The Federal Government yesterday told former Head of State, Major-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), that any revolution in the country would consume him and his party, Congress for Progressive Change (CPC).
Speaking through Information Minister Labaran Maku, the government said the revolution would wipe out the CPC and its men, not the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftains.
Gen. Buhari, who was the CPC presidential candidate in last year’s elections, while speaking in Kaduna at the weekend, expressed indignation over the unsavoury state of affairs in the country.
He cautioned that if the ruling PDP did not wake up to the challenges of governance, it would be consumed by the peoples’ revolution.
“If there is no social justice, there will be revolution one way or the other. The PDP doesn’t believe in real democracy and I hope they are strong enough to go through the consequencies of their injustice… People are dying in twos, while others are syndicates of thieves, with people stealing and keeping money in their houses up to the tune of N2billion. By 2015, whoever steals public funds has automatically sentenced himself to death,’’ Buhari said at the launch of a poverty alleviation programme’’.
But reacting yesterday when he led a delegation of PDP members from Nasarawa State to the national secretariat of the party in Abuja, Maku dismissed Buhari’s admonition as misplaced. Maku hails from the state.
The minister said that CPC did not win election in Nasarawa, but rigged itself to power.
“We were robbed in Nasarawa, we won a clear election; none of us here is happy. We won, but lost in the court. We won, clearly, there is no doubt about it. So, you can see that you cannot have twenty-four members in the house of assembly and you say we lost the general election.
“CPC isn’t organized anywhere. You can see from Kaduna, to all the other places, CPC isn’t an organized party. We have heard them talking about revolution, but it will sweep the other side. We should reclaim Nasarawa; it is too close to the Villa to be left to the opposition; we cannot allow that’’.
In his remarks, PDP National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, thanked the leaders of the party for the visit, assuring the faithful that the ruling party would live up to the expectations of Nigerians and co-operate with President Godluck Jonathan to deliver on his manifesto to the electorate.
“I must thank you for the support you gave us at the national convention. There is hope for our country; we came with a new zeal, we came with a new determination and commitment to ensure that our party, the greatest party in Africa takes the lead. With the kind of support I have seen here today, we can achieve more. We have a very clear manifesto for our people in order to assist our people take the advantage of the development fortunes that is in our country today, to make it better.
“I have said in my acceptance speech that we should bring reconciliation and reformation to build our party on equity and justice. If we get that on the ground, we can be sure that peace will come; we can be sure security will be with us; we can be sure investment will flow in. These should be our cardinal principles.
“That’s why I want to make sure that we are all on the same page to support the Executive achieve what we want them to do, in all ramifications’’.
Tukur noted that the party is supreme and admonished elected PDP’s public officers to submit themselves to the party.
“The party is supreme, because it is the party that gave platform for the President to run, the Senator to run, members of House of Representatives. So, it is our party and we are all under it. We need discipline so that we can all work under that rule, because when we allow our party to be disciplined and do the right thing, I can assure you, our future is very bright.’’
State chairman of the party, Yunana Iliya assured the PDP NWC of the co-operation and support of members of the party. (The Sun Reporter)
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