The Buhari Support Organisation
(BSO) South East Zone at the weekend launched the Zikist-Buharist-Movement
(ZBM).
They say this is in a bid to
guarantee victory for the presidential candidate of All Progressives Congress
(APC), President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2019 election.
The movement was launched at the
South East Zonal Summit of BSO, held in Enugu on Saturday to mobilise APC
members and non partisan Ndigbo at home and Diaspora to vote for Buhari.
This move, BSO posited, would
reinforce their bid for Nigeria president of Igbo extradition when it gets to
the turn of Ndigbo in 2023.
The group explained that as a
Pragmatist, the late Owelle of Onitsha, Nnamdi Azikiwe would readily have
chosen President Muhammadu Buhari of APC who has uncommon cult followership in
the northern belt, ahead of his Fulani kinsman, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
BSO noted that whereas the Atiku
restructuring mantra sounds appetizing, restructuring cannot be done by
Fiat-Executive Order, but by the cumbersome amendment process of the rigid 1999
Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
In a communiqué released after
the summit, signed by Stanley Ohajuruka, South-East Coordinator and Godwin Onwusi,
Acting Secretary, the ZBM, the BSO proclaimed “is a non-partisan movement
launched to go beyond the party lines in mobilising and scaling up votes for
Buhari.”
According to the communiqué, BSO
South East in order to actualise this noble objective adopted pragmatism as the
key strategy, in the sense that the 2023 President turn of Ndigbo Project is a
non-partisan bid.
The communiqué read in part: “Our
study shows that the total membership of all the political parties APC, PDP,
APGA, UPP et al is less than 30% of that of the electorate. And that the
turnout of registered voters in the previous elections has been very poor,
which makes it imperative that we have to mobilize in order to achieve 2023
President Turn Ndigbo.
“In this connection, we today
launch the Zikist-Buharist-Movement (ZBM), a non-partisan movement aimed at
mobilising Ndigbo both at home and abroad. The ZBM in the best tradition of the
great Zik, Owelle, Rt. Hon. Dr Nnamdi Benjamin Azikiwe want to reopen the
ancient North-East political alliance, which without the exclusion of any
geopolitical zone earned Ndigbo indelible laurels in the 1st and 2nd Republics.
“BSO South East proclamation that
2023 is our turn to produce Nigeria president of Igbo extraction is based on
equity, natural justice and good conscience. For it is our considered view that
the rotation of president convention from Southern Belt to Northern Belt
introduced by patriots in 1999, 4th Republic, when Nigeria returned to civil
rule, is for equity, natural justice, and harmony of our dear country.
“It is based on equity, natural
justice and good conscience that we remind ourselves that since 1999, the South
East geopolitical zone is the only geopolitical zone in the Southern Belt which
has not presided over Nigeria.
“And it is on record that despite
the truism that His Excellencies Dr Alex Ekwueme of blessed memory and Dr
Ogbonnia Onu were shoved aside in Jos and Kaduna presidential primaries
respectively. Ndigbo albeit voted overwhelmingly for the winner, ex-president,
Dr Olusegun Obasanjo of the South West, who served for eight years,” it stated.
BSO recalled that in 2010 and
2015, Ndigbo repeated the same voting pattern by voting overwhelmingly for
ex-president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan.
The group made it clear that Ndigbo
supported their two Southern brothers, even when South West in 1999 refused to
vote for Obasanjo, meaning that Ndigbo had paid our dues.
The communiqué stated further:
“BSO South East in deep reflection asked ourselves, what option in a scenario
where two Fulani Muslim brothers – Buhari and Atiku are front liners in the
2019 Presidential Election, who could the great Zik choose if he were alive?
“In answering this germane
question, we said two major critical issues will readily come to Zik’s mind –
one whom between the two of them has the support of the North, two what is
their programmes?
“As a Pragmatist the great Zik
would readily choose President Muhammadu Buhari who has uncommon cult
followership in the northern belt. This choice is based on the pragmatism that
for us to achieve the Igbo presidency, we need Buhari’s supporters not only in
the north but nationwide.
“On the second issue, the great
Zik would be attracted by His Excellency Atiku Abubakar’s promise to
restructure the country in six months in office; but as a pragmatist he will
reason that it cannot be achieved by Fiat-Executive-Order.
“Whereas the Atiku restructuring
mantra is appetizing, the truism is that it cannot be done by Fiat-Executive
Order, but by the amendment of the rigid 1999 Constitution of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria. All that glitters is not gold, the sage says,” it stated.
BSO South East stated that APC
and by extension President Buhari was not against restructuring, otherwise they
could not have set up the Malam El-Rufia Committee on Restructuring and its
report receiving attention.
“On the issue of four years,
Buhari’s remaining 4 years after 2019 is cast on constitutional stone, while
Atiku’s is at best pledge. In sum, we call Ndigbo both at home and abroad, to
join the ZBM to actualise this noble objective,” BSO stated.
Harping on why Ndigbo must
support the APC presidential candidate earlier at the summit, Osita Okechukwu,
the Director General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), said Buhari has completed the
foundation of the 2nd Bridge.
Okechukwu explained that Buhari
started the important project from the scratch and was the first person that
took a bag of cement, the gravel and stones to start the 2ndBridge about last
year.
The VON DG added that Minister of
Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola assured him that work would start
on Enugu-Onitsha and Enugu-Port Harcourt expressways as soon the rains stop.
Other dignitaries at the event
included the Director General, Nigerian Film Commission, Chidia Maduekwe,
National Commissioner, National Population Commission, Ejike Eze, Enugu State
Coordinator, BSO, Anike Nwoga, Enugu State APC Publicity Secretary, Mrs. Kate
Offor and National Chairman of BSO, Dr Abubakar Mahmood, Imo State BSO
Coordinator, Adaobi Obi, the senatorial candidate of APC in Enugu East, Prince
Lawrence Eze, Dozie Ikedife Jnr and Deputy Governorship candidate Anambra
State, Mr Patrick Ojim.
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