President Muhammadu Buhari has warned candidates for next year’s general elections not to set the country ablaze, saying we have no other country than Nigeria.
The president spoke yesterday during the launching of his campaign manual and a document tagged next level at the State House Villa, Abuja.
“I am not unmindful that the National Assembly and the presidential campaign starts today (yesterday), I will implore candidates to go about the campaigns peacefully and decently. We have no other country, let us not set it ablaze because of politics,” he said.
The occasion was attended by the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Adams Oshiomhole, Secretary to the Government of the Federation Boss Mustapha and other top government officials.
The wife of the president, Aisha, was also at the event attended by governors of Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Katsina and Nasarawa states
Noting that the next four years will be quite significant for the country, Buhari said “Nigeria is faced with a choice to keep building a new Nigeria – making a break from its tainted past which favoured an opportunistic few.
“Our choices will shape us – our economic security and our future prosperity. Nigeria, more than ever before, needs a stable and people-focused government to move the agenda for our country forward.”
Urging Nigerians to join them to the next level of a prosperous, strong and stable Nigeria, he said they are committed to deepening the work they started in the country.
“We know that, to succeed, moral integrity and conscience must continue to form the dominant character of our nation and its leadership. Corruption is an existential threat to Nigeria. Despite the gains we have made in closing the gates, we know that there is still much ground to cover to stop systemic corruption,” he said.
The president said they have worked hard to fulfil their campaign promises.
Four years ago, we promised Nigerians real change – in what we do and how we do it. Nigerians sent a clear message in the last election, and our platform offered a new, ambitious plan for a secure, prosperous and corruption-free country.
“We have worked hard to fulfil our promises – and while the road may have been difficult, over the last three and a half years, we have laid the foundations for a strong, stable and prosperous country for the majority of our people,” he said.
The president added that: “the foundational work is not often visible, neither is it glamorous – but it is vital to achieving the kind of country we desire. Judging by the prior depth of decay, deterioration and disrepair that Nigeria had sunken into, we are certain that these past few years have put us in good stead to trudge on the next level of building an even stronger nation for our people.
“First things had to come first. We were a nation at war – but we delivered on our commitment to secure the territorial integrity of our nation in the face of a raging insurgency that devastated many parts of the North East. We liberated 17 Local Government Areas from the grip of insurgency. Brokering and sustaining peace in the Niger Delta has also been crucial to stabilizing the polity.”
