Former Governor of Abia State and
Chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu has declared
that 2019 Presidential primaries of the party should be thrown open for every
aspirant who wants to contest.
However he said Buhari remains
the best candidate which he promised to vote for in the APC primaries even as
he vowed that the President has gained enough ground in the South - East and
the region would not hesitate to vote for him in 2019.
Kalu, who spoke with journalists
in Lagos at the private wing of Murtala Muhammed Airport said Buhari, despite
the clamour from various quarters for the party to give him automatic ticket in
2019, believes in throwing the race open for interested candidates to contest.
He said, "Buhari himself is
not even looking for automatic ticket. Buhari is a man that is very fair and
free to what he does. And his feeling is that if any candidate is willing to
contest against him, he should come at the Eagle Square.
"The contest should be
thrown open. There would be no rancour. We are in democracy and I would vote
for the President. I've said it times without number, that the President needs
to consolidate on his achievements because most parts of his tenure have been
besieged by illness. So the President genuinely deserves second tenure."
Kalu was however reluctant to
discuss the resignation of former Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar from
APC, saying however that he would have advised Atiku, whom he describes as his
boss, to remain in the party and join hands with other stakeholders to build
the party together.
However he said he wished Atiku
well in his next move.
According to him, Buhari remains
the candidate to beat because of his popularity which he said is spreading like
wildfire in the South East.
"We are not afraid of
anybody who wants to contest against the President because the President is
very popular. He is still the only person carrying 12 million votes in his
back. Even in the South East where he didn't do well, I'm just coming from the
South East. President Buhari is making a lot of inroads. The role he played
during Anambra election, other
Presidents would have written the results. They have done it before. But the
President said, 'no every ballot paper must be counted' and they were counted.
If it is other President, APC would be jubilating home with victory. But
President said, 'no, I would not tolerate that'.
Kalu also dismissed the
declaration by the former ruling party, PDP, to bounce back in 2019, saying the
party can never win election again in Nigeria because of the large scale
looting of the treasury which equally attracted the attention of members of the
international community.
He said: "How can they (PDP)
bounce back when treasury was looted? How can they bounce back when the
international community doesn't see anything good in them? How can they bounce
back when we gave them our treasury, they opened and looted it.
"We would call names if they
want us to call names in future. All the World Powers knew what happened and
this is why they tactically insisted that PDP must leave power. PDP committed
what was very shameful to have seen in a democratic process. There is no system
that is not with corruption but going to loot is an affront to Nigerian people.
They opened the treasury and looted the treasury. President Buhari, having been
restrained by some World Powers not to open up what happened in the NNPC.
"If Nigerians know what
happened in NNPC, those people would not pass this airport, people would not
leave them. What they did is what ears and eyes should not even hear. How can
they come back? They will definitely go into oblivion, they would never win
election again in Nigeria unless they changed their name."
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U are speaking ur mind, so u own ur mouth keep ranting until it is clear to ur eye but make sure u did not come back to PDP when time comes!
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