“I have never cried in all the positions I occupied but I was moved and I wept because of the present pitiable condition of Nigeria, particularly that of the poor ones who are struggling to survive. Here is a country that is rich and blessed, and there is no sound leadership that will do justice to the country. We have been struggling for liberation; I ran in 2003, same in 2007 and now in 2011, and I said this is the last time that I will run, and the thought that some people because of abject poverty will sell their votes also made me emotional and I wept for our country.

This is very touching. Always happens when a man has reached the final stage of a journey. May the good Lord be with you but also note it is not over until its over

Former Head of State and Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday explained why he broke down in tears when he was addressing a world press conference in Abuja on Wednesday.


In an interview he granted the BBC Hausa Service which LEADERSHIP monitored in Kaduna, Buhari said: “I have never cried in all the positions I occupied but I was moved and I wept because of the present pitiable condition of Nigeria, particularly that of the poor ones who are struggling to survive. Here is a country that is rich and blessed, and there is no sound leadership that will do justice to the country. We have been struggling for liberation; I ran in 2003, same in 2007 and now in 2011, and I said this is the last time that I will run, and the thought that some people because of abject poverty will sell their votes also made me emotional and I wept for our country.

“Our people are poor with no leadership; they are selling their votes which will automatically enslave them with their children and great-grand children, because they have been denied education, health, water and so on. My shedding tears had nothing to do with a political strategy. For what and for which aim? The choice is with the people; if they decide let them vote for or reject me”.

On the failure of the alliance proposed with the Action Congress of Nigeria, Buhari said: “People know very little about what happened. They said they want the running mate slot, and I said it is even contrary to the Electoral Act; why not let’s go in to the poll and if we make it we can settle on cabinet and other positions. They now left and said I made it difficult, since I want to be president will I scuttle any chance that will pave way for me?

Buhari had lamented what he said were Nigeria’s woes on Wednesday: “In the life of any nation there comes a time when some people have to stand up and point out when things are moving off track, explain why they are going wrongly, demonstrate how they can be set aright, and work towards making a difference. For Nigeria, that time has come and it is now; and the people to stand up are you and me! Second, let me state categorically that I am not in this race to advance or protect any vested interest or group. We are seeking to replace a government that has done so much havoc to its people and their reputation; and we are determined, with your help, to uproot them completely. By the grace of God, Nigeria is going through its last few weeks of arbitrary non-accountable, corrupt governance—the type that has turned it into a republic of thieves. I have fought drift and purposelessness in this nation. I have fought corruption and indiscipline. I have fought indolence and the betrayal of trust. I have fought the Nigerian civil war and struggled for the unity of this country in many other ways.”

Meanwhile, the presidential candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, has told his teeming supporters that he has not stepped down for anybody even as he disclosed why the alliance talks collapsed.

Addressing a world press conference in Abuja yesterday, the former anti-graft czar asked Nigerians to ignore some SMS messages that some people would be sending around claiming that he has withdrawn from the presidential race holding tomorrow.

“First, let us be clear and set the records straight: I am still running as presidential candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, and my running mate is Fola Adeola. Please ignore any attempt to manipulate the outcome of this election by whatever means especially through viral text messaging disinformation campaign,” he said.

Speaking further, he said, “In the next 48 hours (now 24 hours), the destiny of our country will change. We would be electing the next president of our beloved country, and with that act we would be announcing our preparedness to march into a new future. My message to all my fellow compatriots today is that we vote wisely, that we act smartly, in the effort to save our democracy and our country, and set the path to a new beginning of greatness, achievement, and prosperity.”

Commenting on why the alliance talks collapsed, Ribadu put the fault at the doorstep of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) which, according to him, failed to honour its own side of the pact, which is to allow ACN to take the slot of the vice president if General Muhammadu Buhari is elected as the joint candidate.

His words: “We attempted to come out with a strong opposition to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and on our own side, on the part of my party, we made every necessary sacrifice including, of course, offer of stepping down of our own presidential candidate, because we saw Nigerians wanting a change and we believe it is the right thing to do, for all opposition to come together. The other party (CPC) did not fulfil its own part and it was not as big a sacrifice as our own but sadly, they did not just meet up with what we agreed.

“Originally, we agreed that we as the senior partner in this alliance attempt - because we have bigger electoral number, made more votes across the country, we have more in terms of number in the National Assembly elected but we still consider it necessary and we did it, including making offer of sacrifice of allowing the candidate of opposition CPC to lead and we only get the vice president eventually but they refused. They agreed and then they turned it down again. Sadly, that is the fundamental problem that really led to the collapse of the last alliance attempt.”

www.leadershipeditors.com/ns/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=28997:why-i-wept-buhari&catid=51:cover-stories&Itemid=142

Another touching article by an Abuja based lawyer.

When Generals Weep
Posted: April 15, 2011 - 01:27
Posted by siteadmin
By Bassey Nyoho, Esq

General Muhammadu Buhari was not alone when he was suddenly overcome by emotion in his final official speech going into the Presidential election on Saturday, April 16th 2011, in what he has authoritatively described as his last outing in the Presidential contest in this country. A good number of members of that unique audience and many more of those who watched via television were overcome with sudden and overwhelming emotion over the fate of this country and perhaps the approaching eclipse of the last of the face of public honesty and probity in the affairs of Nigeria.

Our General may have betrayed the stern and unemotional calling of his Military background but such is the effect of the monumental crises that has bedevilled this otherwise great country that not much more could be done in the face of pressure, opposition and near ineffectiveness to change the strangle hold of the same set of people who for the past thirty years have been around and active in presiding over arguably the greatest plundering of the resources of any Nation devoid of a state of war.

As the 2011 presidential elections approach, General Muhammadu Buhari, our only symbol of hope, our dimming light in the midst of a legion of wolves stands at the threshold of history to give this potentially great Nation another sincere opportunity to restart her fortune and give her a breather of hope, a fresh start from decades of incompetence, failed infrastructure, and corruption of epic dimensions. There was not a more defining highlight in the speech of the presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change than his assertion, with all the confidence he could muster, that he has served his country in various capacities- as Minster of the Federal Republic, State Governor, Chairman of Petroleum Trust Fund and Head of State- and in all these offices, he has never let his hand into the public till. In making this declaration, he invited all presidential candidates, both in this election and in the past presidential elections to dare to make the same claims. It was a challenge available only to the very upright, one with water tight integrity, whose word you can take to the bank. And to every challenge there is a target; at the receiving end are not just our thieving politicians, but the multitude of inept and corrupt public servants, the judiciary which has turned a blind eye in the face of systematic and unaccounted for injustices, our armed forces which has thrown up brigades of Military opportunists who in the past decades have subjected this country to massive pillaging and resource plundering. But these are just a few men, the minority czars or call them our overlords. The majority at the receiving end of Buhari’s challenge are the ordinary Nigerians, the working class and professional men and women; the unemployed, the youths and rural community dwellers who have decided to remain silent in the midst of this oppression; who have decided to be complacent as armed robbers in political garb rape the giant of Africa and subject her to such retrogression that it will take hundreds of years to recover- that is if this ‘house’ will stand the time.
In the audience on this auspicious occasion were recycled politicians who had joined this campaign train either for the benefit of what it would offer them or indeed for genuine remorse over the evil for which they have collectively conspired to confine this country to. It was a comic relief of sorts to see them join the General along with the rest of us who were watching, in the chorus of ‘weeping away’ our collective National frustration- oh, how shameless robbers are!

With the end of the rallies for the opposition CPC and the approaching end of campaigns for the Presidential election, the ruling party has redoubled its nauseating propaganda machine as a multitude of parties, political affiliations and individual political jobbers have fallen over themselves to offer endorsements to the Jonathan/Goodluck campaign in order to position themselves for the next season of plundering of the resources of our commonwealth. In its official response-as if it was necessary- to the speech by Muhammadu Buhari marking the end of the presidential rallies for the CPC, the ruling PDP has come out to mock, ridicule and pillory the symbol of our collective decency and pride. They have unfairly referred to his speech and the emotion which took a better part of him in the course of it, as a last desperate attempt from his bag of tricks aimed at whipping up sentiments towards winning the elections. This is akin to a robber stealing from a man and taunting him to aggravate the injustice meted out to him.

The facts on ground do not merit such reckless and irresponsible statements. The evidence on ground has shown that Nigeria has witnessed a dramatic worsening of its social, economic and political institutions in the past twelve years within which the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party has presided over the affairs of this country. There has been massive institutional and systematic corruption for which there is neither investigation nor conviction of anyone. The amount of money-in billions of US dollars- sunk into the reactivation of the electricity sector with nothing to show for it provides enough bases for some people to pay the supreme sacrifice or rot in jail for the rest of their lives. But this is Nigeria, and things are always different here; instead, these treasury looters bestride our political spaces and are in every sense of the word untouchable. They are our governors, ministers, and government contractors and from all indications, they will be with us at least for the immediate future.


General Muhammadu Buhari has played his part. He has shown that in the midst of the stinking wealth garnered by our band of treasury looters, in the crowd of the corrupt, inefficient, blood sucking monsters who call themselves politicians, the majority of Nigerians recognise integrity, they recognise genuine patriots who spare no effort in striving to make this Nation a better place for the coming generations at the price of great inconvenience and opposition.
Unless there is a divine intervention, President Goodluck Jonathan will be announced sometime next week by Professor Attahiru Jega as the winner of the Presidential election of April 16th 2011. And why wouldn’t he? The ruling party controls enough resources to compel enough votes to announce its victory at the polls; not with $200m being awarded to the movie industry to enlist their support and money in the billions being drilled to the surface from the Petroleum Ministry to support the cause of the PDP Presidential Campaign.

General Muhammadu Buhari will not be much more the loser than the generality of Nigerians who have had to endure grinding poverty in the midst of huge resources which are being cornered by the men in power. Our teeming unemployed youth, runaway inflation, decrepit infrastructure, failed institutions and the despondence that has attended these vices are all indicators and ready reminders to the fact, that we are a generation that has been failed in all areas of our National life.

Ironically Mr. Muhammadu Buhari leaves the stage as a hero, a dogged and indefatigable fighter for the hidden potentials and opportunities of this Country which has remained dormant and unexploited as a result of the insatiable greed of a clique of men. We salute the people’s General, the yet unsung hero, who in a period of his life he should be enjoying a deserved retirement, had offered himself, in the face of hopelessness, as a vehicle of one last opportunity at redeeming this Nation from the path of impending perdition. We salute his courage, perseverance, statesmanship and princely mien which have done much more campaigning for him than any amount of looted funds the ruling and thieving Peoples’ Democratic Party would have offered.

For the rest of us Nigerians, who have had to suffer the brunt of decades of lost opportunities, rampant corruption, ineptitude and gross human rights violations, I conclude with the wise words of the political philosopher that a people deserve the type of government it gets. Maybe this is the aggregate of our collective entitlement. When and if the time ever comes when we have had it to our necks, we shall think of welcoming genuine change. For now, for them who have been privileged to enter the party hall, another term of looting is about to begin!
Bassey Nyoho, Esq

Is an Abuja based legal practitioner


www.saharareporters.com/article/when-generals-weep

hmmmm!* wat an article! Bt u knw, as the writer has rightly pointed out again!, we all deserve the kind of govt we get, *sobs*