Avoid Jonathan’s mistakes, says Sani
Senior Advocate of Nigeria and constitutional lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome, has said Nigeria is sick if anybody is thinking of endorsing President Muhammadu Buhari for a second term in 2019.
“The president who has spent his tenure so far spreading poverty, hunger, hopelessness,” was Ozekhome’s summation of yesterday’s endorsement of Buhari, by the All Progressives Congress (APC) Progressives Governors Forum (PGF). Ozekhome said this in reaction to the governors’ forum’s endorsement of Buhari for a second term in 2019, shortly before the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting in Abuja. The governors had declared that there is no candidate better than Buhari to fly the party’s flag in the 2019 presidential election. Speaking in separate interviews with reporters before commencement of the National Executive Committee meeting of the party in Abuja, the governors said the belief that President Buhari’s integrity, coupled with his performance since 2015, remain unbeatable. General Secretary of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Mr. Anthony Sani, urged Buhari to avoid the mistakes of former President Goodluck Jonathan. Sani, who made it clear that he expressed his personal opinion on the issue and not that of the ACF, further noted that what the APC governors did was what PDP governors did in the build-up to the 2015 presidential election, which, according to him, contributed to Jonathan’s defeat at the polls.
“I would prefer democracy be allowed to take its course, by way of party primary, in order to avoid the fate which befell (former) president Jonathan when PDP printed only one nomination form for him; after all, an incumbent could hardly lose in party primary. “It was such attitude which made other aspirants not to work for (former) president Jonathan at the general elections.The rest is now history.” Afenifere spokesman, Yinka Odumakin, viewed the governors’ action differently. He said adoption of Buhari for the 2019 presidential poll will not in any way distract from governance as being feared in some quarters. “This is because of the fact that politicking has already started. “However, if there are people to run this country, who have better ideas of running the country, they should also organise themselves and face the APC in the election. “This is the way I view the situation now,” Odumakin said.
