Former military Head of State, Major-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) said
at the weekend that he wept for Nigeria during the 2011 general
elections, considering the country’s ordeal between 1999 till date.
Buhari, the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) presidential
candidate in the election, said the condition was worse than the
1966-1999 period.
This was even as Buhari, who is a leader of the CPC group in the
emerging All Progressives Congress (APC), said he will not leave APC if
he does not emerge as the party’s presidential candidate in the 2015
general elections. General Buhari stated this yesterday while speaking
on Liberty Radio, Kaduna as the Guest of the Week, saying what Nigeria
has gone through from 1999 to date is worse than what it experienced
between 1966 and 1999.
According to him, even with his experience of coups, counter-coups
and his over three years in detention, there was never a time that he
broke down publicly like 2011.
“With all that I went through, including war and so on, 2011 was the
only time I ever broke down publicly and that could come out from the
paper I was reading before the 2011 general elections.
“From January 1966, what has happened to us as a people and as a
country, the coups, the counter-coups and the civil war, I was in
detention for more than three years. And I went through a paper and I
saw the amazing opportunity we have got through petroleum resources from
1999 to the time I shed tears, and compared to the decay in
infrastructure and people in the position of authority just doing
things, minding their own business.
“There is no ministry, department or parastatal that you will go
today where there is no administrative instruction or financial
instruction, but if you try to follow the hearing organised by the
National Assembly on NEPA, (Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN),
petroleum and others, one will certainly shed tears.
“The whole problem of Nigeria revolves around leadership at the very
top. Look at how we derive the power or the morality of how we run this
country now from four or five documents now; the 1999 Constitution
itself, from which INEC derives its function. And one of the major
responsibilities of INEC is to register associations into political
parties.
“So, really by law, Nigeria is absolutely matured and prepared. But
execution is the beginning of the problem. Go to all departments,
parastatals, ministries to the Presidency, it will appear it is put
aside at various levels and people are just doing things the way they
like. This is the tragedy of Nigeria, that people at the top and at the
various levels are just doing what they like, not what the laws
provide”, he said.
He lamented that the problems of the country revolve around abuse of
trust, especially in public offices and the elite were guilty of the
sin.
Speaking on the new APC, General Buhari said the road to the merger
of the progressive parties into APC had been very rough because the
ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has seen it as a threat and doing
everything possible to frustrate the merger.
He however, said that, as an optimist, he believes that the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will register APC
without any hindrance, because the new party has almost met all the
constitutional requirements of a political party registration.
Buhari, the presidential candidate of APP, ANPP and CPC in 2003, 2007
and 2011 respectively, also said that if he fails to emerge as the
flagbearer of APC in the 2015 elections, he will remain in the party and
rally round whoever emerged.
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