…says Nigeria’s President needs strong political will to succeed
A former Minister of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs, Alhaji Kabir Taminu Turaki, has vowed to defeat President Muhammadu Buhari hands down in the 2019 general elections, if given the presidential ticket of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party.
Turaki boasted that he would defeat Buhari in the first round of the election.
He said that he had the political clout and support of Nigerians across the country to defeat incumbent President Buhari in next year’s polls.
The former minister spoke in Lagos while declaring his intention to seek the office of Nigeria’s President next year at a session with senior media editors.
He stated that although he’s from the North West geo-political zone of the country like all the other presidential aspirants of the PDP and Buhari, he had the capacity to defeat and upstage the incumbent President in 2019.
Turaki added that his relatively younger age, integrity, credibility, education and connection with Nigerians from across the country placed him at a vantage position over the other PDP presidential aspirants and President Buhari, as a contender in next year’s presidential election.
He said, “The advantage that I have over other candidates is my integrity, my credibility, my education, my youthfulness, my position as a bridge builder.
“I’m not fighting anybody and nobody is fighting me. So, I will ensure that the polity is not overheated. And beyond this, I think the relationship I have established as a private legal practitioner, as the Chairman of Muslim Union, as a Minister, will give me that opportunity of linking up and building stronger bridges.
“And I come from North West zone. Yes, most of them come from North West zone, but the issue will be who has the capacity? Who can defeat President Buhari? And I say, more than all others, if I have the opportunity, I will beat him in Round One.”
He also said that he possessed the “strong political will” with which he would move the nation forward in all aspects of life, if elected the country’s President next year.
“As a president, what you need is a strong political will. Nigeria is well endowed with human and material resources. I can bring many experienced people home to come and serve their fatherland. Any leader who is educated, any leader who is hard working, will have unimpaired access to information that would enable him to lead this country,” the PDP presidential aspirant said.
Turaki argued he remained the best standard bearer the PDP could put forward to unseat the incumbent President in next year’s elections, stressing that Nigerians had become fed up with the Buhari administration and would not want to return it in 2019.
He said that the ruling All Progressives Congress had continued to fail to meet the yearnings and aspirations of Nigerians since it came into power in 2015.
The PDP aspirant said, “I will be frank and honest with Nigerians. A government that has lied continuously; a government that would promise and say I have not made that promise is not a government that can be trusted.
“When APC was campaigning, they said that oil subsidy was a fraud, they wouldn’t do such again. There’s still subsidy. Their presidential candidate said ‘I will abolish the office of the First Lady’, but today the First Lady is still functioning. He said ‘I will stop medical tourism, will equip Nigerian hospitals to make sure that Nigerians stay back’ and today, who is the number one Nigerian medical tourist?
“The President said on the day of his swearing-in ‘I belong to everybody, and I belong to nobody’, now, the everybody we know is the 95 per-centres, forgetting the five per-centres. So, what happens to people who didn’t vote for him? Will he equally say by any stretch of the imagination that by refusing to vote you are not entitled to any opportunity in government?”
Turaki also expressed regret on the negative effects of the current state of insecurity on the nation’s economy and assured that he would create jobs, if eventually elected president in 2019.
He said, “Nobody, no sensible person will come in an atmosphere of insecurity and invest his money in any country.
“We need to bring back integrity and credibility to the art of governance in this country. I can do that. I have knowledge. I have experience. I have strong will. I have a good health and dynamism.”
“Talking about employment, there’s a lot of ways where jobs will be created. We are all living witnesses of millions of jobs that Nigerians have lost during this regime, which has a lot of multiplier effects on the people of this country.
There’s no country where you allow 2-digit inflation to thrive and expect that your country will grow. We’ll do something about that.
“Already, there are critical Institutions like the Bank of Industry, like NEXIM, like others that could give soft loans to our young entrepreneurs that will enable them to begin not only to develop themselves but to grow wealth. So, we must liberalize the economy.
Continuing, he said, “We’ll look at agriculture. Agriculture has always been a great provider of employment, but the kind of agriculture we are going to do is not what has been done before. We will explore science and technology. We’ll do precision agriculture.
“Not only are we going to give farmers seed and seedlings, we’ll ensure that we revive the extension programme so that farmers will get critical advice on everything they need, including the amount of water. It’s been done in Israel. We’ll do it here.”
