By Francis Sadhere, Warri
A group under the auspices of Concerned Citizens Forum of Nigeria, on Thursday called on Nigerians to vote out the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the February 16 general elections, saying Buhari has failed the people.
The group who made this call in Warri, Delta State during a press conference noted that Nigerians were tired of going to Abuja to collect peanuts at the end of every month.
National Coordinator of the group, Ambassador Anthony Nwangwu who addressed journalists said the present Federal Government led by President Muhammadu Buhari has no clear-cut blueprint to develop the country.
He said the Buhari led administration has caused untold hardship to millions of Nigerians for the past three and half years, adding that the poverty index level of the country has gone from bad to worst.
He said, “I can tell you today that APC has no agenda for the progress of this country. The only agenda they have is to advance the Usman Danfodio policies. I can assure you that this administration has no clear cut blue print as to how to advance this country to the next level.
“We the Concerned Citizens of Nigeria led by Ambassador Anthony Ejiofor Nwangwu, stand today to let Nigerians know that Buhari is not ready to improve the lot of Nigerians. If not why is he trying to advance the cause of Fulani herdsmen. We all know that it is only when we have elections that Fulani herdsmen stop killing people in the country. But as soon as elections are over, the Fulani herdsmen will start all over again.”
“We, the Concerned Citizens of Nigeria are an organization that is concerned about the welfare of Nigerians. We are not partisan, but in this case we chose to be partisan because we want a Nigeria where everybody can benefit from the dividend of democracy. Our founding fathers sacrificed a lot for this country and we have lost a lot of people during the civil war,” the group said.
The group alleged that Nigeria was being led by men who do not have integrity, saying “We must vote APC out of government because APC is a canker worm that is eating into the fabric of the country.”
“Today I am using Dangote as a case study. This is a man whose worth was about 25 billion naira in 2015 but three years down the lane his net worth is not more than 10.5 billion naira. If this can happen to Dangote, what about the ordinary Nigerians. Today Nigerians are the most poorest people on earth. If care is not taken, in the next 50 years Nigerians will be eating themselves, the group said.
The group who expressed their support for the PDP presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, said, “Today we spend all our money on concurrent expenditures because our overhead cost is too expensive. This is the reason why Atiku has been talking about restructuring and we are aligning ourselves with him.
“We are saying that every unit in Nigeria should be allowed to grow at their own pace and this is why we are aligning ourselves with Atiku. Atiku and his Vice, Peter Obi are very grounded in business and they know a lot about the economy of the country.
“Abia state was a very vibrant economy during Peter Obi’s tenure. Obi left about 540 million dollars when he was leaving office. How was he able to do it. He cut down on the expenditure of the state. Nigeria cannot be running this kind of government when people are dying.”
The group therefore, noted that it was high time men of good conscience stood up and say no to those who want bring this country down.
“Nigeria is not growing under President Buhari. In fact, any president you bring to Nigeria will fail because the foundation of the system of government is faulty. Unless you restructure this country the country can never move forward.
“In this election we are giving our support to Atiku and Obi because these men understand the economy. We are not talking about integrity now, because even the Mr integrity that they are talking about today has failed. The international observers have said that Nigeria is more corrupt than it was in 2015. So where is the Mr integrity. When Buhari came he said he was going to fight corruption. But today Nigeria is worse. For this reason this government has shown us that it has nothing to offer us.”
