Chidi Samuel|
President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday dismissed the endorsement on Wednesday of Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) by a section of Igbo leaders in Enugu.
Buhai who stated this when he received a group of select Igbo leaders lead by Chekwas Okorie, national chairman of the United Progressive Party (UPP), noted that the split within the Ohanaeze Ndigbo socio-cultural group over the endorsement of Atiku Abubakar did not surprise him.
According to the president, well-meaning leaders from the region called after the meeting with Atiku and asked him to disregard the said endorsement.
“From that moment, I knew that the resolution would not stand, and alas, there it was,” Buhari told his visitors.
“We have done so much. Given the chance, we will do more. Given every chance, we will tell Nigerians where we were in 2015 and what we have achieved up to now,” he said.
“We will not get tired of speaking about the golden opportunity Nigeria lost during 16 years of the PDP. We earned money, which we didn’t use.
“The state of infrastructure we inherited was terrible – no roads, the railway was killed and power. They lacked conscience because anybody with conscience will not do what they did. We will report them to Nigerians. Let anybody lead this country but not the PDP. They were so reckless with the resources of the country.
“If you ruin the economy, send your children abroad to get education, won’t they come back? I said it 30 years ago that this is the only country we have. We must stay here and salvage it together.”