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| President Muhammadu Buhari |
President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday evening
said he was not ready to do anything in a hurry.
He said he would sit and reflect on issues before
he would continue with a clear conscience.
Buhari said this during a dinner he hosted in
honour of chieftains of the All Progressives Congress at the Presidential
Villa, Abuja.
He said, “I keep telling people that while I was
in uniform, quite reckless and young, I got all the ministers and governors,
and put them in Kirikiri. I said they were guilty until they could prove their
innocence. I was also detained too.
“I decided to drop the uniform and come back.
Eventually, I am here. So really, I have gone through it over and over again.
“This is why I am not in a hurry virtually to do
anything. I will sit and reflect and continue with my clear conscience.”
Buhari also denied the allegation of ethnic bias
being levelled against him.
He explained that the number of substantive
ministers he appointed from the South-East, where he got only 198,000 votes,
was enough proof that he was not favouring the North as being speculated in
some quarters.
“There is something that hit me very hard and I
am happy I hit it back at somebody.
“Seven states of the North are only represented
in my cabinet by junior ministers, ministers of state.
“In (the) South-East, I got 198,000 votes but I
have four substantive ministers and seven junior ministers from there.
“You are closer to the people than myself now
that I have been locked up here, don’t allow anybody to talk about ethnicity.
It is not true,” he said.
Buhari also noted that throughout the period of
his struggles to become the President, he enjoyed the support of people of
other ethnic groups and religious affiliations.
He recalled, “There is one thing that disabused
my mind in a dispassionate way about ethnicity and religion across the country.
You know that tribunal for presidential election started at High Court of
Appeal. The President was my classmate. I missed only four of the court
sittings.
“For that first phase, 2003, we were in court for
30 months. My legal leader was Chief Ahamba (SAN), an Igbo man. He asked the
panel of judges to direct INEC to produce the voters register to prove that the
election was done underground.
“When they came to write the judgment, they
completely omitted that. Another Igbo man, a Roman Catholic, in the panel of
judges wrote a minority report.
“I went to the Supreme Court. Who was the Chief
Justice? A Hausa Fulani, a Muslim from Zaria. After 27 months, Ahamba presented
our case for two hours and 45 minutes. The Chief Justice got up and said they
were going on break and when they returned the following day, they will deliver
the judgment. They went away for three months. That was what made it 30 months.
“And when they came back, they discussed my case
within 45 minutes.
“In 2007, who was the Chief Justice? A Muslim
from Niger State. The third one (in 2011), who was the Chief Justice? My
neighbour from Jigawa State. The same religion and the same tribe.”
The President said he won the 2015 election
because of the commitment of Nigerians and the use of Permanent Voters Cards.
He stressed the need for proper voters education,
saying Nigerians must be told they need to choose the leaders of their choice.
Buhari again lauded former President Goodluck
Jonathan for conceding defeat in the last presidential election.
He said having been in the saddle for six years,
Jonathan had the capacity to cause trouble if he wanted to do so.
“The PVCs worked well in 2015. That was why when
the former president rang me, I went temporarily into a coma.
“I will never forget the time. It was quarter
after 5 pm and he said he called to congratulate me and that he has conceded
defeat. He asked if I heard him and I said yes and I thanked him for his
statesmanship.
“The truth is after being a deputy governor, a
governor, Vice-president and President for six years, and he took that decision
is great.
“He could have caused some problems. He had
stayed long enough to cause problems,” he added.
The President said he decided to host the party
chiefs in order to assure them that he was aware of the country’s problems and
he would always reflect on the incidents that preceded his assumption of
office.
The party’s National Chairman, Chief John
Odigie-Oyegun, urged Buhari to continue beyond 2019.
He said doing otherwise would mean that all that
the President had struggled for would come to nothing.
“We are firmly , totally and completely behind
you and when you make up your mind soon as I hope you will, you will find an
army behind you.
“Those who wish you well are already working and
it is my hope that you will agree eventually that continuity is important and
critical. Otherwise, all that you have struggled for will come to nothing,” he
said.
Odigie-Oyegun said it was good that the President
took time to put issues in the right perspectives.
He said the explanation showed clearly that the
President listened to what people were saying.
He said, “It has been such a terrible
misrepresentation. You have seized this opportunity to say that you are not
what people are saying.
“There are so many misconceptions. Look at the
example you have given that those who stood by you through the periods of
problems and struggles are not people of the same religious persuasion.
“You have said it that you are not an ethnic
jingoist. I know this because I have known you for a very long time.
“For some of us, when these things are said, we
find it painful but I hope there will be a proper rendition of what you said today
and it will start clearing the air.
“The only thing I will add is that you have had a
most challenging 2017 in every respect, including your son’s predicament.
“It is our prayer that all the struggles you have
been through, all the efforts you have put in for this country, the mind that
you have to improve the lot of the ordinary man of this country, that we will
begin to see results in 2018 and see the essence of the man, Muhammadu Buhari.”
The party chairman added, “For almost three
years, you have laboured to reconstruct the broken foundation of this nation.
You have laboured to put a new infrastructure without which development is
impossible.
“They were just dipping hands in the treasury,
the banks were just changing papers and collecting commissions and we all said
we were developing and prospering. But it was not a development that touched
the ordinary man of this country.
“For the first time, that is about to begin. It
has taken three years of foundation laying and thank God, the harvesting,
I believe, is going to begin this year.
“It is my hope that it will come early enough for
people to see that if one has to call anybody the architect of a modern
Nigeria, you will bear that distinction.
“Like I said when we were launching the book of
your achievements, what you started, you cannot complete. That is a matter of
fact. But what you started is basic, fundamental that Nigerians must learn a
new way of doing business based on their sweat from which profit will come
based on their resources.
“When we are used to doing things wrongly, change
becomes very difficult and we are passing through that stage now.
“It is not a struggle we can complete in four
years or even eight years. But you have started something new and that change
is not for nothing. It is even deeper than most of us understand. We must carry
it on until it becomes second nature to us.”
Party chieftains who attended the dinner included
Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, Chief Orji Kalu and Dr. Segun Oni, among others.
The party’s national leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu,
was conspicuously absent.
