by Musa Abdullahi
The President–elect, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, says he will kill corruption before it kills Nigeria when his administration takes off on May 29.
Buhari said this when members of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Akwa Ibom Chapter, paid him a courtesy visit in Abuja on Thursday.
He said the nation’s problems were not ethnic or religious corruption.
He said tackling corruption was third on his agenda, after insecurity and unemployment.
“So the point I want to make here is that the problem of Nigeria is not ethnic or religious, it is corruption.
“This is what we are fighting, that is why corruption is number three in my campaign.
“The first one is insecurity in the North-East and the Niger Delta where people are kidnapped and ransom is being demanded which people cannot afford.
“The second one is unemployment, 60 per cent of Nigerians are youths, most of them, whether they went to school or not, are unemployed and that is dangerous.
“So we have to get the issue of the economy right to make sure the jobs are made available and we should try to kill corruption before corruption kills Nigeria.
“Let us practice what we preach as well, whoever wins as a governor too has a lot of work to do because corruption is fast becoming a culture and to try to caution people is not an easy task but it must be done.
“I know you all represent various constituencies, please pass our message and give them hope that we’ll do our best in the interest of all’’, Buhari said.
He encouraged Umana Umana, the APC gubernatorial candidate in Akwa Ibom who lost to Udom Emmanuel (PDP), with the story of his three political struggles in court.
He advised him to believe in the judicial system as “the right place to fight for your right and the right of the people you represent.
“I have appealed three times and arrived at the Supreme Court not because I believe the system had changed but this time around, in your own case, you were still denied even with the use of PVCs and the card readers.’’
Earlier, Umana he had filed a case at the tribunal because “figures declared in the elections by the Akwa Ibom State INEC were at variance significantly with figures captured by card readers and transmitted to INEC database in Abuja.’’
According to him, his he people had hoped that there would be free and fair elections in Akwa Ibom State for them to vote and bring in APC government at both the state and federal levels.
He alleged that APC votes in Akwa Ibom were not allowed to count during the presidential election “because of massive vote fraud and wanton violence.
“We are a bit mollified that the widespread electoral malpractices and bloody violence that marred the purported elections in our state have been amply confirmed by independent, local and international monitors, including Civil Liberties Organisations.
“Other confirmations came from the Akwa Ibom State Caucus at the National Assembly, African Union Election Monitoring Team, EU Election Monitoring Group, U.S. Government, former Gov. Victor Attah and former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Don Etiebet.
“Such reports go a long way to confirm our stand that there were no valid elections in Akwa Ibom State’’, he stressed.
