Buhari: I Have Never Lost Sleep over PDP

Onyebuchi Ezigbo

Former Head of State and presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive, Gen. Mohammadu Buhari (rtd) Change Saturday said he has never lost sleep over the Peoples Democratic Party and did he see any reason to blame the ruling party for its alleged role in frustrating the proposed alliance between his party and the Action Congress of Nigeria ahead of the April general election.

The former head of state's statement coincided with a comment made Saturday by former Sokoto State governor and ACN party member, Attahiru Bafarawa, who blamed former Lagos State governor, Bola Ahmed Tinubu for frustrating the alliance talks between both parties, saying the talks failed because of Tinubu's selfish desire to be vice presidential candidate

Buhari, whose view is at variance with the one expressed by Tinubu, over the breakdown of alliance talks between ACN and CPC, said there is no way he would have expected PDP to sit back and allow the plan to succeed.

Well, people are blaming PDP, but I do not blame PDP. I expect PDP to do what they are doing I do not expect PDP to sit back and allow us to win the elections.

If we have a major threat, I think it is us that are going to work hard to make sure that such threat does stand in our way to success. I have never lost sleep over what PDP is going to do with our party or any of our candidates, he said.

The CPC presidential candidate, who was meeting with the national executives of the party in Abuja, said what the opposition parties should be concerned about is how to get their act together and oust the PDP instead of laying blame on anyone.

Buhari said: What I expect the CPC leaders to do is to concentrate on what they are doing and not to be distracted by anyone, let alone the PDP.

On his choice of Tunde Bakare as running mate, Buhahi said: I picked him first and foremost because he identifies with and is concerned about Nigeria.

I identify his as a man of great probity, of courage and patriotism. These are the specific qualities why I chose him as my running mate.

Buhari traced the genesis of his relationship with Bakare to the days when the late President Musa Yar'Adua was sick and people tried to make political capital out of the incident to destabilise the polity.

He said, along with Pastor Bakare and other prominent Nigerians, they mobilised members of the public to demonstrate in the streets of Abuja and at the National Assembly to ensure that there was no constitutional crisis.

On the preponderance of disputes in the party, especially among the leadership of the party in Kano, Kaduna, Bauchi and Katsina States, he acknowledged that people have expressed concern that there appears to be considerable trouble in the states regarded as his base, the north-west.

Buhari, who described CPC as the fastest growing party in Africa, however, assured that the party is not alone in the crisis that erupted after the primary elections, adding that while CPC kept to its resolve to promote internal democracy by holding primaries, some other parties only sat in their offices and wrote down candidates names.

He assured party leaders and Nigerians that the CPC is determined to resolve all disputes amicably in accordance with the party's constitution and the electoral law.

On his part, Bakare, who has been chosen to head the Buhari Presidential Campaign Council, said he would give the party and the presidential candidate 100 percent support and loyalty.

Under the revised campaign structure of the CPC, the party appointed Bakare to lead the Presidential Campaign Council, with membership drawn from the party's Board of Trustees, including national chairman, Prince Tony Momoh, national secretary, Buba Galadima, all zonal presidential campaign coordinators, all national vice chairmen, all deputy national vice chairmen and the national women's leader.

The party said it would now flag off its presidential campaign on Wednesday in Kaduna where the party flags are to be presented to its candidates as a symbol of endorsement for the election.

As CPC unfolded its campaign flag-off, Bafarawa, meanwhile, placed the blame squarely for the breakdown in the ACN and CPC alliance talks on Tinubu, saying the talks failed because of the latter's selfish desire to be vice presidential candidate.

Bafarawa spoke against the backdrop of comments made by Tinubu that the merger talks failed because of agents planted by the PDP to frustrate the planned merger.

Addressing newsmen in Sokoto Saturday, Bafarawa said, if PDP paid anybody to frustrate the alliance talks with CPC, it is Tinubu, because he was the root cause of the failure.

According to him, it is unfortunate the way and manner Tinubu is talking about the alliance talks, blaming different causes, when actually he was the main problem.

I happen to be a member of the caucus of the ACN and there is no day I was informed. I was never invited to the meeting and I only read it in the newspapers.

You see him either in Borno or Lagos having meetings with Buhari without involving serious party caucus leaders. So he was the one behind the failure of this merger.

Blaming PDP or Buhari does not take away from the fact that he was the root cause of the breakdown in the alliance talk.

It is on record that majority of us who fought for the grand alliance of the merge were kept in the dark over this issue of the alliance, he said.

He wondered why Tinubu should blame the PDP for the failure of the merger when he was the cause of the problem.

I am surprised to see Tinubu giving excuses over the failure. The last time he was looking for a scapegoat; he is the agent of PDP and the problem behind the failure because of selfishness.

Initially, Buhari told us that Tinubu is frustrating his talks with us because of his interest of being vice presidential candidate, but because of the Muslim-Muslim ticket, he (Buhari) disagreed.

Now, we did not see Tinubu disputing that, instead he went ahead to blame PDP and CPC on the issue,Bafarawa lamented.

The former governor maintained that he had no problem or any disagreement on any issues with Tinubu prior to this, and as such harbours no hard feelings towards him on any issue, adding,it is just that we must set the record straight.

He stressed that he did not join ACN to be a yes man or kowtow to anybody and as such will never cover the truth no matter whose ox is gored