From: Chidi Nnadi, Enugu
A pro-Buhari group, the Buhari Support Organisation (BSO), Enugu State chapter, has taken the Minister of Women Affairs, Jummia Alhassan, to the cleaners over her claim that President Muhammadu Buhari told her he would rule for only a single term.
The group, in a statement signed by its chairman in the state, Anike Nwoga, and made available to Daily Sun, said that the minister was a ‘liar and agent provocateur’, for claiming that President Buhari told her he would stay only one term in office.
The group insisted that President Buhari had at no time told anybody that he would not run in 2019.
“Whereas Women Affairs Minister, Jummia Alhassan has the inalienable right to support anybody of her choice for president in 2019, we are of the candid opinion that President Muhammadu Buhari should complete his second term.
“From all our interactions and that of our leadership, with President Buhari before the election, there was no day the issue of one term was discussed. Rather from day one we had always known that the rot left behind by the successive Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) squander mania regimes was deep and that President Muhammadu Buhari needed eight years in order to cleanse the Augean stable. And to be exact he needs to consolidate the war against corruption, insecurity in the land and to consolidate the solid foundation for economic prosperity.
“All we in the BSO are praying to God is to guard and give President Muhammadu Buhari good health to complete the good works he is doing in revamping our critical infrastructure, Enugu Coal, Second Niger Bridge and so on,” the group said.
The group also raised new hope that Buhari would soon address the imbalance observed in his earlier appointments which seemed to have marginalised the South East.
“In the fullness of time, as evidenced in the presidential system of government mid-term matrix, Buhari will make balanced appointments, sanitise corrupted institutions, revamp Enugu Coal, jump start ICT University and its campus in Enugu, complete Second Niger Bridge and make tremendous input in agrarian revolution.
“We are sure Mr President is going to readdress the imbalance, BSO has always focused more on fixing the decayed infrastructure nationwide which will provide employment, alleviate poverty and cushion poverty. Because we know that there will be overhaul and more appointments, we view appointments as temporary and transient.
“Remember that during the 2015 presidential campaign we told our people that after President Buhari’s second term, it will be the turn of the South East. For the zoning convention favours Ndigbo because our brethren in the South West and the South South had eight years and five years stint at the presidency respectively after our return to civil rule in 1999. This is why we told His Excellency, Owelle Rochas Okorocha not to challenge the zoning convention,” BSO said.
The group also berated former Vice President, Alhaji Abubakar for claiming that he was sidelined after he contributed in installing the President Buhari-led APC federal government.
According to BSO, if Atiku “was indeed sidelined, how come Garba Shehu, Dauda Abari, Jumai Alhasssan, the agent provocateur, and a host of others are close aides of Mr. President?”
The group, therefore, said that Alhassan’s support for Atiku was tantamount to crass disloyalty to the Buhari government and advised her to resign.