Text of Muhammadu Buhari 's acceptance speech as
the APC Presidential flagbearer.
Time to rebuild Nigeria
The National Chairman of the All
Progressives Congress, National leaders of the APC,
Members of the National Executive Council of the
APC, Your Excellencies, State Governors,
Distinguished Senators, Honourable Members of the
House of Representatives and Assemblies, The
Chairman and Members of the Convention
Committee, State and Local Government Chairmen of
the APC, Distinguished Delegates, Members of the
Press, Invited Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen.
1. First of all, I wish to express my gratitude to the
Chairman and members of the Convention Committee
for planning and conducting a hitch-free convention.
The same appreciation goes to the chairmen of
National and State Executive Councils of our party.
Thank you very much for doing an excellent job.
2. I would like to pay tribute to Chief Bisi Akande the
first chairman of APC and his National Executive for
managing the party in its early stages.
3. I also wish to commend Lagos State Government
and state party for hosting this convention. Time
was when people feared to come to Lagos. Today,
Lagos is the cleanest and dare I say safest city in
Nigeria. This achievement is due to the leadership
and strength of purpose of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and
Chief Babatunde
Fashola the two Governors since 1999 and their
team of professionals for this wonderful
transformation Nigeria greets you!
4. The outcome of the presidential
primaries of the All Progressives Congress is a
demonstration of democracy at work. It is testimony
to the fact that democracy as a concept is greater
than the interests of individuals in a free and
functional political system. What has just happened
is not about winning or losing but about the triumph
of liberty, freedom of choice and association, which
are hallmarks of democracy.
5. To my fellow contestants; Alhaji Atiku Abubakar,
Governor Rabiu Musa
Kwankwaso, Owelle Rochas Okorocha and Mr. Sam
Nda Isaiah, I wish to thank you for putting up a good
fight. The keenly contested primaries we just had will
help
to strengthen our party and democracy, and
ultimately send our message to Nigerian voters in
the impending elections.
6. To you all, I pay my absolute compliments and
congratulate you on the success of your respective
campaigns. I extend my gratitude to you all for
accepting the outcome of this convention and
agreeing to support my candidature as we move
forward. I shall meet with you all in the coming days
to fashion out how we shall confront the challenge
ahead.
7. My dear fellow countrymen and women, it is with
a deep sense of humility that I stand before you
today to accept the nomination of my party, the All
Progressives Congress to be its candidate and flag-
bearer in 2015 presidential elections.
8. My nomination is not because I am
better than any of the other contestants. I see it as a
tribute and mark of confidence to carry the torch as
we all join hands to rescue our dear country Nigeria,
from those who have led us into the current state of
insecurity, poverty, sectarian divide and
hopelessness among our people.
9. I stand before you today to ask that you join me in
a common cause. My call to you is not to realise the
personal fulfilment of one man. This Common Cause
is nothing less than the love for our nation and
concern for its present condition. And a resolve to
make things better for Nigeria.
10. What I say today is for all Nigerians: Christian
and Muslim, Southern and Northern, rich and poor,
young and old, man and woman. We are all citizens
of Nigeria. There is no dividing line among us that I
care to honour. Either weadvance as one or fail
altogether.
11. My choice and my colleagues choice and wish is
that we progress together. Preserving the nation’s
future is a scared obligation to all of us in this party.
Leaders should be wholly committed to fulfilling this
obligation otherwise they have no business being
leaders.
12. Sadly, the current administration does not
believe in this obligation. By their actions they are
leading us to calamity.
13. At International Conferences, the
Nigerian delegation is usually among the largest but
at the same time the least effective. Our president
should have the status and the voice of Africa’s
largest nation. But in political influence we are
among the weakest.
14. Shall we at home continue to live in a condition
where the Power Holding Company and its
successors seem only to have the power to hold us
in darkness?
15. Shall we continue in a situation where 250 of our
daughters have been abducted and the government
has been unable to rescue them or provide credible
information about what steps they are taking?
16. Shall we live in a nation where several people
were trampled to death in search of jobs in a
stadium and yet no one has taken responsibility for
the tragedy?
17. Shall we live in a nation where the
ranks of the poor swell and their poverty increase
while the consorts of the powerful enjoy
unprecedented wealth? The lives of the poor are bled
dry while those of the powerful soak in excessive
abundance.
18. My answers to these questions are “No, No, No,
No!”
19. It is time to close this demeaning
chapter in our nation’s history.
20. I ask that you join this effort, not for me, but to
establish a better land for all of us.
21. I understand and accept the hard
challenge ahead. When all is said and
done, let it be written that Muhammadu Buhari gave
his all for this nation.
22. As such, I make these five pledges
regarding the government if we are elected next
February;
a. We will govern Nigeria honestly, in
accordance with the constitution.
b. We will strive to secure the country and efficiently
manage the economy.
c. We will strive to attack poverty through broadly-
shared economic growth and attacking corruption
through impartial application of the law.
d. We will tolerate no religious, regional, ethnic or
gender bias in our government.
e. We will return Nigeria to a position of international
respect through patriotic foreign policy.
f. We will choose the best Nigerians for the right
jobs.
23. Our government will be committed to the cause
of the common man. Whether you are a Christian
from Bayelsa State or a Muslim from Katsina State,
you are first and foremost a Nigerian in my eyes. I
shall treat you equally as my people, my national
family, my brothers and sisters. There can be no
genuine love of our country without loving all its
people in our diversity.
24. Just as APC stands as a new party for a new
Nigeria, our government will institute new policies to
realise the new Nigeria.
25. We shall institute just policies that afford people
the dignity of work and pay them a living wage for
their sweat and toil. We intend to do this by instituting
a national industrial policy, coupled with a national
employment directive, that together shall revive and
expand our manufacturing sector, creating jobs for
our urban population and decreasing our reliance on
expensive foreign imports.
26. We shall implement a national
infrastructure master plan that will provide
construction and related jobs across the land.
Furthermore, by improving our transportation
infrastructure through road, rail and port construction
we expand the outer bounds of economic growth as
no economy can grow beyond the capacity of its
infrastructure.
27. Agriculture remains the backbone of the
economy. Our government, when elected, will
establish an agricultural policy that provides farmers
a dignified living through improved inputs, improved
extension services, access to credit and price
support mechanisms.
28. On corruption, the government will enhance
EFCC’s powers to investigate independently.
Moreover, we intend to plug the holes in NNPC
accounting. There will no longer be two sets of
books, one for public consumption and another for
insiders who profit from this slick fraud. In an APC
government, the public will know how much NNPC
makes and where all the money goes.
29. No longer shall illegal flows of massive sums
leave these shores to finance other economies.
While our people languish in poverty, we effectively
give financial aid to nations that is not justified. I am
sick of this. It must stop. The money saved will
finance jobs, health care and the provision of social
safety net for the needy, weak and vulnerable of our
land.
30. We will be a compassionate government, for out
of compassion arises the truest forms of wealth and
progress a society can attain. We shall open the
door to tertiary education to excellent students
who otherwise could not afford it. Pregnant and poor
women and children shall be entitled to basic health
care.
31. This is a Nigeria that I envisage but it is a far cry
from the Nigeria that is now. Change is imperative if
we are to avoid the impending national failure. Poor
leadership placed us in the ditch. Continuation of
poor leadership will only dig a deeper trench for all of
us to fall in.
32. Let us join hands in progressive union to pull
each other and the nation from the abyss.
33. I pledge to do my utmost to make this happen but
cannot do it alone. I need your support. I need your
help to become President of Nigeria so that
government may come to serve you, so that it may
bring relief to the broken and weary among us and
so that it may usher in a new Nigeria meant for us
all, a Nigeria that is the birthright of everyone but the
exclusive possession of no one.
God bless you!
God bless our fatherland – Nigeria!
Thank you!

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