A former Head of State,Maj.- Gen.Muhammadu Buhari, (retd) has said that the Peoples Democratic Party-led Federal Government has institutionalised corruption in Nigeria. Buhari spoke in Ilorin on Wednesday when leaders of the All Progressives Congress stormed Kwara State to woo members of the Kwara State chapter of the PDP loyal to a former Governor of the state, Dr. Bukola Saraki. Other APC chieftains on the entourage were the Interim National Chairman of the APC, Chief Bisi Akande; a former Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu; as well as ex-governors John Oyegun(Edo); and George Akume (Benue).
Others were ex -Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Masari; the Interim National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed; a former Minister of Works, Alhaji Hassan Lawal; and another former minister, Alhaji Musa Gwadabe.
Buhari said it was neccessary for all stakeholders to team up and fight against corruption, lack of infrastructure and other developmental challenges facing the country.
He said, “That nothing has improved over the years shows the non-performance of the ruling PDP.
“The non-performance of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation is enough to remove any government in power except in Nigeria.
“The PDP government has institutionalised corruption in Nigeria. There is no way Nigeria, with its vast population and land can continue to entertain an army of unemployed youths without the resultant effect of kidnapping and the insurgency by Boko Haram.”
He told the gathering that “the fundamental objective of the APC is to secure a hope for Nigerians.”
But the PDP dismissed the comment by Buhari, saying it was a “ mere political statement.”
It said it was ironical that the APC would be wooing governors in a supposedly corrupt party.
The Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji Ibrahim Jalo, in a telephone interview with one of our correspondents, stated that the actions of the opposition party showed its desperation for power.
Jalo alleged that the APC was looking for money from the governors to prosecute the 2015 general elections. He said, “What he (Buhari) said is a political statement in the sense that he is now spearheading a group of APC leaders who are going round looking for our aggrieved governors.
“How do you go and woo those from a descredited their party? Why are they looking for governors from the party they feel is corrupt? Why are you looking for people from a discredited institution.
“They are looking for the governors because they want money to fund their party. It is not that they like the governors but they just want them because you cannot run a party without fund.
“They want to take their money and dump them. As far as we are concerned, we are satisfied with the performance of President Jonathan.”
Tinubu had while asking the PDP members in the state to join the APC, said because of the high rate of unemployment, youths in the country had become frustrated.
He stated that even if elderly people could cope with hunger, any graduate or non-graduate going to bed every night hungry would not appreciate the beauty of democracy.
The former governor advised Nigerians not to be overwhelmed by their challenges but should rise up and work for a better country.
Tinubu said, “Can a woman in labour with pains, who has not been able to properly take care of the first child and having the second, think well of democracy if there is no proper medical care?
“Can we talk today of solid and good education that was given to us by our own fathers, because education is a weapon against poverty- can we boast of that in the face of this unending crisis in the education sector?
“Before you know it, this electricity supply will flip and can we continue to sit back and lament and complain about the suffering, about government, about Nigeria going backward and drifting or do something.
“Let us talk together, work together and challenge ourselves for the future of our children.”
Akande said the APC leadership had come through the governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, to invite the PDP members in the state to join the opposition party.
He also stated that the invitation was not limited to the members of the New PDP in the seven rebel governors’ camp alone, but to all other governors and members of the PDP.
Akande said, “We are starting a revolution that will make this country a country of the progressives. And that is what we have started just about a week ago and we hope to use Kwara State as a spring to enter the heart of every Nigerian.”
Ahmed and the Speaker, Kwara State House of Assembly, Mr. Razak Atunwa, decried impunity and the growing developmental problems in the country.
They stated that they had listened to the offer of the APC leadership, wooing them into APC.
They however said that Saraki, who is the party leader in the state, would make a decision that would be beneficial to the entire members of the PDP in the state.
Ahmed said even though Nigeria had come of age, it was “still basking in residual superstition.”
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