The woes of the tottering Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, may have been compounded as a sizeable number of its supporters from the 19 northern states, have decamped to the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.
The 2027 presidential aspiration of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar may have also taken a serious hit by the defection.
National Chairman of the APC, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, and Deputy Senate President Jibrin Barau, received the defectors from the 19 northern states at an event in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
The defectors, comprising majorly of members from the 2023 Coalition of Atiku Support Groups, announced their defection from the People’s Democratic Party to the APC on Friday, pledging to support President Bola Tinubu in 2027.
The group, with representatives from each of the 19 northern states and the Federal Capital Territory cited discussions with Deputy Senate President Jibrin Barau as a key factor for their decision to defect.
“Our groups comprise various strata of society—women, youths, students, traders, academics, and farmers—representing diverse religious and ethnic backgrounds,” said the coalition’s coordinator, Mallam Abubakar Malami.
“In the 2023 general election build-up” he continued, “we mobilised our members across the nooks and crannies of the 19 northern states and the FCT to campaign for former Vice President Atiku Abubakar. To the glory of God, Atiku and his team acknowledged and appreciated our support. We played a key role in the votes he secured in the last election.
“We supported Atiku in our quest to address the challenges in our region, particularly terrorism and banditry, which crippled economic activities. Farming, the mainstay of our people, became impossible as farmlands turned into kidnappers’ dens.”
But now, the music has changed. According to Malami, “22 months into President Bola Tinubu’s tenure, a fresh air of peace and hope permeates the 19 northern states. The crashing prices of food items cannot be divorced from the relative peace enjoyed in our region.”
He praised Tinubu for establishing the North West Development Commission, sequel to a bill sponsored by Senator Barau, calling it a “game changer.”
“In 2027, we will work for the continuation of President Tinubu’s administration,” Malami pledged. “Our sincere appreciation goes to His Excellency, the Deputy Senate President, Senator Barau, for his efforts in addressing the challenges in our region. He is the Sardauna Arewa of our time.”
Senator Jibrin Barau, in his remarks, described the defection of Atiku’s northern supporters as a “big catch” for the APC.
“It’s a big catch,” he declared. “We are making a big catch today at our party. Mr. President is a very good man. He’s doing his best to reposition Nigeria into a land of prosperity.
“It is good that you understand this and have come to acknowledge what Mr. President is doing.”
Assuring the defectors of equal opportunities within the party, Baru also eulogised saying, “He is a man at home in all parts of the country, generous, and his hospitality is unprecedented. He has everything you can think of in a good leader.”
In his address, APC Chairman, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, commended the defectors for their courage, stating, “You are welcome to our party. After fasting, all your members wi:ll gather in Abuja under the leadership of Senator Barau, where we will invite Mr. President and the Vice President, alongside the Senate President and Speaker, to formally receive you.”
The defection, Ganduje said, sounded the death knell on the PDP adding, “This will register the death, the collapse, the disappearance of the PDP in Nigeria, not just in the North.”
Referring to the Anambra governorship election, Ganduje claimed, “PDP extended its screening deadline because nobody showed up. The extension expired, and still, nobody came forward. The party is crumbling. The party is dying at a fantastic rate.”
One of the leading aspirants in the All Progressives Congress, APC, gubernatorial primaries last Saturday, Hon Wale Akinterinwa, has warned that the shambolic show of shame in the state will never stand the test of democratic standard anywhere in the world. Not even in Ondo State.
Akinterinwa who has appealed the swirling cacophony supervised by the controversial Kogi State governor, Ododo said the battle has just begun while sending appreciation message to his supporters across the state.
“I sincerely thank my supporters for believing in me and my commitment to building a united and prosperous Ondo state,” Akinterinwa said on Tuesday. “To our support group, the WA Campaign Organisation, and other groups too numerous to mention, I say thank you for joining me in the journey to redeem our dear state and for everything you did to help our campaign.
“Together we birthed and nurtured the WA movement. With your voice, you have spoken very loud and the people have heard you. We went around the 18 local government areas to campaign. We were well received and never before have we witnessed the kind of crowd in all our outings. This alone is a display of your pure love for me and your understanding of my dreams for the state and our people. I do not take this for granted.
“For your undying love, commitment and loyalty; for the pains and unwarranted attacks you suffer, I assure you all that all these are not in vain. However, I appeal once more that we should be calm and tolerant as we continue with the process. While the frustration and anger that greeted the primary election are understandable, we must strive to continue to channel our energy positively in ways that will increase the respect and love that the people of Ondo State have for our team. We came with a message of hope and love, we cannot deviate from that route.
“As we prepare for the future, I am proud that the WA message has resonated with the young and old across the state. Now, we must continue to carry our heads high and be very proud of what we have been able to achieve within the short period of our campaign.
“I must not forget to thank our party leaders, especially those who believed in us. They worked hard for us to gain the support that we had at a very difficult time. I say thank you for standing by us.”
Meanwhile, the Akinterinwa Campaign Organisation insists that no election was held in any part of Ondo state Saturday to elect the candidate of the APC. It is on record with incontrovertible evidence that nothing in the semblance of a primary election was held in all the 203 wards in Ondo state. the body said
“Saturday’s sham election will probably go down as one of the most controversial primary elections ever conducted by APC. The supportive and hardworking members of the APC were robbed and made to understand or believe that their votes do not count.
“While we are still trying to process the shameful manipulation and fraud that attended this election, it remains a huge and didfficult task to understand why the electoral committee was in such a hurry to conclude and announce their candidate as the winner.”
Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Mr. Peter Obi, in his first response to Saturday’s Presidential election which he lost to Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has sent a passionate plea to his supporters, popularly called OBIdients, especially the youth, urging them not to burn or tear their permanent voters cards, PVC, in reaction to the results.
He was reacting to a question during a press conference he addressed, Thursday afternoon in Abuja, on reports of youths tearing and burning their PVCs in some parts of the country to protest the conduct of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, insisting the process was flawed and the poll rigged.
But responding to the situation, Obi pleaded with the youths, indeed, all other aggrieved persons, not to destroy their PVCs but turn out massively next Saturday, March 11, 2023, and for the governor and assembly members of the Labour Party.
He told them he understood how they felt but urged them not to give up. This is a long journey, he said, and he was committed to going through it with them.
“Believe me as an elder brother,” he continued. “Believe me as a father. Believe me…, this is a long journey, I’m totally committed to it. And I will walk through with you. I know how disillusioned you are. Don’t be disillusioned because the people we are dealing with have made up their mind that we won’t succeed. We have also made up our mind that we will succeed.”
Asked if he was taking his case to the international community, Obi said he was not because it was a Nigerian problem. The International Community, he maintained, does not see what “we see”.
When reminded that ECOWAS Election Observers reported that despite the challenges and malpractices that occurred last Saturday, the process was still generally fair and, therefore, passable. Obi retorted that he deliberately did not mention the word “Observer” in his address. Therefore, he urged his supporters not to bother what some observers were saying.
He also assured them that he was not going anywhere but will stay and walk through the journey with them.
Governor Adegboyega Oyetola of Osun State, , his deputy, Benedict Alabi and cabinet members led thousands of supporters in Osogbo to march in support of the presidential candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and his running mate, Kashim Shettima.
Supporters converged on Osun State Government House, Oke-Fia, Osogbo around 9am on Tuesday before they embarked on the street rally.
The rally marched from Government House through Oke-Fia, Alekuwodo, Ola-Iya, Odi-Olowo, Isale-Osun, Oja-Oba, Station road, Ajegunle and terminated at Freedom park where the supporters were addressed.
The supporters, bearing banners in their hands, adorned fez-cap crested with Tinubu emblem.
They sang to woo residents of the State to vote for APC in 2023 general elections.
Oyetola implored the supporters to vote for Tinubu in 2023 and campaign for APC.
According to him: “The walk for Tinubu is a very fortunate one because we will love to testify to its goodness. Tinubu will become the president of this nation because God’s mouth has proclaimed it.
“Tinubu popularity is well grounded in Osun state. He has been with us in Osun since 1999, he contributed heavily to emergence of progressive victory in this state. Nigerians should not leave this country for those that will use experiment with it through governance, we must vote the person who is experienced. He has changed Lagos State.
“Tinubu won’t only state problem but he will proffer solutions to them by presenting framework to address them. Other candidates are lamenting over insecurity without tell us how they will end it but Asiwaju when he unveiled his manifesto, it is clear that he will address use technology to solve the problem of insecurity,”
President Muhammadu Buhari’s supporters, under the auspices of Buhari Media Organisation (BMO), have lambasted the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Iyorchia Ayu, for returning N405m loot as a plea bargain recently.
The BMO describes the former Senate President as one of those who undermined military efforts against terrorists and criminal elements in Nigeria.
According to the group, Ayu quietly returned public funds he received from the former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, only after the anti-graft agency sealed his property.
In a statement co-signed by its Chairman and Secretary Niyi Akinsiju and Cassidy Madueke, the body said returning the loot confirmed their position that Ayu was a major beneficiary of the PDP-era massive looting of the national treasury.
“Our attention has just been drawn to the surreptitious return of stolen funds amounting to N405m by no other than the leader of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Iyorchia Ayu.
“The funds were said to have been returned a few months ago after authorities seized a mansion belonging to the former Senate President, but as soon as he paid up, the property was said to have been returned to him,” the group stated.
The BMO said had President Buhari not won election in 2015, the looter would have gone unpunished.
It added: “If President Muhammadu Buhari had not been elected President in 2015, no one would have known and the former Minister would have practically escaped with his loot unpunished.
“This is the PDP legacy so it is not a surprise that a man caught with stolen funds is today at the helm of affairs of that party.”
BMO further argued that such looting and its returning should have disqualified Ayu from leading a party.
“In saner climes, he would have been removed from office, but knowing the gathering that PDP is, Ayu earned his stripes because only a politician that is adept at illegally feeding on public funds could lead such a group with the notoriety the former ruling party has.”
“So it beggars belief to hear the PDP chairman and his colleagues pontificating about security challenges that they laid the foundation for in the manner they looted funds meant to boost the operational readiness of our security personnel,” the group noted.
It added that Ayu’s antecedent as a beneficiary of looted public funds is enough qualification for him to lead the PDP.
“We maintain that the main opposition party is currently headed by an individual who crookedly benefited from funds meant for arms procurement.
“We make bold to say that this is what the former ruling party stood for and which its members have missed in the last seven years that President Muhammadu Buhari had been in the saddle.”
BMO, therefore, urged Nigerians to be wary when people like Ayu speaks on security challenges in some parts of the country, knowing that he is one of those whose activities denied the military of necessary infrastructure support against terrorists and criminal elements.
An aide to the former President Goodluck Jonathan has dissociated his boss from the N100 million Nomination form, which he said was simply bought in his name on Monday.
Jonathan, who was President from 2010 to 1015 before he was defeated by the incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari and his All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2015, is seen as a leader of the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) the platform under which he was president.
In a telephone chat with journalists shortly after the news of the alleged payment of N100 million for the APC nomination form broke, Jonathan’s spokesman, Ike Eze, said: ”Don’t mind them; they are on their own.”
Eze, wrote in a statement, dripping with anger: “It has come to our notice that a group has purportedly purchased Presidential Nomination and Expression of Interest forms, of the All Progressives Congress APC, in the name of former President Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.
“We wish to categorically state that Dr. Jonathan was not aware of this bid and did not authorize it. We want to state that if the former President wanted to contest an election, he would make his intentions clear to the public and will not enter through the back door.
“While we appreciate the overwhelming request by a cross-section of Nigerians, for Dr. Jonathan to make himself available for the 2023 Presidential election, we wish to state, that he has not in anyway, committed himself to this request. Buying a presidential aspiration form in the name Dr. Jonathan without his consent, knowing the position he had held in this country, is considered an insult to his person. The general public is therefore advised to disregard it.”
A coalition of northern socio-cultural groups has purchased the All Progressives Congress (APC) N100million Expression of Interest and Nomination forms for Jonathan to contest for the 2023 presidency.
The groups, said to also be of Fulani extraction, picked the forms from the party’s organising secretary at the International Conference Centre (ICC) in Abuja, on Monday evening.
There have been speculations that Jonathan was preparing to defect to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and seek the presidential ticket of the party.
However, some Nigerians, including human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, argued that his candidature would breach the constitution.
Falana had based his position on Section 137 (3) of the Constitution, which provides as follows: A person who was sworn in to complete the term for which another person was elected as president shall not be elected to such office for more than a single term.
Hundreds of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) supporters in Edo State have defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Speaking at the ceremony yesterday in Okada, the leader of the defectors,. Balogun Okhiwere, said their decision was based on the quality representation of Dennis Idahosa at the House of Representatives.
He said that the defectors were joining forces with the APC to strengthen it and assist the lawmaker, who represents Ovia Federal Constituency to continue with his developmental strides.
“We, the undersigned and members of the PDP in Ovia North East hereby resign our membership of the PDP.
“We thereafter resolved to decamp to the APC in appreciation of the developmental stride of Idahosa, who has brought infrastructural development to all nooks and crannies of the constituency,” he said.
Idahosa, who received them, hailed them for their courage, saying they would be treated equally with those they met on ground.
He noted that their defection would help strengthen his resolve to continue to improve the lives of his constituents.
“You are already part of us even before your coming. Let me reiterate here that there is no new and old APC with your coming. We are all one and working for the same purpose.
“I appeal to us all to work with unity of purpose so that we can all meet our expectations of making Ovia a better place,” Idahosa said.
A GoFundMe campaign launched for Sunday Adeyemo, a Yoruba activist better known as Sunday Igboho to support his campaign against killer herdsmen has raised over N11 million so far..
The campaign was launched by one Maureen Badejo, based in the United Kingdom for “purchase of buses for Sunday Igboho”.
The GoFundMe page is meant to help raise £100,000 (N51.8m).
“Let us rise up and support chief Sunday Adeyemo Igboho, they need buses to move around to secure our ancestral land.
” Our security is threatened as we speak. It seems people in a position of authority are helpless,” the description read in part.
Checks by TheNation on the GoFundMe website on Friday morning, showed that 693 donors have contributed to the campaign.
As of the last check on Friday morning, £22,822 (N11m) has been donated.
Igboho during a virtual town hall meeting, said he needs buses to “transport people” for his south-west tour.
Sunday Igboho had said he would embark on a tour of Southwest states of Nigeria in a bid to flush out killer herdsmen in the region.
Scores among the supporters of the Ondo State governor, Arakunrin Rotimi Akeredolu have been attacked and injured by unknown gunmen in his hometown, Owo,
The attackers suspected to be political thugs allegedly invaded a meeting venue of a group of supporters of the Ondo State Governor in Owo, the headquarters of Owo Local Government Area of the state, on Sunday evening.
The hoodlums were said to have injured some of the All Progressives Congress members at the venue of the meeting, held in the Igboroko area of the town. They also allegedly vandalised a bus branded ‘Akeredolu for second term’.
According to an eyewitness, when the thugs got to the area where the meeting was being held, they started shooting indiscriminately to announce their presence in the area. Many of the governor’s supporters at the meeting were allegedly hit by stray bullets.
The leader of the group, Mr Olayemi Olamide, alleged that the attack was sponsored by one of the APC governorship aspirants in Owo town.
Olamide said: “We were holding our meeting as a group to declare our total support for the re-election of Governor Akeredolu when these thugs brandishing sophisticated weapons such as guns, axes, and cutlasses arrived in two vans and a white pick-up.
“The thugs fired gunshots sporadically in the open and destroyed Aketi’s campaign bus packed along the street. People scampered for their dear lives while the melee lasted for about an hour.
” Some of our people were hit by stray bullets fired by the thugs.”
When contacted on Monday, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Mr Tee-Leo Ikoro, confirmed the incident but said nobody was killed and the command had not arrested anyone yet in connection with the matter.
“We can confirm that the incident happened when our men got to the scene, there were sporadic gunshots, so they had to retreat and nobody has been arrested yet. We have started an investigation into the matter,” Ikoro said.
Fellow Nigerians, please permit me to say happy new year to you all. May God almighty make this a peaceful year for our dear beloved country. There is nothing greater to ask for than peace in an election year. And this is the main crux of my message to you on this page today.
The tension in the land is so hot and suffocating because of the general elections coming up from next month. In case you are wondering why I’m specifically appealing to President Muhammadu Buhari and not to his main rival, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, and the deluge of other aspirants, let me explain quickly. I’m a social media addict and through this, I’m able to gauge the mood in public domain. I have been active in politics since 1982. The first crazy election I witnessed was in 1983 when the ruling party, NPN, declared itself winner in several unlikely places. The result was fatally cataclysmic as people in those areas reacted spontaneously and violently. Some parts of Yorubaland went up in flames and human beings were roasted like barbecue meat. About three months later, the government of Alhaji Shehu Shagari collapsed like a pack of cards.
The military coup that came capitalised on the recklessness and profligacy of the Shagari regime as a veritable excuse to torpedo that government. Politicians were promptly arrested, detained, prosecuted and jailed and given horrendous prison terms that made a mockery of the justice system in Nigeria. There were too many examples of double standards which portrayed the government as vengeful or outrightly neurotic. Laws were made and backdated. Journalists were tried by decrees and jailed by fiat, God’s case, no appeal. Before long, the Nigerian economy took a nosedive and and plunged into a bottomless pit of misery. The situation was so chaotic that Nigerians queued for mere commodities like victims of war or famine. It never recovered until the Buhari government itself was sacked and banished to the dustbin of history. The full story is for another day.
The next election, thereafter, was that of June 12, 1993, which turned out to be the best conducted and the least controversial until the military government of President Ibrahim Babangida decided to intervene and aborted a full grown baby just before it was born. Since then, Nigeria has known no real peace, possibly, as punishment for this pre-meditated murder of an innocent political baby. Instead of learning our lessons and apologising to Nigerians for this unfortunate saga, government after government, like the ostrich, buried its cocky head in the sand, pretending that there was nothing special about the election and that life can move on as normal.
From 1993 to 1999, Nigeria, once more, came under the jackboots of the military after the short-lived Interim Government, headed by Chief Ernest Adegunle Shonekan. General Sani Abacha led junta ruled with iron fists from November 1993 to June 1998, when he suddenly took ill, mysteriously, and died, and General Abdulsalami Abubakar took over and handed over to a former military ruler, General Olusegun Obasanjo, who led a new civilian administration from May 1999 to May 2007.
Interestingly, for a man that many had clearly forgotten about, General Muhammadu Buhari resurfaced from nowhere, around 2003, and promptly announced his interest in the Presidential race. It was like a script out of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, “we have scorched the snake, not killed it…” Buhari was well and alive. While many laughed, scornfully, at him, there were those who admired his guts. Poverty was already growing in the land and politicians had returned to their days of psychedelic existence. Thus many Nigerians longed for those days when Buhari took over power and punished the politicians mercilessly. The only thing they forgot was that Buhari would no longer be a military dictator with all the appurtenances of State coercion. And he would no longer have the collaboration of his second in command, Babatunde Idiagbon. But Buhari was very smart, or better put, his packagers. He had transfigured into a friend of the poor and champion of Northern interests. He returned triumphantly from the throes of disgrace and incarceration after the Babangida coup. He contested serially, and stubbornly, on three occasions, against Presidents Obasanjo, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan and lost monumentally, but he garnered millions of votes from his catchment areas, especially in the North.
By 2011, Buhari had become battle weary and it seemed it was over for him. He was quoted to have said he would no longer contest. But one thing led to another and Buhari’s interest was re-awakened, and re-activated, by certain interest groups looking for a way to scatter the ruling party to the winds. PDP was becoming too comfortable and very self-conceited. It was also engaged in a silly war of attrition that led to the exit of some key members of the party. Perhaps, if PDP had not mismanaged its internal wrangling, the end would not have come at the time it did, and the manner it happened. Lord have mercy, the grand conspiracy against the incumbent President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, would ultimately go into the history books as one of the most lethal. Anyway, Buhari returned to the race and contested in 2015, and won resoundingly.
President Muhammadu Buhari
Buhari’s victory was a popular mandate from all over the country. We were all very happy and excited and many friends of Nigeria from everywhere in the world rejoiced with us. The goodwill Buhari commanded was almost unprecedented. But no sooner than he took over power that things began to fall apart. I will spare you the horror of how Buhari frittered away that massive equity, as we watched helplessly, with our arms akimbo. A few that warned him about the sad turn of events were soon labelled enemies of Buhari, friends of looters, corrupt people, who are no longer making and enjoying free money in the system. It didn’t take long before the economy collapsed, as scare-mongering crept in on the country again.
As he did in 1983-85, Buhari renewed his war against corruption but, this time, without military power to enforce anything. Again, like it happened to his predecessors, he was accused of witch-hunt because most of those under siege were members of the opposition. The blame game also became over-amplified. Every failure, and frustration, of government was explained away as the stultification of governance that was brought about by Jonathan and his crew. Buhari and his acolytes have never stopped groaning and complaining about Jonathan, PDP, or both. According to the APC, PDP was responsible for all the bad things that happened in Nigeria. That’s fine. But the real enemy is time.
Now, suddenly, reality has dawned on the Federal Government that it has spent nearly four years in power. Yes, time truly flies. And the next cycle of election has come. The pressure is usually on the ruling government. This is the reason for my long preamble. The Federal Government and its ardent supporters would want members of the public believe they have performed wonders, and that President Buhari is the 21st century wonder, but this is far from the truth. Many APC chieftains would normally confess privately, and confidentially, that they have fumbled, big time, but we should, please, give, or just dash, them another term, with promises to do much better.
Personally, I believe it is up to Nigerians to vote for any candidate of their choice, or fancy. As for me, I’m convinced that Buhari has already exhausted the capacity to govern a country as complicated, and convoluted, as Nigeria. I may be wrong. My support in 2015 was based on certain misplaced hopes and permutations. 1. That, after 30 years in retirement, he has had enough time to reflect on his past mistakes and he is ready to make amends. 2. That he would hit the ground running and pursue the onerous task of nation-building with assistance from some of the brightest people it has pleased God to bless Nigeria with. 3. That he would give more power to his highly cerebral and cosmopolitan Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo. 4. That he would abhor nepotism, unite our divided country and treat all Nigerians as free citizens of this great nation. 5. That he would build stronger institutions and not tougher dictatorship. 6. That he would empower our anti-corruption agencies and embolden them to operate without fear or favour. 7. That he would make the welfare and well-being of our security forces his top priority in this season of unprecedented anomy, as a retired General himself. 8. That he would reduce waste in government to barest minimum based on the promises he made, before God and man, during his campaigns. I can go on, ad infinitum. But, to my chagrin, Buhari’s government failed on most of these counts.
Please, note that I did not even mention issues of the economy, infrastructure, youth employment and empowerment. I’m aware they have been distributing ten thousand naira in market places but I’m not sure how far this can go in a country where over 80 percent of the population live in abject poverty. Of course, President Buhari is blessed with some fanatical supporters who see him as the only saint in Nigeria who will help them deal ruthlessly with the enemies who have impoverished them. Buhari appeals to this young Nigerians and they don’t mind if Nigeria is engulfed in mass poverty. Their attitude is since they are already poor, Buhari should tear down the whole system and make the rich poor. The sad part is the fact that they can’t distinguish between those who worked hard and the so-called looters. Herein lies the danger to society at large.
I have spent the past weeks engaging with these guys on social media. Many of them are loose cannons who have become totally obsessed with the fake mantra that whoever is not with Buhari is a thief. This may work in favour of Buhari in the short run but may hurt Nigeria and Nigerians, irredeemably, in the long run. I foresee them turning into an uncontrollable army if Buhari does not win the Presidential election next month. Our usually taciturn President must not keep quiet on this danger waiting to explode. At 76, officially, God has been very kind to him. There is nothing in democracy that guarantees two terms for a President, so it should never be a matter of life and death. If you win, you win, and if you lose, you lose. Every effort must be made to make sure the precedence bequeathed by President Jonathan is maintained, even if not improved upon.
I was privileged to accompany the former President of Ghana, Dr John Dramani Mahama, to The Gambia during the imbroglio that engulfed that tourist destination after President Yahya Jammeh refused to hand over power despite the obvious fact that he lost election in 2017. I saw the great efforts of President Buhari, Eileen Johnson Sirleaf, Mahama, Mackey Sall and others. It would be a monumental disgrace for the world to start begging our own President, in the same manner, to hand over power if he does not win.
My appeal is to President Buhari to prepare the minds and souls of his supporters for any eventuality in the next couple of weeks. If he wins, fair and square, the whole world will celebrate him. I will join them, as an avowed democrat. But if he does not win, he should do us the favour of going in peace, and not leave our dear country in pieces.
