Campaigns shouldn’t be about dead leaders – Buhari

PRESIDENTIAL candidate of the All Progressives
Congress for the February 14 election, Maj.-Gen.
Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has said that
campaigns should focus on national issues and
not on his state of health and dead Nigerian
leaders.
Buhari’s advice came a day after some members
of the Peoples Democratic Party raised doubts
about his health status and after an advert by Ekiti
State Governor Ayodele Fayose warned Nigerians
against voting for a 72-year-old man.
In the said advert, Fayose claimed that since three
ex-leaders from the North-West had died in office,
it would not be wise for Nigerians to vote for
Buhari “because we are tired of state burials.”
Buhari, in a message on his official Twitter handle
said, “How can his (President Goodluck Jonathan)
campaign be talking about ex-dead leaders,
jogging around the stadium and outright lies about
health?”
Also, the Buhari Support Group Centre on Monday
condemned what it described as an orchestrated
campaign of calumny and character assassination
directed at the APC candidate.
It specifically expressed displeasure with the
Fayose’s advert, saying it was not decent.
“In line with the Abuja Accord signed by Gen.
Buhari and President Jonathan, the advert in
question is to say the least, in bad taste.
“Is it to say that our opponents have a death wish
for our candidate? Political campaign should stick
to issues and be decent,” the BSGC Director of
Publicity, Chidia Maduekwe, said in a telephone
interview with The PUNCH on Monday.
The Buhari Support Organisation, meanwhile, said
it had started a sensitisation campaign to ensure
full compliance with the no-violence accord signed
by presidential candidates in the February 2015
general elections.
Several groups, under the aegis of BSO, urged
politicians to adhere strictly to the letter and intent
of the accord.
State coordinators of the various groups said this
at a media briefing in Abuja on Monday.
Addressing state coordinators of the groups, in
Abuja, on Monday, the Chief of Staff to Buhari, Col.
Hameed Ali (retd.) said Nigerians had had enough
of election related violence since 1956.
He said all hands must be on deck to stop
reoccurrence.
“We must change the way the world sees us and
this 2015 election offers the rare opportunity to
showcase our desired new direction,” Ali said.
Also, a former acting National Chairman of the
Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Kawu Baraje, said
the advert by Fayose was against the non-violence
accord signed by all presidential candidates.
In a statement on Monday, Baraje, a chieftain of the
APC, said the Fayose advert allegedly wished for
the death of Buhari, who was military head of state
between 1984 and 1985.
Baraje, a chieftain of the APC said that the advert
credited to Fayose was capable of causing anarchy
in the country.
He said, “One would have expected that at the
second coming of Fayose as governor he would be
more careful and have outgrown his alleged
carelessness and irresponsible motor park attitude
which is not expected of a governor.
“It is regrettable that barely a week after all
political parties, the Independent National Electoral
Commission and other stakeholders met to agree
on conducting an issues-based and non-violent
campaign, a senior member of PDP, who is meant
to be the leader of an entire state, could stoop so
low to wish death on anyone, not to talk of a
presidential candidate.
“The failure of President Jonathan and the
leadership of the PDP to distance itself from such
comments and call Mr. Fayose to order is a direct
indication that they are in support of Mr. Fayose
making a mockery of the dead and trying to play
God as only Allah is the one that knows the time of
the passing of any individual.”
Meanwhile, Buhari, in continuation of his campaign
on Monday, told the electorate to defend their
votes in the February elections and give no room
for any manipulation.
“Do not leave the polling units until the result is
declared,” Buhari, who spoke in Minna, Niger State,
said.
According to him, anything that may jeopardise the
result of the election should not be allowed to take
place.
“Where ever you are, defend your votes during the
February elections,” he stressed.
The APC presidential candidate also assured the
people of the state that he would provide enough
electricity to enable businessmen and women to
carry out their businesses in a well- dignified
manner.
He said if voted he would improve the agricultural
sector in Niger State, given the status of the state
as one of the food baskets of the nation.
Speaking at the rally, APC National Leader and
former governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu, said
President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration had
been characterised by lies, saying that was why
the country could not move forward.
“Six years ago, he promised us that he we will
step down and will not re-contest, but today the
reverse is the case, putting the country into
economic mess,” Tinubu said.
He urged the electorate to get their voter cards
ready for the elections, saying the cards would
bring development to the nation.
At the rally were chieftains of the APC nationwide,
including the APC presidential running mate, Prof.
Yemi Osinbanjo; Governor of Rivers State, Rotimi
Amaechi; and a former governor of Kwara State,
Bukola Saraki.
The deputy governor of Niger State, Ahmed Musa
Ibeto, who defected from the PDP to the APC on
Monday, was also at the rally.