A former speaker of the Abia State House of Assemby, Stanley Ohajuruka, has endorsed President Muhammadu Buhari for a second term in office in 2019. Ohajuruka argued that President Buhari had the experience and integrity to continue the work he had been doing since his election in 2015.
The former Abia assembly speaker said this in an exclusive interview with our correspondent in his country home in Afaraukwu, Umuahia, the Abia State capital. He stated that he would be one of those Nigerians who would insist, pray and appeal to President Buhari to run again for the number political office in Nigeria in 2019.
Ohajuruka said, “I am saying this without prejudice to anyone and irrespective of where anybody comes from. Buhari is not an easy person or character to come by and that is the kind of leader we need now.
“He is a very humane, humble and honest man. There are very few Nigerians that have his pedigree and level of integrity. He is a rare gift to the country. I want him to continue with the good works he has begun, beyond 2019.
“The President is healthier and stronger than most Nigerians think. Talking about his age, Donald Trump, the US president-elect, is about the same age with him, yet the people went ahead and elected him.”
Acknowledging that Buhari, as a human being, has his own flaws, Ohajuruka, who described himself as a founding member of the party, said that it was heartening that the President’s shortcomings did not include religious fanaticism, ethnicity, corruption and bribery.
He noted that, of all the sections in the country, the North had suffered most from the President’s moves to sanitise the country of religious fundamentalism and corrupt practices.
Ohajuruka, who is also a former member of the House of Representatives, solicited the support of the South East for the President Buhari-led administration.
He argued that if the South East gave its backing to the President now, the chances of the zone, which had yet to produce an elected president for the country, would be brighter in 2023.
The former Abia assembly speaker added that with the entry of South East politicians like the former governor of the state, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, to the ruling All Progressives Congress, the people of the zone had begun to realise their prospects in the party.
According to him, if the people of the South East zone are desirous of improving their lives, they must embrace the APC. Ohajuruka stressed that it was only the APC that could ensure the complete reintegration of the Igbo in Nigeria
