, having travelled to Saudi Arabia to perform this year’s Hajj exercise, while others have travelled to their respective hometowns for the Sallah celebration and it was envisaged that some of them would not have returned in time for the planned declaration.

It could be recalled that Gen. Buhari (rtd) had severally received calls from eminent Nigerians to vie for the exalted office of the President of Nigeria come 2015 elections.

The former Head of State has over time been persistently pressurized by those who see him as a reputable and disciplined Nigerian with enviable track record who when given the chance to steer the ship of the nation once more, would not only make the difference but move the country forward.

Recall also that Buhari has defended the suitability of consensus arrangement, saying both the APC constitution and the Electoral Act gives room for it as an acceptable means of selecting party candidate for elections.

On what role do he envisaged for himself in the upcoming primaries, Buhari had said, “The most important thing is to remove self if one is serious. That’s what I call stabilisation of the system. As I said, we realised that no single opposition party could do it, so we came together. You can’t always have it your way. .. Differences exist and will continue to exist, but being in the same party, we have to find a way of getting over our differences. For example, we had to do what is called harmonization committee and especially when we were joined by five PDP governors with their structures. Naturally, they crushed my poor grassroots supporters. This is the reality on the ground. Forget about me.

“I convinced our colleagues that the first thing to do is to have the party on the ground; the party needs to be on the ground. Let us go and start from the grassroots. That’s where we are now. We are trying to kill the delegates system; we are going to do direct primaries. We will start from the ward and come up. The convention will just be to ratify it. So even for those who have so much money, there will be no delegates to buy, the people will have their way. And that is how our candidates, including that for the presidency, will emerge”, he stated.