…says Atiku most prepared, ready candidate
Segun Babatunde, Gombe
Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Yakubu Dogara, has commended President Muhammadu Buhari’s efforts aimed at curbing vote-buying ahead of the 2023 general elections.
He, however, said he is not uninformed or unaffected by the hardship caused by the Naira redesigned and swap policy but pleaded with Nigerians to endure it for a few weeks as a sacrifice for a free, fair and credible elections.
He spoke on Thursday in Kaltungo, Gombe state at the gathering of over 15,000 Christian youth under the auspices of Evangelical Churches Winning All (ECWA) International Youth Conference where he was honoured with the award of service to the youths, the church and humanity.
According to him, “For those critising the president on the issue of timing, I want to remind them in the words of Dr King Jnr that time is eternally neutral and , “the time is always ripe to do right.“ let me end by calling on CBN to ensure the redesigned notes are made available to our people but even if the CBN failed to do so, my plea to all Nigerians is to endure the pains for few more weeks for our votes to count and for us to elect a president we truly deserve”.
“Let me emphatically say that the President has the sole constitutional powers over currency matters and all those busy running their mouths because they have been denied the opportunity to deploy the ill- gotten naira they have stashed to buy votes, that they are committing treason”, he stated.
“The president is absolutely right not to have given in to the greed of the few against the needs of the many. While the president is right to have acted on what he knows and in the best interest of the country, his traducers are petty, unpatriotic, treacherous and grossly irresponsible”.
” I want to specifically commend President Buhari over the initiative to curb vote buying in the forthcoming general elections. I am not uninformed of nor unaffected by the hardship caused by the Naira redesign and swap policy but I want to plead with Nigerians to endure it for these few weeks as sacrifice for a free, fair and credible election”.
The former Speaker who stressed that Nigeria needs a steady hand, not hand that must always be steadied, further emphasised that “We need a steady hand not a hand that must always be steadied because only a steady hand can steady a volatile Nigeria. We need a hand on which nothing dies not the hand that spills everything that is placed on it if we do not want our collective national destiny to be spilled”.
“We need a grounded leader not a feckless pretender who has become a perfect gift to every level of comedy both local and internationally. By our votes, let us send a strong and clear message to those who want to foist this tasteless joke on us that Nigeria is no Comedy Cellar or Viva Blackpool”.
He queried: “Tell me if any of the candidates comes close to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in terms of readiness to hit the ground running from day one. In case you don’t know him, let me attempt the impossible task of introducing him to you”.
Dogara, Speaker of the 8th House of Representatives then urged Nigerians to vote for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) flag bearer,Atiku Abubakar in next week’s Presidential election, emphasising that “To elect a president who knows that only God gives power and that it is never anyone’s turn to take power, let us vote for Atiku”.
He added that “To elect a President who will hold his ground, not one that the ground must hold, before any audience in the world and bring honour not shame and dignity to all Nigerians, let us vote Atiku”,