Dear Compatriots, Time For Nigeria
To Be Great Once Again I want to take this last opportunity, before we go to
the polls on Saturday March 28 and April 11 respectively, to thank everyone who
has supported our campaigns. I am humbled and grateful to have had the
opportunity to meet so many of my fellow Nigerians who have helped to carry the
message of change across our great country.
This is the fourth time that I
would be standing for election as the President of Nigeria. All these years, I
have been driven by a keen awareness of the potential greatness of our country
and the desire to provide the true leadership that will unleash this huge
potential.
I believe that a stable and prosperous Nigeria is not only important
to Nigerians. It is also important to Africa and the rest of the world. The
evidence of this is the unprecedented attention that our country will receive
this weekend.On Saturday, the whole world would wait with baited breath for
the greatest black nation on earth to take charge of its destiny. We must
therefore not miss the significance of this moment. We must not let ourselves
and our country down.
At no other time in our history is Nigeria in such an
urgent need of strong and competent leadership. Sadly, at no other time is this
leadership so sorely absent in our country. We live in a time of great
opportunities and great peril. It is only a leader that understands these in
equal measure that can find the rightful place for Nigeria among the great
Nations of the world.
I have travelled extensively around Nigeria in the last
three months. In the course of my travels, I encountered directly, what I have
always believed: that a Hausa man’s desire for security is not different from
the Ijaw woman’s desire to feel secured in any part of our country. An Igbo
woman’s desire for her children to get quality education and find employment is
not different from the Yoruba man’s dream for his children to become a useful
member of our society. A wife’s desperate need for affordable and quality
healthcare for her husband diagnosed with prostate cancer in Enugu is not
different from a husband’s desire to save the life of his wife diagnosed with
ovarian cancer in Lagos.
Invariably, our fears are the same; our dreams are the
same; and our problems are the same. Regardless of the language we speak, or
the way we understand and worship God, what affects anyone of us, affects
everyone of us.
Our economy is celebrated as the largest in Africa, yet our
country is home to the continent’s highest number of people living in extreme
poverty. Our youth population is larger than the combined population of many of
our neighbours, yet our failure to plan and create opportunities for them is
turning them to a social time bomb rather than economic catalysts. A band of
ragtag terrorist group has threatened our territorial integrity, killed
thousands of Nigerians, displaced our people and abducted our children. The
almost 60, 000 Nigerians who have become refugees in neighbouring countries
represent a budding threat to sub-regional stability.
However, even in the face
of these daunting challenges, I see a great opportunity for change. We have to
start by rebuilding the trust and confidence of Nigerians in their government.
No citizen will respect a government under whose watch more than 200 girls were
abducted. This singular act can only portray the government as insensitive,
incompetent or both. When I become president, reuniting these children with
their families will, without doubts, be a top priority. Rebuilding the army and
other security agencies will also be a top priority of my government. I will
ensure that never again will terrorists find a safe haven in Nigeria.
Recent
fall in international price of crude leaves us badly exposed and vulnerable.
Dwindling oil revenue also means that we are going to face serious financial
challenges in the months ahead. However, even as daunting as this appears, it
also provides us with great opportunity to diversify our economy and finally
give meaning to the widely held belief that our prosperity as a nation would
not continue to depend on the resources buried under our feet, but on the
productive capacity of our people. No matter how much resources we have, if not
properly utilized, it would only create a few billionaires and leave majority
of our people in poverty. Under the current administration, corruption has enjoyed
unprecedented prosperity and this has been at the heart of most of our
government failings, including insecurity, broken infrastructure and growing
inequality in our country. My government will have a zero tolerance for
corruption. I will set a personal example and run a government that truly
serves the people rather than serve themselves and a privileged few.
Like I
have repeatedly maintained that if Nigeria does not kill corruption, corruption
will kill Nigeria. We must not allow Nigeria to die. Therefore, we must do all
that is necessary to root out this evil that has reduced our great country to a
laughing stock of the world. We must begin to rebuild the social fabrics of our
society and teach a different experience to our youth in the values of hard work,
discipline, integrity and service.
The change that I seek therefore; is a
change from the current regime of mindless of corruption and profligacy; a
change from fear and insecurity to peace and stability; a change from religious
and ethnic divisiveness to unity, equity and justice. This is the change that
my party stands for. This is the change that I am committed to bringing about
as President. Give me the chance to lead you in rebuilding a Nigeria that all
of us can be proud of once again.
As we come out to vote on Saturday, I appeal
to all Nigerians to shun violence in whatever form. It is the right of every
adult Nigerian to vote and expect that their votes would count in a free, fair
and credible election. However, we also have a responsibility to respect the
choice of others and grant them the same treatment that we expect. I also want
to call on all our men and women in uniform, the Judiciary, and all others who
have constitutional responsibility to safeguard our democracy, to remember that
their responsibility is primarily to Nigerians and the survival of Nigeria.
They must therefore not allow anyone to use them to subvert the will of the
Nigerian people. I believe that their dreams and aspirations are not different
from those of other Nigerians. I have no doubt that with God being on our side;
together we can make our country great once again.
Gen. Muhammadu BUHARI, GCFR
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