Dogara hails Buhari over initiative to curb vote buying

By Lateef Ibrahim

Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Yakubu Dogara has commended President Muhammadu Buhari over the initiative to curb vote buying in the forthcoming general elections.

Hon. Dogara, who said he is not uninformed of nor unaffected by the hardship caused by the Naira redesign and swap policy, pleaded with Nigerians to endure it for these few weeks as sacrifice for a free, fair and credible election.

The former Speaker made the commendation, in a statement personally signed by him yesterday in Abuja.

He pointed out that just as injury has pains, so also recovery has pains, stressing however that if the nation has to get healed, the citizens have to endure the pains.

Dogara, in the statement, said, “I want to specifically commend President Buhari over the initiative to curb vote buying in the forthcoming general elections.

“I am not uninformed of nor unaffected by the hardship caused by the Naira redesign and swap policy, but I want to plead with Nigerians to endure it for these few weeks as a sacrifice for a free, fair and credible election.

“It’s a life lesson: just as injury has pains, so also recovery has pains. But if we have to get healed, we have to endure the pain.

“I urge us all to trudge on in the hope that these pains may truly be the birth pangs we may endure for a New Nigeria to be born.

“For those criticizing the President on the issue of timing, I want to remind them in the words of Dr King Jnr that ‘time is eternally neutral and the time is always ripe to do right.”

He continued: “Let me end by calling on CBN to ensure the redesigned notes are made available to our people but even if the CBN failed to do so, my plea to all Nigerians is to endure the pains for few more weeks for our votes to count and for us to elect a President we truly deserve.

“Let me emphatically say that the President has the sole constitutional powers over currency matters and all those busy running their mouths because they have been denied the opportunity to deploy the ill-gotten naira, they have stashed to buy votes, that they are committing treason.

“The President is absolutely right not to have given in to the greed of the few against the needs of the many. While the President is right to have acted on what he knows and in the best interest of the country, his traducers are petty, unpatriotic, treacherous and grossly irresponsible. Therefore, Mr. President deserves our thunderous applause.

“Whoever writes it, history will be kind to Mr. President if he doesn’t give in or give up on his resolve to ensure a free, fair and credible democratic election, no matter the cost on the 25th February, 2023 as scheduled by INEC.

“Let me remind us that Nigeria is tottering on the precipice and for everyone who has ever wondered what the bottom looks like, this is it! No doubt these are moments of national peril!

“That is why we need a President who will hit the ground running from day one. If we love Nigeria, we cannot afford to foist a rookie on her as President. Tell me if any of the candidates comes close to Atiku Abubakar in terms of readiness to hit the ground running from day one. In case you don’t know him, let me attempt the impossible task of introducing him to you.

“Atiku Abubakar, the Wazirin Adamawa is a statesman like no other and a father in every sense of the word, Abba. He is a demonstrable source that gives life to everything around him. We need a steady hand not a hand that must always be steadied because only a steady hand can steady a volatile Nigeria. We need a hand on which nothing dies, not the hand that spills everything that is placed on it if we do not want our collective national destiny to be spilled.

“We need a grounded leader not a feckless gormless pretender, who has become a perfect gift to every level of comedy both locally and internationally. “By our votes, let us send a strong and clear message to those who want to foist this tasteless joke on us that Nigeria is no Comedy Cellar or Viva Blackpool.

“ For national healing and recovery, let us vote for Atiku. To end terrorism, banditry, insurgency, kidnap for ransom and sundry acts of criminality, let us vote for Atiku. To rebuild shattered trust and strengthen national unity, let us vote for Atiku. To bring order to national chaos, let us vote for Atiku. To end religious divisions and engender religious harmony, let us vote Atiku, and to enthrone merit over mediocrity and nepotism, let us vote Atiku”.

Currency, petrol crises, plot of interim gov’t advocates - el-Rufai alleges

From Femi Oyelola, Kaduna

The scarcity of Naira notes and petrol is part of a plot to disrupt the elections, in order to ensure an interim government takes over, the Governor of Kaduna state, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, has alleged.

Making this assertion, in a state broadcast, el-Rufai maintained that the current cash scarcity is part of efforts to ensure that Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), loses the election.

In his words “It is important for the people of Kaduna State, and indeed Nigeria, to know that, contrary to the public pronouncements and apparent good intentions, this policy was conceived and sold to the President by officials who completely lost out in the Gubernatorial and Presidential Primaries of the APC in June 2022.

“Once Asiwaju Bola Tinubu emerged as the candidate in June 2022, and subsequently did not pick one of them as his running mate, this currency redesign policy was conceived to ensure that the APC presidential candidate is deprived of what they alleged is a humongous war chest.

“They also sought to achieve any one or more of the following objectives: Create a nationwide shortage of cash so that citizens are incited to vote against APC candidates across the board resulting in massive losses for the Party in all the elections.

“Ensure that the cash crunch is so serious, along with the contrived and enduring fuel shortage existing since September 2022, that the 2023 Elections do not hold at all, leading to an Interim National Government to be led by a retired Army General.

“Sustain the climate of shortage of fuel, food and other necessities, leading to mass protests, violence and breakdown of law and order that would provide a fertile foundation for a military takeover.”