THE Special Adviser to the President on Political
Affairs, Alhaji Ali Gulak, has said that the former
military rulers still aspiring to become civilian
president of Nigeria should forget the dream.
“Their time is up. As elder statesmen, they should
give positive advice for Nigeria to move forward,” he said. Gulak spoke in Abuja on Thursday night at a banquet and colloquium organised by the Political Summit Group (PSG) in honour of President Goodluck Jonathan on his 55th birthday anniversary. He represented Jonathan at the occasion. Making a veiled reference to General Muhammad Buhari (rtd), who contested in the last presidential election under the platform of Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Gulak said such leaders who have had opportunity to rule the country once, some up to eight years, should stop nurturing ambition of becoming civilian presidents.
He said what was needed was for them to act as
elder statesmen and restrict themselves to advisory role on how to move the country forward.
He said Nigeria has had leaders like the sage, Chief
Obafemi Awolowo, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, among
others, who at independence did their best to lay
solid foundation for the development of the country.
Alhaji Gulak added that instead of building on that
foundation, some people have constituted
themselves into stumbling blocks in the
development of the nation and trying to set the
country on fire through inflammatory utterances.
He said there was no way anyone could be president of Nigeria in this democratic dispensation without building bridges across the nation.
The presidential aide, however, said President
Goodluck Jonathan under the 1999 Constitution has
right to seek re-election in 2015, adding that he
deserves re-election based on the track record of
achievements. “Nigeria is a great nation. We are on the mountain top and we have seen the promise land and President Jonathan will take us there,” he said.