Ahmed Buhari opens up on why he wants to be Nigeria’s president come 2019
…Three other presidential aspirants give their reasons too
One of the youngest declared presidential aspirant, Mr. Ahmed Buhari (not related to President Muhammadu Buhari by any means as both are not from same state), has given insights on why he is interested in becoming Nigeria’s President come next year.
Besides, three other trending presidential aspirants have spoken on why they want President Muhammadu Buhari’s job and how they plan to remove him from office in 2019.
The trio include former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Prof Kingsley Moghalu, Mr. Omoyele Sowore and Dr. Datti Baba-Ahmed.
Whereas the former astute banker averred that Nigerians would remember President Muhammadu Buhari “for his record of failed performance on his campaign promises on security, the economy and corruption,” he pledged that his Presidency would reposition Nigeria for economic prosperity “by creating an enabling environment for a productive, innovation-led economy, with a better approach to taxation that will reduce dependence on oil revenues.”
In his views, Sowore, the publisher of Sahara Reporters, stressed that “Buhari is done.”
He raised -pronged policy covering security, power and infrastructure, which he said, would lift the country from its present state, promised to create at least 250,000 new jobs in the agricultural sector, with commercial ranching operations that would cover 20 million cows.
The third and not the least, Baba-Ahmed, the Pro-Chancellor of Baze University, Abuja, said: “Buhari’s second term will destroy Nigeria and unsettle the rest of Africa.”
According to him, his administration would stabilise the naira by tackling the current high risk factors, reduce interest rates and “flood the capital market with investible funds.”
While Moghalu and Sowore have not yet announced their party platforms, Baba-Ahmed was a member of the House of Representatives and a senator on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Mr. Buhari, the initiator of Ahmed Buhari Youth Movement (ABYM), in an interview, averred that his interest in vying for the office of the president of Nigeria is informed by the need to have a generational change in the leadership of the country.
A geologist by training, Buhari observed while speaking with newsmen in Ilorin on the sidelines of his meeting with members of the ABYM in Kwara, that the youths have lost hope in the current system of governance which has created a wide gulf between the young and old generation, stressing that it was high time the young people participated in politics and governance of the country to avoid vacuum in government.
According to him, “Most importantly, our involvement is going to be an enlightenment to young people that it is true that we can do something.
“To let them know that the reason we are doing this is because we understand that if we do not allow responsibility to be transferred from one generation to next generation at the right time, a vacuum will be created.
“If this vacuum is created, a lot can go into that vacuum. It could be herdsmen; it could be Boko Haram; it could be kidnapping; it could be baby factory; it could be armed robbery, it could be a lot of things.
Continuing, he said “It is because these young people do not feel any need for them to be looking up for something that hope is lost and so we are trying to revamp young people to understand that they have to participate in politics.
“While they participate in politics, they shouldn’t make money politics a front burner for them. They should be more concerned about how they will even support aspirants so that when they get to the office, those aspirants will be answerable to them.
“This will kill totally the whole idea of cabalism and see how we can have aspirants who will emerge and become answerable to those people who elected them because if you do support an aspirant, he is going to come back to you and support you, not by giving you the money you gave him, but by giving you the best of democracy.
“What we mean is that we want to have a country that would be formed on a united ground.
“ United ground in the sense that no matter where you come from, regardless of your ethnicity; regardless of your religion; regardless of your social status; regardless of your political party; ideological affiliations; regardless of gender; regardless of your age; you will want to be part of a new Nigeria.
“The new Nigeria that we are looking for is new Nigeria that every one of us would claim without mentioning where we are from.
“We want a new Nigeria where there won’t be a discussion on state of origin, quota system and all of those things that always tend to divide us will be eradicated,” Ahmed Buhari stressed.
