The
camp of Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd) in the All Progressives
Congress on Wednesday dispelled speculations that the former military
Head of State had dropped his aspiration to contest the 2015 Presidency
on the grounds that he is too old.One of Buhari’s associates, Mr. Rotimi
Fashakin, who was the National Publicity Secretary of the Congress for
Progressive Change (now part of the APC), told our correspondent that
the 70-year-old was still vying for the APC’s presidential
ticket.Fashakin said Buhari had not considered giving up the Presidency
because of age and asked how old the late Nelson Mandela was when he
became South Africa’s President.
He
said, “Nigerians should throw away the notion that Buhari will not run
for Presidency because of age. He his running. He will be 71 in December
and age is not against him. How old was Mandela when he became South
African President? The people spreading that rumour just want to confuse
people.
“Buhari is obviously the most popular of all
the northern aspirants. He is the only person that can win the whole
North-West, North-East and a great deal of North-Central. In 2011, he
had over 12 million clean votes. These were the votes the Independent
National Electoral Commission did not tamper with. I was the publicity
secretary of the CPC so I knew a lot about what happened. The question
is which of the other aspirants can be relied on to garner 12 million
votes?
He added that there was every likelihood that
the APC presidential candidate would be chosen from the North, in which
case Buhari stands as the most qualified.
“Buhari is
the only person that can win the presidential election for the APC. He
ran for the Presidency on the platform of a party that came into being
only 10 months to the election and still got 12 million votes. The fear
is what will he do with a bigger platform? It’s not just some people in
the APC that may be selling these lies, the PDP is also interested in
who becomes the candidate of the APC,” he said.
Fashakin
dismissed suggestions that Buhari should support younger northern
presidential aspirants like Kano State Governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso; or the
Speaker, House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal.
He
said even if Buhari agreed to do so, such support would be of little
effect because Buhari’s popularity in the North was not transferrable.
Fashakin
said, “Even if Buhari raises the hand of any of the younger
contestants, I can tell you that over half of the grass roots electorate
in the North will tear their voter cards. Once Buhari drops out of the
race, many of the northern voters will refuse to vote and the APC will
not be able to get the required number of votes from the North to win
the election.
He added that the APC had dropped the idea of a Muslim-Muslim ticket because it was not feasible in Nigeria today.
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