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National Peace Committee led
by Abdulsalami Abubakar brokered the meeting
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President Goodluck
Jonathan and APC’s presidential hopeful Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday signed a
pledge for peaceful elections for the second time in three months.
Security is a major
concern at Saturday's vote both from Boko Haram violence against voters and
polling stations to clashes between rival supporters.
GRAPHITTI NEWS reports based on AFP filing:
In 2011, around 1,000
people were killed in violence after Jonathan beat Buhari to the presidency.
The latest accord was
signed in the presence of former UN secretary general Kofi Annan at a hotel in
the capital, Abuja, and broadcast live on television.
"Now that the
campaigns have come to an end, we meet to renew our pledge for peaceful
elections," read a document signed by the two men and made available to
reporters.
"We therefore call
on all fellow citizens of our dear country and our party supporters to refrain
from violence or any acts that may in any way jeopardize our collective vision
of a free, fair and credible election."
The duo also pledged to
"respect the outcome of free, fair and credible elections".
The document was also
signed by the chairman of the National Peace Committee Abdulsalami Abubakar,
who like Buhari is a former military ruler.
It was also witnessed by
Nigeria's most senior Muslim leader, the Sultan of Sokoto Sa'ad Abubakar and
the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, John Onaiyekan.
Jonathan, Buhari and the
other presidential candidates signed a pledge of non-violence -- known as the
Abuja Accord -- in Annan's presence on January 14.
Buhari: 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.
*Being the pre-election statement of Muhammadu
Buhari, presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC)
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