The former Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, Hon. Ghali Naa’aba has expressed optimism that the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari will clinch victory at the March 28 polls.
Naa’aba who was formally received into the opposition party fold on Tuesday in Abuja with an automatic appointment into the party’s Board of Trustees said the bane of the country in the past years has been the inability of its leadership to carry the people along in governance.
He lamented that Nigeria has been misruled by successive governments in the past 16 years.
Speaking on his decision to defect to the APC former Speaker said the party has now griwn into a national party and not what they use to regard it as a religious party, a sectional party.
“I am happy that he is going to be the next President of this country and when he becomes the next President of Nigeria, it is our desire that he continues to be a national leader and not a sectional leader,” he said.
Na”aba said from his personal observation of the campaigns so far, Buhari has become increasingly popular around the country, adding that he has been inaudated with solidarity calls from former colleagues since his joining the APC.
“If is quite remarkable that since I left the PDP, I have been receiving calls and messages of encouragement from across Nigeria. This is to show that APC is a national party and not what they use to regard it as a religious party, a sectional party. People from all corners of this country has called me, including former members of the House of Representatives from across the country who are in APC.
“My pledge today is to work with you and the Presidential candidate of the party while trying to consolidate on the gains made so far. It is very remarkable that a convention was held and a free and fair election was conducted in which Muhammadu Buhari emerged as the Presidential candidate of the party and I am witness to how popular Buhari is, not just in the north, but all over the country.
“Nigerians have come a long way and I have continued to say that we can not continue to rule this country on the basis divisiveness. We can succeed in this country without maligning other parts of the country because we have all it takes. All the regions of this country have comparative advantages which we can build on and succeed and we don’t have to malign others to be able to succeed.
“God has created us into different tribes and nations. If we are all Hausas or Igbos or Yorubas, there may have been no desire for exchange among us and we may not know one another. It is a test on all of us. We have differences in languages and religion among others so that we can be trusted in our leadership.
A chieftain of APC Audu Ogbeh condemned the prevalent leadership style in the country where leaders think through their stomach.
According, the management of the affairs of the country needed some change if genuine progress is to be attained.
“Here, I am sorry to say the stomach does the thinking. Unless and until change in governance is achieved there is still going to be turbulent days ahead,” he said.