JUST A MATTER OF FACT : Buhari would become the next president of Nigeria – N’Abba ... VanguardNews

By Levinus Nwabughiogu
ABUJA – National Leadership of the All Progressives Congress, APC formerly received the defecting former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Ghali Umar N’Abba into its fold yesterday, conferring on him automatic membership of the Board of Trustees of the party.

Also given to N’Abba were copies of the party’s constitution, manifesto and a pamphlet by the APC presidential candidate, General Mohammdu Buhari, titled “My Pact with Nigeria”.

Speaking at the event, the former speaker who told the formerly told the party leadership about his defection and subsequent move to the APC, stated that successive governments of the ruling People’s Democratic Party, PDP, had failed Nigerians, saying that the country needed change.

He said: “My total sum of my communication was that I have decided leave the party that I have been a member for the last 16 years. When I and other senior members of the party left the party between 2005 to 2007, a lot of things happened that we thought were undemocratic. We had to leave the party. Eventually some of us returned after the late Umar Yar’Adua made some certain promises about change in the party which never happened.

Ghali-Na’abba

“I believe that this country more than any other time in our history needs change, particularly on the top. In the last 16 years there has been misrule in this country. Nigerians are being misruled by successive Presidents of the PDP. Some of us fought over this and to no success. I believe that the momentum today is in favor of the APC, and we should never allow it to go down.

“It is in that quest that I feel having resigned from the PDP, I must join the APC so that I can help to roll that momentum and that it is quite remarkable that since yesterday I have been receiving calls from nook and crannies of Nigeria. That is to show you that the APC is a national party.”

N’Abba also pledged support for the victory of the APC presidential candidate, expressing optimism that Buhari would become the next president of Nigeria.

“People from all corners of this country have called me, including my colleague, former members of the House of Representatives who have decamped to the APC. My duty today is to continue to work with you and the presidential candidate of the party and at the same time try to consolidate the gains made so far.

“I’m a witness to how popular General Buhari is, not just in the north but all over the country and that I’m happy that he is going to be the next president of this country. It is our desire that he should become a national leader not a sectional leader”, he said.

He also warned against sectional marginalization, submitting that all regions of the country have comparative advantage to help develop the entire country.

“Nigerians have come a long way and I have continued to say that we can not continue to rule this country on the basis divisiveness. We can succeed in this country without maligning other parts of the country because we have all it takes.

“All the regions of this country have comparative advantages which we can build on and succeed and we don’t have to malign others to be able to succeed. God has created us into different tribes and nations. If we are all Hausas or Igbos or Yorubas, there may have been no desire for exchange among us and we may not know one another. It is a test on all us”, N’Abba said.

Welcoming the former speaker, the National Chairman of APC, Chief John Oyegun said N’Abba was a man of indisputable quality, saying that the party needed people like him.

He said: “This is one of the few truly beautiful events that I have been privileged to preside over. For the APC, it has been a matter of quality. Today, we are recovering a personality of indisputable quality into our ranks. A man of achievement, a man of principle and a man who has displayed in no uncertain terms that he share the ideals our party.

“For a long time, he struggled within the fold of the PDP to see if he can steer the ship back to safe waters. But of course, all that was to no effect because. Like he said, the dubious characters have taken over the PDP and so, it was no longer in the mood for change.”

Oyegun accused president Jonathan of dividing Nigeria along religious lines, saying that those who accuse Buhari of religious sentiments were the ones taking politics religious institutions.

“Today, the PDP candidate is engaging in religious tourism from one church to the other all over the nation even though we don’t know which denomination he truly belonged to. I asked, this man, Buhari that they accuse of being a fundamentalist, supposed he was also going from one Mosque to the other all over the nation, why can’t the ordinary Nigerian see the difference in the two personalities.

“One is exploiting the Christian religion and the other one is just being the good Muslim, just like some of us are struggling to be good Christians. He has not done the slightest thing to get Imams or Mosques every Friday to preach in his favour. He has not gone from one mosque to the other attending Friday prayers to seek for political support.

“So, we know where the problems of this nation are coming from. The PDP is tired, it is disoriented, it is confused and it is only clear and the people of the nation knows that they should be sent to the recovery bin if it is still possible for that party to recover from the state that it is in.”

Also speaking, former national chairman of the PDP now chieftain of the APC, Chief Audu Ogbe, welcome N’Abba, asking him to prevail other of his colleagues to join APC.

According to him, APC was a party for all Nigerians.

“I am glad that Ghali Na’Abba is back. I happened to be chairman when the impeachment saga took place and I knew how strong Ghali was, insisting that the right thing must be done. For a number of reasons such as national survival and cohesion, I tried to persuade him not to go ahead with it and he listened. It was not because the grounds on which the impeachment was based were wrong but because we advanced other overriding national considerations. Welcome to this party, Ghali Na’Abba and all of you out there who are still preparing to join this party.

“Ghali, please inform your former colleagues in the house that this is the place to be. This is a place for their ideals. This is the place for their dreams. This is the place for those who are worried about tomorrow, for the young who cannot find a flat to live in, young men who cannot marry because they don’t have money, young women you can’t marry because the young men are running away”, he said.

Similarly, another chieftain of the party, Prince Tony Momoh while welcoming N’Abba boasted that APC was now the largest party in Africa.

“We are a very big party, an opposition party in government and all that is happening today shows that a party that is resisting change is the part in opposition. It is the PDP that is resisting change.

“I welcome our brother, friend for coming into a party that cannot even stop change. If APC today says no change, they will be stoned. That is to tell you that the agitation for change is mass agitation of the Nigerian people and APC is only a representative of that war cry “change”, he said.

The event attracted several members of the party which included the Deputy National Chairman, (North), Senator Lawal Shuaibu, Deputy National Chairman (South), Engr. Segun Oni, National Vice Chairman (North East), Engr. David Lawal, National Auditor, Chief George Moghalu, former National Chairman of PDP, Chief Audu Ogbe, National Secretary, Alhaji Mai Mala Buni, National Treasurer, Alhaji Bala Mohammed, National Vice Chairman, South South, Prince Hillary Eta, National Publicity a Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed amongst others.