Time to rebuild Nigeria - Acceptance
speech by General Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR Presidential Candidate of the
All Progressives Congress
PROTOCOL
1. First of all, I wish to express my gratitude to the Chairman and members of the Convention Committee for planning and conducting a hitch-free convention. The same appreciation goes to the chairmen of National and State Executive Councils of our party. Thank you very much for doing an excellent job.
2. I would like to pay tribute to Chief Bisi Akande the first chairman of APC and his National Executive for managing the party in its early stages.
3. I also wish to commend Lagos State Government and state party for hosting this convention. Time was when people feared to come to Lagos. Today, Lagos is the cleanest and dare I say safest city in Nigeria. This achievement is due to the leadership and strength of purpose of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Chief Babatunde Fashola the two Governors since 1999 and their team of professionals for this wonderful transformation Nigeria greets you!
4. The outcome of the
presidential primaries of the All Progressives Congress is a
demonstration of democracy at work. It is testimony to the fact that
democracy as a concept is greater than the interests of individuals in a
free and functional political system. What has just happened is not
about winning or losing but about the triumph of liberty, freedom of
choice and association, which are hallmarks of democracy.
5. To my fellow contestants;
Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, Owelle Rochas
Okorocha and Mr. Sam Nda Isaiah, I wish to thank you for putting up a
good fight. The keenly contested primaries we just had will help to
strengthen our party and democracy, and ultimately send our message to
Nigerian voters in the impending elections.
6. To you all, I pay my absolute
compliments and congratulate you on the success of your respective
campaigns. I extend my gratitude to you all for accepting the outcome of
this convention and agreeing to support my candidature as we move
forward. I shall meet with you all in the coming days to fashion out how
we shall confront the challenge ahead.
7. My dear fellow countrymen and
women, it is with a deep sense of humility that I stand before you today
to accept the nomination of my party, the All Progressives Congress to
be its candidate and flag-bearer in 2015 presidential elections.
8. My nomination is not because I
am better than any of the other contestants. I see it as a tribute and
mark of confidence to carry the torch as we all join hands to rescue our
dear country Nigeria, from those who have led us into the current state
of insecurity, poverty, sectarian divide and hopelessness among our
people.
9. I stand before you today to
ask that you join me in a common cause. My call to you is not to realise
the personal fulfilment of one man. This Common Cause is nothing less
than the love for our nation and concern for its present condition. And a
resolve to make things better for Nigeria.
10. What I say today is for all
Nigerians: Christian and Muslim, Southern and Northern, rich and poor,
young and old, man and woman. We are all citizens of Nigeria. There is
no dividing line among us that I care to honour. Either we advance as
one or fail altogether.
11. My choice and my colleagues
choice and wish is that we progress together. Preserving the nation’s
future is a scared obligation to all of us in this party. Leaders should
be wholly committed to fulfilling this obligation otherwise they have
no business being leaders.
12. Sadly, the current administration does not believe in this obligation. By their actions they are leading us to calamity.
13. At International Conferences,
the Nigerian delegation is usually among the largest but at the same
time the least effective. Our president should have the status and the
voice of Africa's largest nation. But in political influence we are
among the weakest.
14. Shall we at home continue to
live in a condition where the Power Holding Company and its successors
seem only to have the power to hold us in darkness?
15. Shall we continue in a situation
where 250 of our daughters have been abducted and the government has
been unable to rescue them or provide credible information about what
steps they are taking?
16. Shall we live in a nation where
several people were trampled to death in search of jobs in a stadium and
yet no one has taken responsibility for the tragedy?
17. Shall we live in a nation where
the ranks of the poor swell and their poverty increase while the
consorts of the powerful enjoy unprecedented wealth? The lives of the
poor are bled dry while those of the powerful soak in excessive
abundance.
18. My answers to these questions are “No, No, No, No!”
19. It is time to close this demeaning chapter in our nation’s history.
20. I ask that you join this effort, not for me, but to establish a better land for all of us.
21. I understand and accept the hard
challenge ahead. When all is said and done, let it be written that
Muhammadu Buhari gave his all for this nation.
22. As such, I make these five pledges regarding the government if we are elected next February;
a. We will govern Nigeria honestly, in accordance with the constitution.
b. We will strive to secure the country and efficiently manage the economy.
c. We will strive to attack
poverty through broadly-shared economic growth and attacking corruption
through impartial application of the law.
d. We will tolerate no religious, regional, ethnic or gender bias in our government.
e. We will return Nigeria to a position of international respect through patriotic foreign policy.
f. We will choose the best Nigerians for the right jobs.
23. Our government will be committed
to the cause of the common man. Whether you are a Christian from
Bayelsa State or a Muslim from Katsina State, you are first and foremost
a Nigerian in my eyes. I shall treat you equally as my people, my
national family, my brothers and sisters. There can be no genuine love
of our country without loving all its people in our diversity.
24. Just as APC stands as a new party for a new Nigeria, our government will institute new policies to realise the new Nigeria.
25. We shall institute just policies
that afford people the dignity of work and pay them a living wage for
their sweat and toil. We intend to do this by instituting a national
industrial policy, coupled with a national employment directive, that
together shall revive and expand our manufacturing sector, creating jobs
for our urban population and decreasing our reliance on expensive
foreign imports.
26. We shall implement a national
infrastructure master plan that will provide construction and related
jobs across the land. Furthermore, by improving our transportation
infrastructure through road, rail and port construction we expand the
outer bounds of economic growth as no economy can grow beyond the
capacity of its infrastructure.
27. Agriculture remains the backbone
of the economy. Our government, when elected, will establish an
agricultural policy that provides farmers a dignified living through
improved inputs, improved extension services, access to credit and price
support mechanisms.
28. On corruption, the government
will enhance EFCC's powers to investigate independently. Moreover, we
intend to plug the holes in NNPC accounting. There will no longer be two
sets of books, one for public consumption and another for insiders who
profit from this slick fraud. In an APC government, the public will know
how much NNPC makes and where all the money goes.
29. No longer shall illegal flows of
massive sums leave these shores to finance other economies. While our
people languish in poverty, we effectively give financial aid to nations
that is not justified. I am sick of this. It must stop. The money saved
will finance jobs, health care and the provision of social safety net
for the needy, weak and vulnerable of our land.
30. We will be a compassionate
government, for out of compassion arises the truest forms of wealth and
progress a society can attain. We shall open the door to tertiary
education to excellent students who otherwise could not afford it.
Pregnant and poor women and children shall be entitled to basic health
care.
31. This is a Nigeria that I
envisage but it is a far cry from the Nigeria that is now. Change is
imperative if we are to avoid the impending national failure. Poor
leadership placed us in the ditch. Continuation of poor leadership will
only dig a deeper trench for all of us to fall in.
32. Let us join hands in progressive union to pull each other and the nation from the abyss.
33. I pledge to do my utmost to make
this happen but cannot do it alone. I need your support. I need your
help to become President of Nigeria so that government may come to serve
you, so that it may bring relief to the broken and weary among us and
so that it may usher in a new Nigeria meant for us all, a Nigeria that
is the birthright of everyone but the exclusive possession of no one.
God bless you.
God bless our fatherland – Nigeria
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