Chieftain of APC, Osita Okechukwu, insists, in this interview with Assistant Editor (North), CHUKS EHIRIM, that Buhari is the face of the party. He also supports consensus arrangement in picking APC presidential candidate.
Backing Muhammadu Buhari for All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential ticket
Without being immodest, APC has eminent, highly-qualified personalities aspiring for the presidential ticket of the party. But my point is, among them, there is first among equals. That is why I say, General Muhammadu Buhari (GMB as we fondly call him), is the right candidate of the APC, in all its ramifications.
We agree that all of them are qualified, but he is most eminently qualified. What is the reason for this my assertion? We are, by name, a progressive party, which means we are pro-people. We are not going to be like the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). We are going to be pro-people, we are going to use public funds to provide social services and infrastructure for the people. And that is what is listed in our manifesto. We talked of providing 100 million houses for the masses of the Nigerian people, we talked of development bank – bank of infrastructure to be fortified, bank of agriculture to be fortified, a new bank for education, a new bank for health, a new bank to help small-scale industries.
All these are in the four cardinal programmes of the APC, which include the war against corruption and national orientation. And we are saying, among these eminently qualified aspirants of the party, that this man (Buhari), going by his antecedents, towers head and shoulder over the rest.
Buhari’s unique selling point
The consensus in the country today is that corruption is the bane of development. The country makes over $20 billion per annum from the oil and gas revenue, and yet there is hunger in the land, no critical infrastructure, no functional refinery, no modern rail line. The one they are building, from Lagos to Kano, is the old gauge, which will take you over 30 hours. That is why you don’t see many people rushing there.
In today’s world, the modern rail line that runs 120, 150 kilometres per hour, takes about six hours to go from Lagos to Kano. We don’t have that because of corruption. And the amount, which the contract they are doing for this outdated system, is $8.3 billion per kilometre, while China and other parts of the world are building theirs with $2 million per kilometre.
So if you multiply two million by 1,300, it is about 2.6 billion. This is the job somebody awarded for $8.3 billion, because it is surface rail line, it is not underground. The surface rail line in other countries costs about $2 million to construct, but our own is a different ball game. So this is what Buhari can do for the country. He has the capacity and political will to check this madness, this monumental corruption that is bleeding the country to death under the yoke of the PDP.
I do not see Buhari, at 73, going to learn what he doesn’t know about. You know that the inefficiency of the anti-corruption agencies is because the gate-keeper does not give a damn.
When you appoint an Attorney-General who has no impeccable character, how does he help them? So these are the things Buhari will do for Nigeria, not just for APC.
He is the face of the party, and the bond he has with the masses and the middle class of this country is celestial. It’s like a glued bond. Some people had even said he should go and anoint somebody, but it is not a bond you can transfer. You can imagine, in a small Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), he raised over 12 million votes, without even paying agents. Most of his supporters were volunteers. Then in a bigger APC, is it not better to add to the 12 million he had already because those who voted for him then are not all dead.
That is why I am pleading with APC, on consensus, to nominate him as the presidential candidate of the party. The APC has, in Article 20 of its constitution, a provision for consensus. If it doesn’t work, you can now go for a direct primary. But consensus tops the list. The Electoral Act, in article 5677, also talks of consensus.
Consensus can only work if the other people agree
That is why I am pleading with them, for the interest of the party, to hit the ground running, to avoid the bitterness, the rancour that the primary they are advocating, either direct or indirect, will generate because the party is challenging an incumbent. He (incumbent) had even started campaigning before ban on it was lifted, using all kinds of fronts and cronies. So you who is not an incumbent, is it not better for you to reach an agreement and have a presidential candidate and tell the Nigerian people that this man we are presenting to you will not steal your money; he cannot go to South Africa with raw cash of $9.8 million.
Any money that is realised must go to Federation Account and he cannot take your money away, unappropriated. He built two refineries as the Minister of Petroleum. He can build more for you, instead of you waiting for the Chinese and the Dangotes. Today, Nigeria is broke because we sell the crude oil with the right hand and buy refined petroleum product with the left hand. By the time you balance it, you are left only with SURE-P (Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme) fund, after the one they have stolen. But this man will help you manage your fund.
Buhari matching other aspirants, in terms of money, if consensus option fails
I still believe that those, and we are in the majority, who want the APC and regime change for the country will still make the majority that will make Buhari the candidate of the party. But why I was saying let’s not even dissipate energy is because that resource we are going to use during primaries, collectively, would have provided us with the funds for the real campaigns because presidential campaign is a very expensive project.
That is what I am saying that the collective or pragmatic position should be. Yes, Buhari, we are giving you this ticket because you are the debate on the ground. The debate is that there is no difference between the PDP and the APC. So if you present Buhari, that debate dies because they know that this man is the man who will keep it straight, which PDP has never done. But if you bring in any of these other guys, it might be PDP vs PDP.
, CHUKS EHIRIM, that Buhari is the face of the party. He also supports consensus arrangement in picking APC presidential candidate.){kind=link}