Its now very clear we are left with a narrow choice between Buhari and Yaradua. Looking at their background, i d rather go for Buhari.

No way to Buhari he want to turn Nigeria to a Muslim state we will never forget that statement he made.

buhari,obasanjo ,yaradua ,atiku and the like represent a generation of leaders nigerians are trying to do away with,i don't understand how someone like donald duke did'nt get the pdp ticket,he's the most deserving of the lot. what we need are politicians with a fresh perspective .

As clean as Duke might look, he is not far from others. he might have achieve allot in helping the state but he withdrew from the race when baba threating to use EFCC on all the governor that does not support Yar Adua. what does that tells you, he has some skeleton in his closet.

samorijack:

buhari,obasanjo ,yaradua ,atiku and the like represent a generation of leaders nigerians are trying to do away with,i don't understand how someone like donald duke did'nt get the pdp ticket,he's the most deserving of the lot. what we need are politicians with a fresh perspective .

A politician that dont play politics in Nigeria right now wont get a tciket

belloti:

Its now very clear we are left with a narrow choice between Buhari and Yaradua. Looking at their background, i d rather go for Buhari.

You didnt say why Buhari is a better candidate, what if we dont know his background-he is a former president right?

MAMAJAMA:

As clean as Duke might look, he is not far from others. he might have achieve allot in helping the state but he withdrew from the race when baba threating to use EFCC on all the governor that does not support Yar Adua. what does that tells you, he has some skeleton in his closet.

People should stop this lie and propaganda. The original PDP screening that was thorough in which EFCC reports submited on each candidate were used produced just 5 people and they are Yaradua, Mauzu, Markafi, Duke and Egwu though latter 20 were let through. Duke left the race when he was told that power had been zoned to the North thus his being in the race will be mere formality.

Otherwise tell me why a potential EFCC report will scare Duke and not Abdulahi Adamu of Nasarawa. So guys please lets leave propaganda.
The same EFCC you are talking about its chairman Ribadu specifically mentioned Duke as one of the 5 governors that had no case to answer just by september 2006 while addressing the senate. So tell us where this talk of Baba, EFCC and Duke is coming from?

It seriously breaks my heart when people carry useless propanda against one of the few serious politicians we have in this country. Immediately he lost out of the PDP race one of his first acts within the next four days was to commision a metro rail-line project from magret ekpo internation airport to tinapa business resort. That is a very focused and serious person who understands why the future of this country and our children should not be joked with.

I tell you what Mamajama, Duke leaving the PDP race is rather a sober situation not an object of redicule. Because PDP by stopping Duke deffered hope till God knows when.

On Yaradua and Buhari, their presidency will virtually mean the same. Fighting corruption and hammering on financial prudence without any good plan on sustainable development, but at this stage in our life we need both fiscal responsibility and sustainable development.
Though I will prefer Yaradua for reasons of the need to break free from the old brigade. We need change in generation. Besides Buhari truncated democracy an act which accounts for loss of at least 20years in our history. If he had not ousted Shagari  we would have made all the mistakes we are making now and learnt from them. There is no where else in the world where a Buhari who never believed in democracy will hope to rise to power through the ballot.

belloti

Its now very clear we are left with a narrow choice between Buhari and Yaradua. Looking at their background, i d rather go for Buhari.

Looking at which background? . I looked at the same background and i found no democratic values: i found religious extreemism;i found no good leadership skills; I found, ! you better look well!

Buhari is a former military despot and self-proclaimed Islamic jihadist who belongs either in a zoo along with other like-minded lesser apes, or stuffed as a taxidermists specimen display of early man's savage ancestry.

The important thing is change. We know Obj has to go and practically we cant think of any other party outside ANPP, PDP or AC winning the presidency. I know its almost the same old story but Buhari definitely is not corrupt. That is our major problem in this country. Religious bigots can not impose anything on us. we ve got to live together as one in nigeria. I think we should give Buhari a chance.

From the crop of contenstants we have Buhari is better.

belloti:

Its now very clear we are left with a narrow choice between Buhari and Yaradua. Looking at their background, i d rather go for Buhari.

@Belloti,
My friend; welcome back to the politics forum. You've been absent for some time now because of the demise of the 'presidential ambition' of your favourite mallam Gov of Zamfara State (actually forgot his name, imagine!). Anyway, nice to have you back for further discussion on how to extend the proverbial "handshake across the Niger" between us young nigerian progressives regardless of our tribe or religion, abi?

Now to the issue of Yar-adua or Buhari, can you 'progressively' tell this gathering why you will rather 'go for Buhari'. That will be a good denominator to base any further discussion or cross-evaluation. Or you just prefer him because he is 'Mallam Buhari? His background as a military leader? not likely, right?
In your response, consider things like: achievements in previous or present leadership positions vis-a-vis formulation and implementation of pro-equity policies; evidence of achievements in poverty reduction; employment generation; tolerance of multi-culturalism; resource mobilisation; combating religious extremism; and other evidence-based indices of previous achievements in governance. Do this before you start your familiar sing-song of "let's give Buhari a chance", my friend!

mallam Gov of Zamfara State (actually forgot his name, imagine!)

Cant believe any person who has the time to blog on Nairaland will have Sani Yarima as his favourite

I'M NOT A DONALD DUKE APOLOGIST BUT IN TERMS OF ACHEIVEMENTS AND I DON'T MEAN THE COMMISSIONING OF SOME DUBIOUS UNCOMPLETED ROAD PROJECTS ,OR SOME RECENTLY WAXED VEHICLES AND FICTICIOUS POULTRY PROJECTS E.T.C TINAP,OBUDU RANCH,THE TURN AROUND OF CALABAR AS A TOURIST DESTINATION,UNIVERSAL STUDIOUS BUILDING A FACILITY IN CALABAR,DUKE'S EFFORTS AT HOSTING THE MISSWORLD PAGENT AND ALL THE INTERNATIONAL ATTENTION THAT GOT ,SURELY PUTS HIM AHEAD OF THE PACK ESPECIALLY WHEN COMPARED TO THE LIKES ODILI AND IBORI,WHO RECIEVE LARGER ALLOCATIONS FROM THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. WE HAVE A FUNNY WAY OF APPRECIATING HARD WORK IN THIS COUNTRY.

From the crop of contenstants we have Buhari is better.

Then what proof of corruption do you have against Yaradua?

What about Pat Utomi?

otokx:

What about Pat Utomi?

who's that, the tv presenter?

Buhari is a man beign hunted by his past and the major opposition to his ambition of getting to Aso-Rock is nothing but his past. Many people believed he is not corrupt but he has no tolerance for religion. Let us visit history once again. When OBJ was the head of state in 1976, he had Yaradua (a northerner and a muslim) as his deputy. Shagari was elected in the second republic and he chose Dr. Alex Ekweme (a south easterner and a christian) as his vice. Then our oga, Mr. Buhari staged a coup that truncated our democracy. He came on board with a fellow northerner and a muslim, Tunde Idiagbon(late). IBB took over as the head of state having Augustus Aikhomu (a southerner and a christian) as his deputy. I-batch-am (Abacha) took over from Shonekan, yet he announced Oladipo Diya ( a south westerner and a christian) as his deputy, the rest we know. From the above analysis, it is evident that Buhari HATES christians and he would do anything possible to make NIgeria an Islam Nation if voted in as the next Nigerian President. He is the only leader who chose a fellow muslim as his deputy in the history of Nigerian Leadership. Any attempt to vote this man will amount to the enslavement of Nigerian Christians. so, we must all say NO TO BUHARI PRESIDENCY!!! NO! NO! NO!

Donny, you are very wrong here. Buhari IS NOT the only leader that chooses a fellow muslim as his deputy. Abiola did just that in a democratic setting while in buharis case it was a military configuration.

Aggressa my friend, am happy to have some of our discussant on yarima thread here again. In the short spell buhari had as Head of State, it was evident that all those achievements you listed were vigoruosly pursued by the no-nonsense general. He may not have actualised some of them but the intention was there.

Am sure even if Buhari can have Olubunmi Okogie or Sunday Mbang as his deputy am sure some of you will still express some reservations. So its not about what buhari is but how you choose to look at it

In this post-911 world, the global policeman, Uncle Sam, will NEVER EVER allow a sadistic semi-literate Islamic fundamentalist baboon like Buhari to rise to any level of power in Africa's most populous nation, especially in light of Nigeria's increasing strategic importance as a major exporter of high-grade petroleum.

If Buhari does manage to bribe his way into power, he will be terminated in a sudden and gruesome manner before he ever gets the chance to poison the land by reprising his despotic reign of terror, and very good riddance it will be too, when that long overdue pest control measure is implemented. That foul sack of excrement, Osama Buhari, needs to be put out of his misery ASAP to spare the world from his insane baying.

Donny, you are very wrong here. Buhari IS NOT the only leader that chooses a fellow muslim as his deputy. Abiola did just that in a democratic setting while in buharis case it was a military configuration.

Dearest Belloti so if you are asked to list the names of Nigerians past leaders Late Moshood Abiola will be included! This clearly shows your level of ignorance. Abiola won an election but was never a President simply because he was not sworn in as one. We all loved Abiola and we respected his positive contributions across the entity called Nigeria. He was generally accepted by all and sundary regardless the differences in our geopolitical background and belief. My brother, despite all these i would not treat Abiola's case as an exemption. He sank a ship load of bible heading to Nigeria which clearly shows he was at one time an anti-christianity. This same religion Abiola later believed in while he was in Prison ( please i am not saying he changed from islam to christianity o!). Report had it that while Abiola was imprisoned, he read thtrough the Holy Bible and Quaran. So Belloti, you have the right to vote for Buhari based on certains reasons best known to you but majority will at the end of the day determines his fate in his quest to be our next president.

donnymikky:

Abiola won an election but was never a President simply because he was not sworn in as one. We all loved Abiola and we respected his positive contributions across the entity called Nigeria. .

God no dey sleep thats why he was not sworn in. He was even more religiously intolerant than Buhari. He was a muslim and he picked a muslim to be his vice in a planned democracy. Thank God for using IBB to stop that. Were we blind then?? Where we all sleeping?? Nonody said anything about religion then o, imagine. Buhari's case is different, he came into power through a coup and he had to pick Idiagbon who was one of the key players in that coup to be his vice. Buhari is the best presidential candidate and material in Nigeria at the moment than can bring sanity into Nigeria. Those who do not want him to be our president have skeletons in their cupboards and are afraid of what will become of them should Buhari become the president.

Donny, i am not telling anyone to vote for Buhari and i am not campaigning for him but i know that what we have on our hand now is either PDP or ANPP and we all know that anything PDP is an extention of OBJ government. So its up to you guys. Buhari is not an angel, he is a nigerian like all of us. Some of us here are even worst than him.

Exchanging Obj for Buhari is like selling your dog for a monkey which amounts to nothing cos an animal that stoops is still within your neighbourhood.

Yar'Adua is still my preffered candidate. Buhari is a distant second, his extreme Islamic disposition causes some concern (This may be curtailed in a democracy though)

Atiku is a candidate for the jail house, hate to digress from the main topic, but just can't help it. 

This fat neck nomadic glut Atiku should spare us his rants!. He was part of the same goverment when all these contracts where being awarded. He had no objection then. Now it's dawned on him that he won't be 'anointed' President of Nigeria, he is desperate to bring the roof down on the house by asking for all that he should have asked for long time ago. I guess the going was too good then.  He is such a bad looser.

I'm glad Atiku and OBJ are leaving, hopefully for a younger, frugal and more modest leader like Yar'Adua, worst case, Buhari.  Atiku is undoubtedly the most annoying and irritating boofoon in Nigeria today. The way he carries on, you'd be forgiven for thinking he'd been confined to Robben Island!!

When the heat is turned on our power drunk leaders, when they start loosing out in the powerplay that they themselves have benefited from for so long,  they suddenly become consciencious objectors, defenders of democracy, human rights and all what not.

It was not so long ago that Atiku's crude and over zealous security guards almost killed a journalist. When he goes about Nigeria, he travels in a convoy of at least 40 cars, most filled with security personnel (120+ aparently - even more than OBJ). We're expected to feel sorry for him because he doesn't get the use of a Presidential plane. This is the kind of  nonsence that makes news in a country where many cannot afford basic food, clothing and shelter.

We should all loose sleep because Atiku had to 'make do' with chattereing a 747-400 series with capacity for 330+ passengers, to fly him alone, oga, to his Mansion in Maryland. At the expenses of the people. Stories like this makes me very very very sad.

Even the British PM, for cost reasons,  doesn't travel in a private plane but chatters one on official trips.

Tony Blair recently traveled to Italy on vacation and flew BA with everyone else, albeit in first class. He made news the next day for accepting a discounted fare from British Airways!!


We worship our leaders rather than hold them to account. We are so hung-over from colonial era deprivation that we'll sooner woship looting leaders than demand their heads on a platter. 

Our people do not ask questions and demand answers from our leaders. The Presidency, state houses, and senate stinks with curruption and extravagance.  That's why many in the senate are sympathetic to Atiku becauses they are all one of a kind. They feel his ' pain'. Atiku is a pure product of this system that he has helped nurture and have benefited inmensly from.


As for me, I'm too enlightened to be manipulated by our political elites in the mould of Atiku.  I'm sure we all want the best to hold for Nigeria's future, a future that must have no role for Atiku, IBB, Audu Ogbe, Ikimi and co.

Spot-on observations about Atiku, JoshO, but your ranking of Buhari as a "distant second" presidential candidate is rather odd considering that Buhari's iron-fisted muzzling of the press and mass jailing/secret executions of the innocent during his military junta rule of the 1980's are as much a matter of public record as are Buhari's more recent declarations of support for proposals to subjugate the Nigerian republic with the full horror of Islamic Sharia law.

Buhari was and is a vile and malicious goblin with a mile-wide mean streak, who would regress Nigeria back to the status of a pariah rogue state in the very unlikely event that he gets his grubby paws into the national treasury again.

Guyz,
      I'm happy that we have a forum like this. But let us try and make the best use of it. sincerely speaking, presently we have Buhari, Yar'adua, Atiku and other guyz going for April 21 2007 presidential race. I'm telling u guyz, Buhari still stand as the best candidate, followed by Atiku before u can now talk about Yar'adua. Remember we all need action now. we need somebody that can really deal with all this past leaders and recover if not all, atleast part of our stolen resources just the way Buhari did when he was a military head of state. Let me tell u; issue of somebody converting Nigeria into a Muslim state is a forgoten issue. check it out very well and see is not just possible. The progressive at this time should seat down and see what we can do to pray and help Buhari through. If the guy (Yar'dua) find himself in Aso-Rock come May 29 2007, well Nigeria is in trouble. in case u don't know, this is not Yar'dua u all know. that one is gone. Jakumo statement very unfortunate, Donnymikky should understand that Abiola is not a good man, he's never a legend. one of the greatest IBB achievement is his ability to annuled June 12 election. we should be happy for that

belloti:

Donny, i am not telling anyone to vote for Buhari and i am not campaigning for him,

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Definitely you are not campaigning for him, from the tone of your thread.

but i know that what we have on our hand now is either PDP or ANPP

We are not talking about parties here, but individuals. Are we?

and we all know that anything PDP is an extention of OBJ government

If the above premise holds true, then?

So its up to you guys. Buhari is not an angel, he is a nigerian like all of us. Some of us here are even worst than him

Is this then your conclusion?

one of the greatest IBB achievement is his ability to annuled June 12 election

This is the most criminal statement I have seen on Nairaland.

Affoxpope:


() sincerely speaking, presently we have Buhari, Yar'adua, Atiku and other guys going for April 21 2007 presidential race. I'm telling u guys, Buhari still stand as the best candidate, followed by Atiku before u can now talk about Yar'adua.

what achievements of buhari and atiku place them in the 1st and 2nd position to yar' adua. is your opposition to him based on the fact that he in not his brother?

In sha Allah, come may 29 2007, Yar'Adua will be sworn in as the next president of the federal republic of Nigeria. Buhari has used the gun to rule us in the past. what then is he looking for again? It is correct that buhari is the only nigerian president who has a notherner/muslim as his deputy. besides, it was his deputy who actually ruled the country then. this fact further expose the weakness of buhari. thanks to baba iyabo who never allowed the roaring of atiku. he is only roaring like a lion. he is not a lion but baba iyabo is!

I would rather have an "un" democratic ex-soldier who is tough on corruption than an ailing tool of the relics of the Obasanjo dictatocracy!

Something is definitely wrong with Nigerians. I can't understand why someone will
overlook Yar Adua for Buhari? What is Yar Adua guilty of today that will cause people
to yearn for another military dictator whose claim to fame was that he truncated the
nation's democracy? This is Nigeria's best chance yet to break with the military since
1979.

Why do people find it so hard to believe that Yar Adua can perform equally or better
than Buhari, is it because he is not Gen Yar Adua? Ask yourselves, what happened to
the former leader of PDP? What make you guys not to think Yar Adua won't pull an Audu
Ogbeh on Obasanjo if the latter gets in his way? It does not matter whether Obasanjo
hand-picked him or not, once he is president he calls all the shots and there is nothing
Obasanjo or anyone else can do about that. Why is IBB not in the race in spite of the
fact that he was more than instrumental in resurrecting Obasanjo's political life?

Folks, if you think the EFCC was being selective under Obasanjo, prepare yourselves for
another bumpy session because there will be a whole new crop of politicians posing as
civil rights activists or as "defenders of democracy" should Yar Adua win. The EFCC will
really be let loose and many will be Atikuf-ied!