By Ali Abare Abubakar and Ikechukwu Okaforadi
Former Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari, has been described as the only competent candidate who has both the popularity and the integrity to win the 2015 Presidential election for the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC).
This assertion was made yesterday by a chieftain of the APC, Senator Habu Ibrahim, who also represent Katsina South in the Senate, while fielding questions from journalists in Abuja.
Ibrahim, who made it clear that for APC to make strong take off in the 2015 Presidential elections, there is need for the party to support General Buhari, also argued that he has all the leadership qualities which Nigeria needs now, including ability to fight corruption, courage to fight insurgency, among others.
Speaking further, he explained that money is already out of the 2015 general elections, asking “People talk of money, but if you talk of money, who has more money than President Goodluck Jonathan…. Even yesterday, a plane carrying $9 million was arrested in South Africa, these are monies cornered for the election”.
He recalled that in 2011 elections, General Buhari was able to poll over twelve million votes predominantly in the sixteen northern states, despite that his party then, the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) was registered less than nine months to the elections and lacked money and strong structures.
On this note, he said “Buhari has the capacity… I think there is no better candidate. I mean now, he is the person you can be assured that he will bring strength and success to the party. Buhari enjoys the support of the grassroots tremendously. No other Nigerian now can boast of having that kind of support, so we have good opportunity”.
He therefore implored other contenders to consider the interest of the party, and support Buhari to make sure that the party wins the 2015 Presidential election, even as he emphasised that as long as he is concerned, Buhari remains the only candidate to take APC above PDP in the elections.
“If it is said it is him, everybody knows, there will be no play. To fight the insurgency, he is a General, he can even lead the troops himself to anywhere he wants them to go, even to the Sambisa forest”, he said.
While lamenting how about hundred Boko Haram insurgents reportedly sacked a battalion of the Nigerian army, the Southern Katsina senator expressed concern that Nigeria without General Buhari implied a serious danger for the nation.
