Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Gen. Mohammadu Buhari, yesterday said the Federal Government has committed over $60bn to the power sector in the last 16 years.
The former Head of State, who stated this during a South-South Zonal Presidential Rally held at the Liberation Stadium, Port Harcourt, said the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, led Federal Government and most of it’s the states it control have been fraught with ‘monumental corruption’ in the past 16 years.
According to him, despite the huge amount expended on the energy sector, Nigerians are still not enjoying steady power supply because of corruption.
Buhari maintained that corruption that has severely affected the oil industry has also crept into the sector.
He said: “In 16 years, the PDP controlled Federal Government has committed over $60bn into the energy sector, yet we still can’t generate up to 4,000 megawatts of electricity in the country.
He declared that if voted as Nigeria’s next president, his major challenge would be to ‘kill’ corruption.
Corruption, the former Head of State said had retarded Nigeria’s economic growth and development, “which has permeated virtually all spheres of the country.
“The issue before us is very clear indeed. Please sit in your home, or in small groups, and ask yourselves these questions:
How much has accrued to Nigeria in the past 16 years that the PDP has controlled the Federal Government?
“How much of these funds have trickled down to you as a Nigerian? Whatever answers you arrive at should determine what party and candidate that you will vote for on April 11. “We should not personalise this issue.
It is not about Buhari; it is about us; it is about you and I ; it is about our children and the future of our children. My fear is that if we don’t kill corruption in Nigeria, corruption will kill us.
So, the choice before us is to resolve to kill corruption and free our country from the firm grip of corrupt men and women.
“If those in the PDP who have been in control of our resources at the centre and in most states of the country have been responsive and responsible, there would not have been so much insecurity and poverty in the country today.
“If for whatever reason, you make a mistake and vote for the PDP at the centre or even in any state, I assure you, you are going to regret it,” he said.
Buhari insisted that if the PDP continues to control the centre, it would be tantamount to more unemployment, poverty and insecurity across the country. country”.
Also speaking, Director General of the Buhari Campaign Organisation, and Governor of Rivers State, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi, said the PDP was against the use of Card Readers that has been introduced by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to verify and authenticate genuine voters, “because it will minimise rigging, and the ruling party don’t want to hear that.
“The Card Reader is like purge to the PDP. Even PDP leaders, including their governors don’t want INEC to use the Card Readers on the day of election.
“Money was budgeted for the Card Readers and now that Nigeria has paid for them, it is only appropriate that INEC use the machine to conduct the March 28 and April 11 elections.
“In the South-South and the South-East, we don’t vote during elections, we write election results. But this time, we must vote.
In 2011, President Goodluck Jonathan got 1.8 million votes from Rivers State. Let him come and take it in 2015.
“You know I was formally in the PDP, but this is the first time I have seen fear in the eyes of PDP leaders,” he said. He assured that if voted into power, Buhari will continue with the amnesty programme for ex-militants in the Niger Delta, but with some modification.
“We (APC) will add what is not there for now. We will take away the arms with which some prominent politicians have re-armed some of the militants and give them something to do. We will create jobs for them.
The amnesty programme will be transformed into a welfarist programme,” Amaechi added. Buhari also yesterday urged Nigerians, especially the youths to resist any attempt to shift or postpone the general elections.
Buhari said timely, free and fair election is key to protecting the country’s democracy, even as there is no constitutional provision for frivolous shifts in the date of elections.
The presidential candidate, who addressed students and youths in the southwest, at a town hall meeting in Lagos, said the whole idea of the election is to “save and rescue” the country from the current economic free fall, insecurity and high unemployment.
He said the Nigerian public must be aware that the current competition in the polity is already getting out of hands, with all manner of ploy to resist change.
Speaking off the cuff, Buhari said: “It is a question of saving the country from free fall. I have not come here to make promises to you, but to tell you that we have a duty to save our nation. And that is what March 28 and April 11 election dates are all about.
“No Nigeria should accept any postponement because there is no constitutional provision for postponement. We must conduct election and it must be free, fair and credible.”
He added that APC had identified three problems facing the country, mainly insecurity; Boko Haram in the northeast, militancy in the southeast and pockets of restiveness in the southwest.
“Important issue for us is insecurity. Second issue is unemployment, and it affects you all, that still have more than 40 years to go. No matter how well I love to live, there is no way I live another 40 years. “I want you to reflect how lives have been in the last 16 years of the PDP-led government.
What is the strength of the naira from when they took over and now? It is now over N220 to one dollar. “To revamp the system, there is need for trillions of naira but where will they get it from? PDP has killed this country in the last 16 years. Many of us are still here because we have nowhere to go in the world than to stay in Nigeria.
“Our objective is to throw away PDP and rehabilitate our country. We will not be distracted by their plans and smear campaign.
“The problem of Boko Haram went haywire when the police arrested and killed their leaders, instead of prosecuting them. “It got so bad that Chad, Niger and Cameroon had to come and help Nigerian military to rescue 14 LGAs from the Boko Haram. PDP has killed the country. That is why this election will be very defining, especially for the youth and the change we all want,” Buhari
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