SPEECH
BY GENERAL MUHAMMADU BUHARI, GCFR, CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF
THE CONGRESS FOR PROGRESSIVE CHANGE, CPC, AT THE PARTY’S NATIONAL
CONVENTION IN ABUJA, MAY 11, 2013
Protocols
With
your permission, Mr Chairman, I would like to begin by welcoming all the
CPC delegates to this historic occasion. And our special welcome goes
out to our friends and colleagues from sister-parties, notably Chief
Bisi Akande, Chief Audu Ogbeh, Musa Gwadabe, Dr. Yakubu Lame, Governors
Raji Fashola and Ibikunle Amosun, former Governors Achike Udenwa, Segun
Osoba and Chris Ngige, Alhaji Lai Mohammed of the ACN, Senator Ahmed
Sani, Yariman Bakura, of the ANPP, and Owelle Rochas Okorocha of APGA.
2. But before I deliver my speech, I would like all of us here and
across the country to reflect on the seriousness of the security
situation in the country today. Some areas of the nation are virtual war
zones in a country supposedly at peace. Whole local governments in some
states in the North East are no-go areas to representatives of
constituted authority. Marauders of every description armed to the teeth
with all manner of sophisticated armaments roam the national landscape
with total and murderous impunity. The patience of this nation and the
various communities within it has been severely tried and stretched to
its limits. And there is no end in sight. (pictures below)
3. Anarchy is
knocking on the door of many sections of this country and the Federal
government has not demonstrated that it has the good sense to understand
what is going on, or the competence to check it. The nation is
hopelessly adrift. But, if we are to survive, this vicious circle of
violence that has engulfed this nation must be brought to an end; and we
implore the National Assembly to take the lead in this quest for peace.
I am sure everybody in this gathering will join me in expressing
sympathy for, and solidarity with, the good people of Borno, Yobe, Kano,
and now, Nasarawa and Benue states on their suffering and travails.
4. Mr. Chairman, distinguished guests and fellow delegates, we must
explore every opportunity to save our country. This is a historic moment
when several different political parties have resolved to come together
to change Nigeria for the better and stop the mindless drift that has
been going on for the last fourteen years. We must understand and accept
that we are here gathered to make history or forever stand accused and
condemned by it. We must seize this moment that calls for patriotism and
sacrifice—it is time to sacrifice everything—time, resources, ambition
and ego—for the greater good. We should carry this process through to a
successful conclusion, and leave our legacy and foot-prints on the
history of Nigeria.
5. Many political analysts have long
stated that the only way to stabilize the country is for opposition
parties to merge and oust the ruling PDP. In 2010, during the run-up to
the elections of 2011, ACN and CPC inaugurated committees to explore
ways and means of merging into a single political party.
6.
We have gone to the extent of developing a flag, a logo, a name and
have even proceeded to discuss with the Independent Electoral
Commission, INEC, about the modalities of consummating our plans; but
time proved too short, and we were not about to give too many hostages
to fortune.
7. So the present move is really a
continuation of the efforts begun in 2010; and this time we have started
early, following the rules step by step. On its part, the CPC has,
within the last two months, established the following committees with
appropriate terms of reference:
1. Merger Committee;
2. Convention Committee;
3. Membership and Registration Committee;
4. Contact and Mobilization Committee; and
5. Publicity Committee;
8. The objective of these committees is to prepare CPC for the proposed
merger; and these committees have satisfactorily concluded their
assignments and their proposals have been submitted to NEC and to the
Board of Trustees, and these are now being presented to you, the
National Convention, the highest policy making body of our party. Other
parties have fast-tracked their processes and some have even held their
conventions. So far, so good.
No doubt, all the parties joining
to form APC are coming in as equals; but, realistically, we all know
that some are more equal than others. Nevertheless, every joining party
will bring its peculiar strengths to this union and together we will, in
every sense of the word, be too strong for the ruling party to resist.
With this, we believe the time for real change has finally come to
Nigeria—and it must change now before it become too late.
The
government has failed in almost everything; it has proved unable to
secure the nation’s internal environment: there is insecurity
everywhere. There is spiraling lawlessness all over the country. There
is widespread and rising poverty and unemployment across the length and
breadth of the country. There is a complete and total decline in the
quality of social services and an irremediable dilapidation in the
nation’s socio-economic infrastructure across board.
9.
There is an unprecedented fall in the nation’s standard of living and an
astronomical rise in the standard of dying. In short, today, there is
nothing going right; and we have become a nation in which nothing works
as it should, that is, if it works at all. When they said they have what
they call a Transformation Agenda, we didn’t understand, but we now
know better; because, within the space of three years, they have
transformed the country into a veritable wilderness, where everything
that should work, doesn’t; where everything that can get broken, has.
10. They promised to give the nation credible elections; they
couldn’t deliver. They promised to fight corruption, they couldn’t
deliver. They promised to stop the insurgency, and they couldn’t
deliver. This nation is witness to the fact that whenever we promised,
we delivered. And today, I promise you most solemnly that we shall
confront and eliminate corruption in the electoral process. We shall
confront and eliminate corruption in the judicial process; and we shall
most assuredly confront and eliminate it in the conduct of government
business.
11. All these evils derive and draw inspiration
from a government that is itself immersed to its neck in a cesspool of
corruption; and is best characterized by its own favourite catchphrases:
whether it is ‘Do or die,’ or ‘We will rule forever,’ or ‘No vacancy in
Aso Rock,’ or they want to ‘fight to finish,’ it is the same
thing—something that could never be uttered by true democrats. Their
behaviour, language and body language are in complete and total
disregard for democratic norms and the ordinary decencies of civilized
conduct.
12. We intend to provide a government of different
quality and tone to the people of Nigeria, one that will tackle the
problem of insecurity, solve the perennial issue of incessant power
failure, arrest the shameful deterioration in the standard of education,
confront the decline in agricultural production head-on, and stop the
collapse of commerce and industry.
13. Ladies and
gentlemen, fellow CPC members on behalf of the Board of Trustees of our
party, I commend the proposals shortly to be put before you. The best
way to eliminate this government that has not brought anything to
Nigerians except thievery of resources and violence is to accept to
merge our parties. And we only elect to do this because that is what we
believe to be in the best interest of the majority of the people of this
country.
14. And I would like to end by once again thanking
our steadfast supporters—you, the ordinary folks—who have been the
unbreakable backbone of this struggle, from the time we started this
journey in APP to ANPP and then to CPC. You did not do it for material
gain; otherwise, you will have turned your backs on us. No doubt, you
decided to stay the course as a mark of respect for our stand, and
possibly knowing that we would never let you down. You relied on our
judgment to forge ahead through the thicket of the country’s
corruption-laden politics. This we have tried to do to the best of our
ability, and will continue to do so until the masses of this country
secure a fair deal from those who lead them. What we desire is democracy
and freedom for all our people. And in this struggle, we think we have
done our bit.
15. At its formation, the CPC became the
greatest crowd-pulling party in the nation’s political history; and
within six months of its registration, and in spite of all the rigging
of the poll and the snatching of its votes, it was still able to get
more than 12 million votes in the 2011 presidential election. After the
merger, the sky will be the limit.
16. While thanking you
again, I implore you not to relent as we embark on yet another move in
the search for a better tomorrow for our country, Nigeria. We are now in
the final stages of the move that will culminate in the merger of our
party—the CPC—with three other parties. We join this effort compromising
none of our principles but yielding to the belief that our diverse
efforts, applied in unison, will help arrest the rot that has become our
lot.
17. We go into this new arrangement still loyal to
you and committed to what you stand for. We go into this arrangement
conscious of our responsibilities to you and grateful for all the
sacrifices you have been making since the beginning of our journey. We
count on you, as we have always done, to guide, support and defend our
position. We will strive to work hard to expand and level the democratic
playing field in accordance with the dictates of the rule of law. We
declare that we are in this together—and together we shall remain to the
end.
18. We played by the rules and we accepted to play
alongside those who didn’t; because we believed our participation was
giving millions hope that positive change will come along the way. Now
change has finally come; and they cannot stop it. And we are putting the
current leadership of this nation on notice that our people will no
longer tolerate its corruption or the rigging, vote thievery and general
impunity that have become the norm and standard practice during
elections in this country.
19. We have resolved that
henceforth our votes must all be counted—and they must all go on to
count. And we declare that this nation has now resolved, through its
united opposition, that it will never again tolerate or allow to pass
the mayhem the government deliberately creates in order to cover up its
guilt, obscure the issues and then blame the opposition in order to
deceive gullible folks. And we will no longer be intimidated by anyone.
Thank you very much for your patience and attention. May God bless us.
General Muhammdu Buhari, GCFR
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