Written by Kunle Oderemi and Idowu Samuel
Saturday, 22 September 2012
Buhari 2015, which is behind the campaign, has been sending text messages to members of the public on why they must rally round Buhari, so that he could bring an end to what the organisation perceived as the circle of corrupt leaders in the country.
The group is predicating its campaign for Buhari on his integrity and need for Nigerians to free themselves from the shackles of general corruption in the system towards restoring the lost glory of the country.
In one of the text messages sent out by the organisation, it claimed that he could make a lot of difference if Nigerians backed him during the 2015 presidential election.
It stated, “The set time has come to be liberated from the hands of corrupt leaders. General Buhari is the answer. Together, we can make the change.”
Though some members of CPC top echelon said they were not involved in the subtle campaign, the leaders said the promoters could be staunch supporters and admirers of Buhari outside the party, who shared his ideals and political philosophy.
Some of the principal officers of the party, who craved anonymity, told Saturday Tribune that they had received similar messages, but were handling them with utmost caution because of what they called Buhari’s tenacity to due process on matters.
But one of the state chairmen of the party in the South-West, said the former head of state would be leading other party leaders to Akure, the Ondo State capital next Saturday to launch the party’s campaign for the governorship poll coming up on October 20, 2012.
He said he and many other party leaders had received text messages from Buhari 2015, but were being careful in orchestrating the contents since the party was yet to take a formal position on the matter.
CPC spokesperson, Mr Rotimi Fasakin, when contacted said, some supporters, not Buhari, was the mastermind of the underground campaign.
Fasakin said he was aware that Buhari still commanded a large support base across the country, more so in the face of dwindling performance by PDP, stating that the most eager among his supporters would have been making efforts for him to enter the 2015 contest.
He said the ex-leader was yet to personally inform CPC of his desire to contest in 2015, noting that he would never start campaigning to contest the next election by putting his party in abeyance.
Fashakin said Buhari had earlier declared that he would not contest any presidential election again, given his disappointment with the conduct of the 2011 poll, won by President Goodluck Jonathan and hence would need to brief the party if at all he had changed his mind on his earlier stance.
He said, “Buhari is a principled politician. He is also methodical in his approach. He is not someone who would say something and then renege without a sound reason. If he announced his withdrawal from future presidential contest, I trust that he will not start any campaign for such without consulting with his party”.
His party is currently involved in exploratory talks with the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in particular, on the possibility of a merger before the 2015 elections.
However, the messages by the Buhari 2015 came on the heels of claims and counter-claims by some leaders from the North and their counterparts from the South-East over the right of their zones to the presidency in 2015.
The Northern leaders, under the aegis of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), who met in Kaduna on Thursday, promised not to compromise over their stand that their area produced the successor to Jonathan in 2015.
While observing that it was premature to engage in serious political manoeuvrings ahead the next election year, the ACF chieftains said their preoccupation now was how to bringing about unity and peaceful co-existence among stakeholders in the country.
According to them, such unity can only be achieved through mutual interface between them with their counterparts in other parts of the country.
“While the forum supports any political strategies that would put the North in a position which will enable it to negotiate with other sections of the country from a position of strength and secure some favourable terms, it was the considered view of the forum that it is too early to start full-fledged political activities for 2015. This is because such start is capable of detracting from the task of governance at our collective peril,” they stated.
On his part, a former governor of Abia State, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu said the quest by Ndigbo for the presidency in 2015 was not negotiable, hinging his stand on the policy of power rotation among the six political zones in the country.
He declared, “Anybody that thinks the Igbo will settle for a lesser office in the next presidential election should bury the idea, as we are not ready to compromise our stand on the matter in 2015. We don’t want anything short of that this time round.”
Similarly, some eminent persons from the South-South, where the president hails from, have advised other zones, especially in the North nursing ambition of stopping Jonathan from seeking another four-tear term in office to perish the idea as he has the constitutional right to seek two terms as president.
Meanwhile, the CPC spokesperson has debunked speculation that the party had resolved to drag the Governor of Central Bank, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi into the party for the 2015 presidential election.
Fasakin said at the moment, Lamido was not a card carrying member of CPC, and neither had he made any move towards joining the party, thus wondering how CPC could have planned to use him for the contest without him integrating properly with the party.
He said he found report on Sanusi Lamido contesting on the platform of CPC in 2015 laughable when indeed; there was noting linking him with the opposition party, although he fingered members of the ruling party as the originator of the speculation on the CBN Governor.
According to him, the aim of touting Sanusi as a CPC presidential hopeful was to pre-empt any possible move by the party to get stronger candidate from the north for the 2015 presidential election being one of the most popular political parties in the northern region at the moment. Source: Nigerian Tribune
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