Dear Compatriots,
I want to take this last opportunity, before we go
to the polls on Saturday March 28 and April 11
respectively, to thank everyone who has
supported our campaigns.
I am humbled and grateful to have had the
opportunity to meet so many of my fellow
Nigerians who have helped to carry the message
of change across our great country.
This is the fourth time that I would be standing
for election as the President of Nigeria. All these
years, I have been driven by a keen awareness of
the potential greatness of our country and the
desire to provide the true leadership that will
unleash this huge potential. I believe that a stable
and prosperous Nigeria is not only important to
Nigerians. It is also important to Africa and the
rest of the world. The evidence of this is the
unprecedented attention that our country will
receive this weekend. On Saturday, the whole
world would wait with baited breath for the
greatest black nation on earth to take charge of
its destiny.
We must therefore not miss the significance of
this moment. We must not let ourselves and our
country down.
At no other time in our history is Nigeria in such
an urgent need of strong and competent
leadership.
Sadly, at no other time is this leadership so
sorely absent in our country. We live in a time of
great opportunities and great peril. It is only a
leader that understands these in equal measure
that can find the rightful place for Nigeria among
the great Nations of the world.
I have travelled extensively around Nigeria in the
last three months. In the course of my travels, I
encountered directly, what I have always believed:
that a Hausa man’s desire for security is not
different from the Ijaw woman’s desire to feel
secured in any part of our country. An Igbo
woman’s desire for her children to get quality
education and find employment is not different
from the Yoruba man’s dream for his children to
become a useful member of our society. A wife’s
desperate need for affordable and quality
healthcare for her husband diagnosed with
prostate cancer in Enugu is not different from a
husband’s desire to save the life of his wife
diagnosed with ovarian cancer in Lagos.
Invariably, our fears are the same; our dreams
are the same; and our problems are the same.
Regardless of the language we speak, or the way
we understand and worship God, what affects
anyone of us, affects everyone of us.
Our economy is celebrated as the largest in
Africa, yet our country is home to the continent’s
highest number of people living in extreme
poverty.
Our youth population is larger than the combined
population of many of our neighbours, yet our
failure to plan and create opportunities for them
is turning them to a social time bomb rather than
economic catalysts. A band of ragtag terrorist
group has threatened our territorial integrity, killed
thousands of Nigerians, displaced our people and
abducted our children. The almost 60, 000
Nigerians who have become refugees in
neighbouring countries represent a budding threat
to sub-regional stability.
However, even in the face of these daunting
challenges, I see a great opportunity for change.
We have to start by rebuilding the trust and
confidence of Nigerians in their government. No
citizen will respect a government under whose
watch more than 200 girls were abducted.
This singular act can only portray the government
as insensitive, incompetent or both. When I
become president, reuniting these children with
their families will, without doubts, be a top
priority. Rebuilding the army and other security
agencies will also be a top priority of my
government. I will ensure that never again will
terrorists find a safe haven in Nigeria.
Recent fall in international price of crude leaves
us badly exposed and vulnerable. Dwindling oil
revenue also means that we are going to face
serious financial challenges in the months ahead.
However, even as daunting as this appears, it
also provides us with great opportunity to
diversify our economy and finally give meaning to
the widely held belief that our prosperity as a
nation would not continue to depend on the
resources buried under our feet, but on the
productive capacity of our people.
No matter how much resources we have, if not
properly utilized, it would only create a few
billionaires and leave majority of our people in
poverty. Under the current administration,
corruption has enjoyed unprecedented prosperity
and this has been at the heart of most of our
government failings, including insecurity, broken
infrastructure and growing inequality in our
country.
My government will have a zero tolerance for
corruption.
I will set a personal example and run a
government that truly serves the people rather
than serve themselves and a privileged few.
Like I have repeatedly maintained that if Nigeria
does not kill corruption, corruption will kill
Nigeria. We must not allow Nigeria to die.
Therefore, we must do all that is necessary to
root out this evil that has reduced our great
country to a laughing stock of the world.
We must begin to rebuild the social fabrics of our
society and teach a different experience to our
youth in the values of hard work, discipline,
integrity and service.
The change that I seek therefore; is a change
from the current regime of mindless of corruption
and profligacy; a change from fear and insecurity
to peace and stability; a change from religious
and ethnic divisiveness to unity, equity and
justice. This is the change that my party stands
for. This is the change that I am committed to
bringing about as President. Give me the chance
to lead you in rebuilding a Nigeria that all of us
can be proud of once again.
As we come out to vote on Saturday, I appeal to
all Nigerians to shun violence in whatever form. It
is the right of every adult Nigerian to vote and
expect that their votes would count in a free, fair
and credible election.
However, we also have a responsibility to respect
the choice of others and grant them the same
treatment that we expect.
I also want to call on all our men and women in
uniform, the Judiciary, and all others who have
constitutional responsibility to safeguard our
democracy, to remember that their responsibility
is primarily to Nigerians and the survival of
Nigeria. They must therefore not allow anyone to
use them to subvert the will of the Nigerian
people.
I believe that their dreams and aspirations are not
different from those of other Nigerians.
I have no doubt that with God being on our side;
together we can make our country great once
again.
Gen. Muhammadu BUHARI, GCFR."

OP U FORGOT GEJ TILL 2019

Superb and articulated, may God help us.